'We are on a winning wave'

That quote is from recently elected Texas Republican Party Chairman Cathie Adams, who announced today that numerous county-level officials in their state will be switching this week from Democrat to Republican.

A veteran grassroots conservative activist, Adams described what appears to a strong shift toward the GOP in Texas. "Being an Obama Democrat is not such a popular label anymore," Adams said during a conference call with bloggers.

Texas GOP communications director Bryan Preston said polls indicate that 80 percent of Texas voters disapprove of the Obama administration's policies. Preston noted that many conservatives from Texas have served as volunteers in key campaigns elsewhere this fall, including the Virginia gubernatorial contest.

The new party chairman credited the Tea Party movement with helping raise awareness and involvement among conservative voters.

"These are people who are thinking for themselves," Adams said, describing her encounters with Texans at Tea Party events. She said the Obama administration's policies have awakened many conservative voters to the importance of being more active in the political process.

"People got complacent" in recent years, but now are "chomping at the bit" to become involved.

UPDATE: Press release from Texas GOP:

Texas Democrats Set to Switch to Republican All Over the State
The Republican Party of Texas is pleased to welcome several Democratic officeholders who have decided to switch parties and become Republicans. At noon today in Palo Pinto County, Precinct 5 Justice of the Peace Bobby Hart switched his party affiliation and became a Republican. Three others Palo Pinto County officials indicated an interest in switching parties. Hart joins the ranks of the party that enjoys majorities in both houses of the Texas Legislature and holds all statewide elected offices.
"Democrats like Judge Hart are joining a winning wave across this state and across this country,” said Republican Party of Texas Chairman Cathie Adams. “Americans are fed up with the Washington Democrats’ failing leftwing policies and government power grabs. We welcome these newly minted Republicans and anyone else who will stand with us for more freedom, lower taxes and smaller government.”
In addition to the Palo Pinto County switch, the Republican Party of Texas has learned that two Democratic officeholders in McCulloch County will soon become Republicans, and several more in other counties all over the Lone Star State are also poised to make the switch, some as soon as this week. They tend to cite disaffection with the national Democrats' economic policies, and agreement with the Republican Party's stances on smaller government and individual freedom as the reasons for switching.
All tolled, dozens of Democrats across Texas are known to be considering switching or are already in the process of doing so. There is no similar movement of Texas Republican officeholders leaving the party.

That's the way a wave rolls.

NY23: Next stop, Saranac Lake

By the time you read this, Ali Akbar and I will be running east on State Route 3, en route to the hometown headquarters of the Doug Hoffman campaign.

Since Sunday night, the National Desk has been located at the luxurious -- but surprisngly affordable -- Best Western Carriage House Inn on Washington Street near downtown Watertown, N.Y. We've kept our exact location a secret because, frankly, we were too busy to cope with the hordes of adoring blog groupies who would have descended on our room had they discovered our whereabouts.

For your road-time reading, we recommend (via Memeorandum) Dan Riehl's pushback against the latest Politico "GOP divided" spin job. Also:

• Larry Thornberry's takedown on Charlie Crist, whose Florida GOP primary defeat at the hands of Marco Rubio is beginning to look like a certainty.
• Dave Weigel's report on the "New Conservative Superstar" featuring the Quote of the Day: "For Biden to say that Rush Limbaugh picked Doug Hoffman is ridiculous. We all know it was Glenn Beck."
• And leave it to 73Wire's Eric Odom to ask the Exit Question: "Was the whole Scozzafava campaign a lie?"

Speaking of lies, the timing of this post is, necessarily, something of a diversion tactic. Maybe we left two hours ago, or maybe we won't leave until 2 p.m. If the New York State Police knew exactly what time we left Watertown, they'd be able to deploy radar-equipped high-performance pursuit vehicles to intercept us. We've eluded their dragnet this long only because of being secretive about about our plans.

Cell-phone reception between here and Saranac Lake is atrocious, but Ali has Sprint premium 3G service on his Blackberry World Edition, so everyone can follow our progress via Ali's Twitter feed.

Wish us . . . wow, I started to say "luck," but this isn't about luck, it's about skill. And prayer.

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!


Click here for our complete NY23 election coverage

NY23: Hooah Mac reports at Red State

Money quote?

While here I met a fellow named Robert Stacy McCain, you may have heard of him . . .

Read the whole thing.

Update (Smitty) from Hooah's update:

It was Jeri Thompson who brought the Doug Hoffman - Dede Scozzafava race to Fred's attention. This is the one to watch. Jeri is every bit the ideological and intellectual match for her husband. She was gracious and gave me a quote to share with the readers of Redstate. "I heard Vice President Biden was here earlier today, I also understand that he revealed he was a lifeguard at one time. That surprised me. I didn't know you could swim with your mouth open."

Yeah, that's one for the quote log.

Don't forget to root for David Harmer CA-10

by Smitty (h/t JiP)

The CA-10 race over on the left coast is also important. Granted, it hasn't pulled in Stacy McCain or the rest of the big names. Jumping in Pools thinks David Harmer can win today. So get out the vote on the left coast!

Update: Hot Air says there is a chance of an upset, so vote if you can!

NY23: Visit to a Watertown precinct

The Watertown, N.Y., hotel that has been home of the National Desk for the past two days is across the street from a polling place. I just strolled over this morning and was greeted on the sidewalk by elderly volunteers handing out Hoffman sample ballots:

No such activity on the part of the Bill Owens campaign was evident at this particular polling place. Look at the sample ballot and you can see why this is so important to the Hoffman campaign: Owens is on lines A and E, Dede Scozzafava is on lines B and C, whereas Doug Hoffman's name appears only on line D.

This is why, in his speeches for the last few days, Hoffman has been repeating the mantra, "Vote 'D' for Doug."

UPDATE: Dave Weigel has a report on a Christian conservative door-to-door canvassing operation. BTW, this district has been overdone in terms of phone operations. People working on Hoffman's live phone banks have told me that many voters, after being bombarded by robocalls, are very irritable about getting called for the fifth, sixth or seventh time.

Click here for our complete NY23 election coverage

Monique vs. Meghan: It's on!

Seems like I recall this was where we were before being so rudely interrupted by important news:

Meghan McCain is a worthless, empty, woman with not much to offer the world. And, from what I hear, what she does have to offer to the world she offers to every and any man she meets in this world. But, that’s neither here nor there. These rumors have not been confirmed but, more importantly, they have also not been denied. . . .

Read the whole brutal thing. We can at least enjoy a good girl-fight until the polls close tonight.

NY23: Please, God, let it end tonight

All you can do at this point is to get out the vote and pray:

Michelle Malkin is one of the few people you're likely to see on TV tonight who actually knows what it means. . . .
Last night, Malkin warned readers to be ready to watch Democrats and their media allies downplay an expected "conservative surge" in this off-off-year election.
OK, I can cope with that. . . . What I genuinely dread, however, is the possibility of vote-fraud shenanigans. Last night, I heard Hoffman spokesman Rob Ryan repeat his warnings about the danger of ballot-box mischief. And now ACORN whistleblower Anita Montcrief is worried, too. . . .

Read the whole thing. And pray. Pray hard.

Update (Smitty): NiceDeb has the details.

NY23: What New Media have done

Danny Glover of AIM reflects on the role of bloggers in this campaign:

"We defeated the Daily Kos candidate," said Eric Odom of the American Liberty Alliance, one of four blogger-activists on the ground in New York over the past several days as conservative pressure mounted on Scozzafava to withdraw. The other bloggers were Ali Akbar, Stephen Foley and Robert Stacy McCain . . .
McCain was in the district first and has been filing reports on his personal blog, as well as at AmSpecBlog and Hot Air's Green Room. Akbar, Foley and Odom did their reporting for a new site called 73wire, which bills itself as a "collaborative, people-powered news project." . . .
Odom said it was frustrating that more blogger-activists weren't in the district to cover the race and fight for Hoffman last week. The election is "our chance as conservatives to hit back" against the Republican establishment that backed the left-leaning Scozzafava over Hoffman, Odom said.
But he said the bloggers who were there played a "significant role" in shifting the dynamics of the race. . . .

I'm sure I'll have more to say about this at some future point. The "blogger-activist" label is a little uncomfortable for me. I'm just a writer working via the medium of the Internet after 20-odd years in print.

Opinions? Yeah. But everybody's got an opinion. What we have done up here is to break news by working the phones, developing sources, and being on the scene where the story has happened. As I like to say, Old School in the New Media.

So I'll have more to say, but not now. We have to make the white-knuckle run to Saranac Lake in a few hours. Just read the whole thing.

And hit the tip jar. The New York State Police may not be so lenient if they catch us again. Note the hypothetical.

UPDATE: OK, less than 10 minutes after filing this, I immediately thought of other people who deserve a lot of credit, and couldn't sleep until I'd named a few:

• Erick Erickson of Red State -- Erick is a conservative Republican and, at times, I've felt that the "Republican" part tended to dominate. But in recent months, Erick has become fed up with the backstabbers and sellouts, and he took the lead role in making the Hoffman campaign a national crusade for conservative bloggers. His leadership in this must be acknowledged.
• Michelle Malkin -- A journalist by training, Malkin was one of the first conservative commentators to recognize and capitalize on the power of the blogosphere. Her Oct. 16 column made a difference, and she has followed up consistently, not only with her own posts, but also by throwing traffic at other bloggers who paid attention to NY23. Some bloggers think of Malkin's Fox News enormousness as making her "too big" to be counted among our number, but she often takes notice of even the smallest bloggers who do good work, calls them to the attention of a larger audience and, in so doing, expands the 'sphere. She deserves more credit for this than she gets.
• John Hawkins of Right Wing News -- He has given posting privileges to lots of bloggers over the years, including me. In doing so, he has also expanded the 'sphere. Like Erickson (and Malkin, too), Hawkins has helped to draw the line in the sand against the RINOs who were trying to lead the GOP into political irrelevance.
• Michael Patrick Leahy of TCOT -- His report on how Scozzafava got the District 23 nomination really helped clarify the nature of the problem, providing solid facts and perspective. Leahy has followed up, and deserves credit for his solid work.
• Dan Riehl of Riehl World View -- Dan's not a purist who wants to purge moderates. But he cares deeply about facts, and he made an important contribution with his report on the role of the NRCC and Tom Reynolds in the choice of Scozzafava. Dan is somebody you never want as an enemy. 'Nough said.

OK, I've named five people whose contributions ought to be recognized and apologize to the many others who played a role but haven't been named here. Let's remember a famous quote:

"You can accomplish much, if you don't care who gets credit."
-- Ronald Reagan

NY23: Hoffman is asked to react to Limbaugh's Dede 'bestiality' comment

Jude Seymour of the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times is a nice guy, who let me use his office computer two weeks ago when I first came up to cover this campaign. Exactly why he chose this occasion to spring a "gotcha" question on Doug Hoffman, I don't know. Watch the video, and make your own judgment.

After the video ended, Jude found himself called before an impromptu meeting of the Conservative Journalism Criticism Squad. One reporter who shall remain nameless -- but who might be press corps pin-up idol John McCormack -- described Seymour's method as the "Inquisition" approach to journalism.

Me, I started out at a 6,000-circulation weekly in Austell, Ga. You don't do ambush interviews in that kind of situation. Maybe I'm really not ready for the big leagues. I report. You decide.

And hit the tip jar. I'd say you got your money's worth tonight, eh?

UPDATE: The Rush Limbaugh quote to which Hoffman was asked to react:

How about Dede Scozzafava? You know what? Dede Scozzafava has just screwed every RINO in the country by showing everybody who they are. . . . She has just put an exclamation point on the problem with RINOs. They eventually end up exactly where most liberals do. They're just a little slower in getting there. But they end up where liberals are. Scozzafava has screwed every RINO in the country. We could say she's guilty of widespread bestiality. She has screwed every RINO in the country. Everyone can see just how phony and dangerous they are.

Today, Seymour put up a blog post with the title: "Rush, you should be ashamed."

UPDATE II: While I was working on the first update, about 10 p.m., the phone rang here at the National Desk in Watertown. It was Dave Weigel of the Washington Independent, asking about our plans for a bit of post-deadline socializing. And I freaking lost it.

Some of my friends may remember my newsroom blowup in 2007, when I cussed out Ken Hanner and kicked a steel door open on my way out of the Washington Times. Persuaded to reconsider, I eventually quit on good terms in January 2008.

OK, I'm hell on deadline. And my own shortcomings and sins are so glaringly obvious that it's hard for me to blame anyone else for my problems. I goof off and procrastinate when opportunity affords. But when deadline hits, I get kind of crazy. So this was all my fault. Mea culpa.

Still, sometimes, I get that Rodney Dangerfield don't-get-no-respect feeling and, under pressure, I can be even more of a total jerk than usual. Think of General Patton slapping that shell-shock case in Sicily.

So I had a screaming conniption. Impatient by nature, what I wanted to do at that moment in time was to finish the update, so that readers would have context in which to interpret the video. What I did not want to do was to answer the phone and have to think about the questions that Dave Weigel was asking about our post-deadline party plans.

Present at the time in the smoke-filled hotel room that is the National Desk were Ali Akbar, Kerry Picket and Hooah Mac. Surely, one of them would do me the favor of taking the phone and dealing with Weigel's questions. Uh . . . no. Because nobody owes me any favors.

And I freaking lost it. At one point in the two-minute rant that ensued, I was quite literally frothing at the mouth. A lifetime of personal frustration exploded upon friends who were innocent. For this unseemly tantrum, I apologize to all who were forced to witness it. Mea culpa.

However, next time I ask someone to please answer the phone while I'm on deadline -- I pray to God -- just answer the phone. That Jekyll-and-Hyde horror show was more frightening to me than it was to you, my victims. My wife will bake you brownies to compensate, and will never let me live it down.

Who is Jason Shih andWhy is His Mug Shot Important?

This is Jason Shih. Jason was arrested last Friday for a plethora of charges, the largest for possession of Ecstasy with intent to distribute. He was also in possession of several tickets to a President Obama event in New Jersey which, his plummeting approval ratings notwithstanding, aren't as plentiful as leaves on the trees.

When he was arrested, Shih claimed to be the the assistant deputy director of Democratic Governor Jon Corzine’s re-election campaign. The Corzine campaign disavowed all knowledge of Shih's existence. However, as Moe Lane put it,

The Corzine campaign wants it made CLEAR that Jason Shih is in no way, shape, or form involved with the releection campaign; that Mr. Shih is certainly not an assistant campaign director or staffer for the campaign; that they have no idea who Mr. Shih would even be, let alone why he would claim such a status; or why he would claim that the car that he was driving at the time of his drug bust was rented by the campaign, or why there were tickets to an Obama rally and other campaign paraphernalia mixed in with the drug paraphernalia.

*ahem*

The mug shot comes from a story at The Leader, the local newspaper in that area. Eric Dondero, whose Libertarian Republican blog has been all over this story with both feet, got permission from the editor for any blogger to run with the shot so long as they gave the paper proper credit. Which I am right now. His blog is the first to run the photo of the alleged Corzine staffer, so do read his entire post.

Since the MSM isn't spending much time covering the story in any detail, I'd like to toss out a couple questions for those erstwhile blogger journalists who might be interested in conducting a little investigation.

1) Shih claims the car was rented by the Corzine campaign. Was it? If so, who authorized Shih to have the vehicle that night and what was he doing with it?
2) Lt. Cece, the backup officer on the scene, noted that Shih had several paychecks from he Middlesex County Democratic Committee, once of which was for him. What position did he hold in the MCDC and what vetting process was used before he was hired?

Thus far, neither the Corzine campaign nor the MCDC have been available to answer those questions. I would think that a determined blogger could spend a day working on getting those answers, don't you? They would prove enlightening.

Guest-posted by Jimmie Bise of The Sundries Shack.

NY23 VIDEO: Local GOP Official, Ex-Dede Backer, Now 100% for Doug Hoffman

Jim Fitzpatrick is secretary-treasurer of the Jefferson County (N.Y.) Republican Party. He has been a friend of Dede Scozzafava for 25 years, but after Dede committed bestiality -- love it, Rush -- Fitzpatrick is now on board for Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

This is a natural consequence of Dede's graceless exit. By backing the Democrat, she ensured that Republican Party officials (regardless of ideology) would shift to Hoffman:

Doug Hoffman the Conservative candidate for Congress (NY23) today received the endorsement of the Jefferson County Republican Party.
Chairman Don Coon, "I spoke to Doug Hoffman about the campaign, and our issues down in Jefferson County particularly about Fort Drum and our local economy. I am confident that we will work closely together with Doug and our local elected officials to make sure that our local concerns are addressed in Congress. I am happy to endorse Doug Hoffman on behalf of the Jefferson County Republican Committee. Doug will be a champion for conservative values and will fight the Pelosi agenda in the Congress."

"Purge"? Dede purged herself. Autodefenestration. Look it up.

UPDATE: Creepiest video of the year? Dede's shifty-eyed husband Ron McDougall interviewed exclusively by Kerry Picket of the Washington Times.

NY23: 'Boots on the ground' for Hoffman

He's known as "Hooah Mac" at Red State, but the guys in his Army Reserve unit call him "Sarge." He's just back from an Iraq deployment and expects to redeploy in January. He hopped a flight from Minneapolis at 7 a.m. today, landed in Syracuse at 1 p.m., and by 3 p.m. was in the Watertown office of the Doug Hoffman campaign. He answered the campaign's call for "boots on the ground" against ACORN, Big Labor and the Democrats.

"This is what it's all about," Mac said, explaining why he decided to show up as a Hoffman volunteer.

Volunteers continue to walk into campaign offices all over the 23rd District. While I was at the Hoffman office in Watertown, a guy walked in with a slice of pizza and a chocolate Yoohoo. "Hey, I was just getting lunch down the street and saw your office," the guy said. Within minutes, he had been given a Hoffman yard sign and was signed up as a volunteer.

Both the pizza-and-Yoohoo guy and Hooah Mac may spend some time working the phones at a get-out-the-vote call center set up about a block away from the Hoffman office here. Among the volunteers working the phones there this afternoon was "Sapwolf," whom I'd met earlier today. The guy running the call center is named Ryan and he got kind of nervous when I introduced myself as a reporter. (It's OK. I'm not John McCormack. I understand.)

Hooah Mac talked a bit about the latest poll numbers, and he said, "In a way, Doug's already won" -- i.e., by driving Dede Scozzafava out of the race. Nevertheless, Mac decided to come to town and help push Hoffman over the finish line tomorrow.

The new message from the RNC today? "Vote Conservative." Yeah, thanks. Better late than never.

(Cross-posted at Hot Air Green Room.)

Rabid Right-Wing Fire Breathing Reactionary Mike Pence Stars in: 'A Frantic Anti-PelosiCare Rant'

by Smitty

Power Line has the video, as well as enumerating all 111 new bureaucratic entities in the great big little bill. Here's the video:

Someone needs to clue Mike Pence that the number of bureaucratic entities in the bill is a little tease. It's to celebrate the 111th Congress, over which Princess Pelosi presides. That Mike Pence has no sense of symbolism, and humor.

Also needing a sense of humor, this cartoonist:

These conservatives: always so touchy!

(This post offered in lieu of a primal scream.)

Update: Adrienne's Catholic Corner features Michelle Bachman call for a 05Nov protest. My excuse is that I'm still here in England.

Rick Moran and the Comatose Nuthouse

by Smitty

Shorter Moran: 'passion' == 'bad'.

In The Anti-Reason Conservatives, we're treated to a post that only Bob Dole could love. Let's review a few points:

• The country is broke.
• Incumbency is killing us.
• Entitlements are a mike foxtrot.

And now on to Moran:

In the case of far right conservatives who think that they can turn their meager numbers into a ruling majority all by themselves, the disconnect from reality would normally call for an intervention - except they reject anything from anybody who doesn't agree with them 100%. Nor can they seem to grasp complex political realities that would complicate their simplistic, ignorant view that their idea of what constitutes a "conservative" reigns supreme all across the land.

Whose goal is this 'ruling majority' again? What if Federalism reigned contra-supreme across the land, hm?

The recent Gallup poll showing that 40% of Americans see themselves as "conservative" was leapt upon by these morons as "proof" that their brand of anarcho-conservatism dominates the political landscape. Would that it were true. The fact that there are a dozen different definitions of "conservative" depending on where you live doesn't seem to penetrate. And the pogrom they wish to carry out against "moderates" who agree with them on 90% of the issues they hold dear but fail their ever more spastic "litmus tests" guarantees Democratic dominance for the foreseeable future.

No, Moran: the argument is that centralization has been the downfall of the country. Follow the links at the top of this post: the dollars are relatively honest on this one.

Why the name calling? Why the harsh, unyielding language? Because I too, believe this country is in enormous trouble. But the way the base is going about trying to overcome the political deficit that George Bush and his cronies placed the Republican party will only lead to permanent minority status for conservatives. In truth, the gloating being done on the far right over the ravaging of Scozzafava has led to a belief that the template used to stick it to the establishment in NY23 can be grafted on to other districts where "RINO's" are running - GOP incumbents be damned.

Why are you blaming Bush, Mr. Moran? The problems go to 1913. The very education problems you cite for ignorance of the definition of 'conservative' are rooted in this inability to analyze history. The Sixteenth Amendment, The Seventeenth Amendment, and the Federal Reserve Act have been the triptych of destruction over last century. Face it: Progressivism has been an ugly baby, along with the bathwater. Incumbency sucks. Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy has born its inedible fruit.
Skipping past the Gellar quotation.

A couple of hundred thousand conservatives fill up the mall on September 12 and Gellar thinks conservatives have been "driven underground?" What kind of utter nonsense is that? Gellar is a full throated member of the Anti-Reason Conservatives - those who reject reality in favor of persecution complexes, wildly exaggerated hyperbole, and a frightening need for vengeance against their imagined "enemies" - despite the fact that those imagined foes agree with them on virtually everything they think they stand for.

The idea that Newt Gingrich should be "relegated to the dustbin of history" - a not uncommon sentiment I've read over the past week - demonstrates a determined refusal to objectively analyze the political realities of the unique situation in NY23 and deliberately remain ignorant of the consequences that would have accrued if the Republican party had failed to support the Republican candidate in the district.

I can nearly track you here. I think that Newt, and, by extension, the rest of the GOP brass, should be put on a re-habilitation plan. The essential problem is that all the professional pols have forgotten they work for the people.

You can blame the people, to a degree, for having been spectators these decades. Pre-internet, it was arguably less easy for information to swirl around. The shock felt high and low is about:

1. The people realizing that the professional politicians have an elitist view of the situation, and
2. The politicians realizing that the people are wide awake and rejecting that elitism, resulting in incontinence.

It's a national come-to-Beavis meeting. Between your Hamlet-esque navel-gazing and Pamela's sheer adrenalin, we'll get there. If we blow out a few GOP headz, so what? There is plenty of leadership below. It's the principles, not the personalities, silly.

A good case can be made that Gingrich especially could have kept his mouth shut about conservatives rightly gravitating to Hoffman. His petulance with national conservatives who sought to replace the liberal Scozzafava with a more palatable choice was uncalled for and further demonstrates his unfitness for the presidency.
But kick him out of the party? Marginalize one of the only public intellectuals on the right who can speak to a broad cross section of America with authority and credibility? Perhaps that’s Newt’s real problem; the anti-intellectualism on the far right that sees any independent thinking deviating from their worldview as suspect. Or perhaps it’s just the idea that Gingrich, through his years of service to the conservative and Republican causes, has become a part of the establishment and hence, a target.

Newt needs to sweat a bit. He needs to be taken to the edge and shown the seriousness of the people.

Who do these louts think the party establishment should have supported in NY23? There would have been no real difference if the DC Republicans had supported Hoffman or the Democrat Owens over Scozzafava. The result would have been exactly the same; the national party spitting in the face of local Republican organizations who chose Scozzafava - regardless of her admitted liberalism and regardless of whether her candidacy was rammed through by powerful New York state GOP bigwigs.

The pragmatism demonstrated by the national Republicans in giving Scozzafava the support they felt necessary for her to win is lost on the ideologues who can't seem to wrap their heads around the idea that majorities are crafted by addition, not subtraction. Scozzafava would have been a beastly congresswoman, as unreliable a Republican vote on the issues as could be imagined. But Congress is governed as much by procedure as it is ideas, and when the whip is cracked by the leadership, she probably would have been with the party most of the time.

I'll presume you wrote this ahead of her going into full-on Arlen Specter mode.

In effect, the base is criticizing the Republican establishment for acting like a political party and not a college debating society. The advantage of belonging to the latter is that you can pick and choose members based on whatever subjective criteria you wish. Don't like the cut of a man's suit or women with red hair? Fine. But don't apply your ridiculous litmus tests to a political party trying to fashion a majority.

See, here's the question: is the Constitution more important than the Party? If the Party (Democratic, Republican or both) is a major component of the problem, then what are you going to do? You can't bargain with cancer, Mr. Moran! And cancer is exactly what the last century of American centralization has been for the country.

Now, whole people are certainly more intelligent than lone tumor cells. So there can be room for getting people to re-examine their principles in ways that you just aren't doing with that lump in the lung.

But the crucial point is that More Of Same Will Not Do. Awake from your coma, Right Wing Nuthouse!

Update: American Power liked Pamela's post.

Update II: Linked at Daily Pundit

NY23 Press Corps Motto: 'When We Grow Up, We Want to Be Like John McCormack'

He's only 24 years old, but already this cub reporter for the Weekly Standard is followed everywhere in the 23rd District by adoring journalism groupies. McCormack is to would-be reporters what Joe Jonas is to middle-school girls -- the fantasy consummation of their fondest desires. By daring to ask Dede Scozzafava a few questions, young Johnny has accomplished the life's ambition of every j-school undergrad: He has "made a difference."

McCormack files yet another exclusive report from today's Bidenpalooza in Watertown, where Secret Service agents were reportedly under orders to tase him if he tried to ask the VP a question.

Other reporters at the Biden event -- including Dave Weigel of the Washington Independent -- struggle to keep pace with the brilliant blues riffs of "Johnny Lightning" McCormack, who also plays a mean bottleneck-slide guitar.

A Syracuse TV reporter cleverly seats himself between Kerry Picket and Kara Rowland of The Washington Times. Life is good, until his wife sees this photo.

Feisty, colorful Democratic State Party Chairwoman June O'Neill (left, in ill-fitting brown pantsuit) engages in shameless pre-Election Day demagoguery, to the horror of local schoolchildren and their parents (right).

Network TV cameras wait for opportunity to add new footage for your "Joe Biden's Greatest Gaffes" DVD collection. Attacking the Wall Street Journal? Classic!

Home-schooled children get a civics lesson, protesting the Biden/Owens/Pelosi/ACORN agenda while hoping to catch a glimpse of their hero, "Johnny Lightning" McCormack.

Having despaired of getting any big scoops at the Biden rally, I walked outside and posed for a photo with local Palinista "Sapwolf," who crushed my ego by asking, "Hey, can you introduce me to John McCormack?"

Sunday night supper in Watertown hotel where we staged last night's blogger conference call.

The National Desk, Watertown, N.Y., noon today.

NY23: Biden brings Joe-mentum to Watertown; media flock to see him

Just left the Bidenmania rally eight blocks from my hotel. The star of the show, really, was N.Y. Democratic Party State Chairwoman June O’Neill, a diminuitive fireball of liberal demagoguery.

O'Neill warned of "right-wing extremists who have brought their hate-mongering tactics to this district." (Unless I was mistaken, this must have been a reference to John McCormack of the Weekly Standard, who was at the event and being closely watched by local police, lest he start asking Biden questions.)

"We have to stop the madness," O'Neill told a crowd of about 200 Democrats who turned out for an event covered by about 30 reporters, including seven TV crews. "We cannot afford to let the right-wing extremists make a point in this district. . . . The right wing is not right."

O'Neill named Rush Limbaugh ("boo!"), Sean Hannity ("boo!") and Glenn Beck ("boo!") among the out-of-town right-wingers whom she accused of attempting to impose themselves on the defenseless citizenry of the 23rd Distict.

O'Neill was introduced by state Sen. Darrel Aubertine, who was offered the Democratic Party nomination and turned it down, thus forcing the Dems to go with Bill Owens, a Plattsburgh lawyer. Owens seems to be a nice guy, but he has zero name-ID in most of the 23rd District.

Hoffman continues to lead in the latest Siena poll and, at this point, the "undecided" poll respondents should be told to stay home. If you don't know whether you're a Democrat or a "right-wing extremist," you're too dumb to be allowed to vote.

Did Joe Biden make another gaffe in today's speech? I don't know. I didn't stick around for the whole thing. Unlike big-shot media types who have state-of-the-art Internet communication gear provided to them by wealthy publishers, all I had with me was some old-fashioned stuff called "notes" written on the back of a press release. (Somehow lost my pen and had to borrow a ballpoint from another reporter.)

Anyway, I figured I'd better get back here to the hotel lobby and poach their computer to file this, before I got totally scooped. C'est la guerre!

UPDATE: See my report at The American Spectator. Also, we're linked by that right-wing extremist Gateway Pundit, and I have posted exclusive photos from the rally. Hey, I'm no John McCormack, but I try . . .

NY23: Unfounded fears

Here is "Karl" in the Hot Air Green Room:

Democrat wins in NY-23 and New Jersey may not say much more than that. Indeed, if Democrats win there by narrow margins, it may say that, a year after Obama won the presidency, it takes nasty three-way contests for Democrats to win in Obama-friendly territory.
The hope on the left is that NY-23 is a bellwether of intra-GOP warfare, or of the party being seized by "extremists." However, most such fights will happen within primaries, which allows more time for unification. And few of those will feature "Republican" candidates as liberal as Dede Scozzafava.

And here is Glenn Reynolds:

Likewise, if Tea Partiers get too carried away and full of themselves -- like the Nader Democrats of 2000 -- they will wind up handing the elections to people they really don't want running the country. The third-party threat is a good way to get the GOP establishment's attention, but, as they say, the value of the sword of Damocles is that it hangs, not that it falls. Like a nuclear deterrent, it's a threat that's best not employed.

Karl displays a proprietary concern about the Republican Party being perceived as too "far right." This is what happens when Republicans internalize liberal critiques of conservatism and begin to believe -- as all liberals relentlessly proclaim -- that there is something wrong, inferior or shameful about being conservative.

Professor Reynold's concern is similarly unfounded. Talk of a third-party conservative movement is just that: Talk. Republicans who fret over such things are just worry-warts who still blame Ross Perot for the Clinton presidency. (In fact, the blame should be placed squarely on Bush 41 and the idiots responsible for the '96 Dole campaign.)

My advice: Don't let liberal spin to drive you into fear-based defensive thinking. The real danger to the Republican Party is not "extremists" or third parties, but rather the cluelessness of the Beltway GOP establishment.

How Hoffmania beat Dede-ism

From my American Spectator column today:

Hoffman's conservative campaign effectively doomed the Republican nominee by exposing her liberal voting record in the New York legislature. If Scozzafava was "unable to effectively address many of the charges that have been made about [her] record," that was because the charges were true. After 11 years in Albany, during which she had risen to the rank of minority whip, Scozzafava had amassed a voting record more liberal than many Democratic assembly members. That her policy stances put her at odds with most Republican voters in the largely rural 23rd District was a liability that seems to have been overlooked by the GOP insiders who picked her for the nomination. Once the Hoffman campaign began hammering Scozzafava for her assembly record and positions on national issues, the Conservative Party candidate quickly gained ground against both her and the Democrat, Owens. . . .

Please read the whole thing.

NY-23: Blogger Conference Call- Crunch Time!

Guest-posted by Jimmie Bise of The Sundries Shack.

I sat in on a media and blogger conference call hosted by the American Conservative Union PAC tonight on the most recent news in the NY-23 race. The call was moderated by Ali Akbar of 73Wire and featured Stacy, Eric Odom (also of 73Wire), Matt Burns (the former spokesman for Dede Scozzafava) and Rob Ryan (Doug Hoffman's spokesman). It was an informal affair, but there were a few little tidbits that I think you will find interesting. I'm going to presume upon Stacy's hospitality and share my observations

Matt Burns began the discussion and I definitely sensed a big helping of awkwardness. After all, Burns was the point man for some pretty wicked attacks against the conservative grassroots in the past three weeks. However, it's worth remembering that Burns' job was to make his boss look as good as he possibly good and to knock down the opposition. That's what he did, professionally and, so far as I'm concerned, without rancor.

Most of what he had to say involved why he worked with Scozzafava, who he continued to identify as a "moderate" and the person the local GOP officials believed had the best chance to win. He was obviously disappointed and surprised when she turned tail and endorsed Owens. My impression is that he saw it as a bit of a personal betrayal. He did say he thought she was wrong, which is something, and he's working with the Hoffman folks to help him beat Owens.

Burns then took a couple questions, both involving how the national RNC/RNCC acted in the race, which he really couldn't answer authoritatively. I do feel for Burns, but I'm not sure how he could have been all that surprised by what she did. Birds gotta fly, cats gotta sing and all...

I wanted to jump in with a question here, but there wasn't time. I will throw it out for your consideration, though. Burns still very much believes that Scozzafava is a moderate, but I'm at a loss to see what moderate position she holds on any major issue. She is not an avowed tax-cutter, hasn't acted to shrink government, has sided with ACORN's closest ally in the state, is closely tied to Big Labor, supported the Stimulus Bill, and is not only pro-choice but activist enough about it to have received an award named for Margaret Sanger from Planned Parenthood. I have no doubt that Burns wants what's best for the Republican Party, but I honestly don't see what about Scozzafava said "reliable anti-Pelosi vote" considering that so many of her core positions align so perfectly with the leftmost of the left-wing.

I really don't know the answer, but we'll see if some of the Republicans who so valiantly worked for Scozzafava explain what about her gave them reason to believe she would be anti-Pelosi. Burns said that we really can't fault the GOP leadership for getting behind Scozzafava. I'm not so sure about that. From the grassroots grumbling I've been hearing, people certainly can and, more importantly, they are.

Next up was Rob Ryan, who had a couple interesting things to say. First, given the number of times the Working Families Party and ACORN came up, it's clear that the Hoffman campaign is concerned about the possibility of serious shenanigans from one or the other group, or both. Ryan pretty much said outright tht campaign can't do much about it except to bring attention to the possibility and work hard enough so that anything they do won't matter in the end. I think that's a pretty healthy attitude. Ryan also says his most urgent need is bodies to help with the campaign. They're in crunch time right now and Hoffman needs as many people as possible to knock on doors and work the phones.

Ryan also said he's getting some help from the RNCC in the form of robocalling and campaign workers. I tossed in a question later about whether the campaign was concerned that voters might not buy the GOP hype now, considering how hard it worked to tear Hoffman down in the past couple of week. His answer struck me as very pragmatic. He wasn't terribly concerned by it, but there wasn't anything he could do about it except to keep pushing Hoffman's conservative message using every resource he has. The RNC/RNCC are providing resources now and he's going to use them.

Stacy and Eric Odom came on at the end to give some of the background about their reporting on the race (Stacy has been on the story since the original October 14 blogger conference call). The upshot of what they had to say is that, from where I sit, their reporting has been key to putting this race on the national map. If not for Stacy and, later, the guys at 73Wire getting word out about what was happening in the campaign, I don't think the grassroots (who money-bombed Hoffman into front-runner status) would have gotten involved nearly as much as they have. Now, some folks wouldn't call that journalism but that's exactly what it's been. They have been braking stories like Scozzafava's exit from the campaign yesterday and her endorsement of Owens. Indeed, the very fact that Hoffman was a viable candidate was a legitimate story. They've done yeoman's work here and I, for one, am pretty darned proud of what bloggers have wrought in NY-23.

UPDATE: Pat Austin and Ed Morrissey were also on the call. Their impressions are instructive.

NY23: Fred Thompson coming to Watertown for big Monday event

News release from Hoffman HQ:

FRED THOMPSON SOUNDS THE BATTLE CRY FOR HOFFMAN
WILL APPEAR WITH DOUG HOFFMAN AND JOHN RICH IN WATERTOWN
Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) said: "I'm coming up to Watertown on Monday to show my support for Doug Hoffman, and we need everyone who is concerned with the direction of our country to join me there tomorrow. Now that Doug is Target No. 1 for the Democrats' political machine, they are desperate to win.
"As you'd expect, the usual suspects are coming out of the woodwork, the DCCC, ACORN, the Working Families Party. It's no surprise that the other liberal who quit the race, Dede Scozzafava, is now back in the bunker. I hear even Joe Biden may drop by.
"I say, let them come. We have facts and sound, conservative principles on our side. That's our road map to victory and John Rich is going to give us the soundtrack to win by tomorrow night."

Wonder if Sarah Palin might decide to book a charter flight from Anchorage to Watertown. She's a country music fan, right?

NY23 LIVE from Watertown, N.Y: 'Surprise, surprise! Dede is a Democrat'

That's the response from the Doug Hoffman campaign to the news -- Dede Scozzafava endorsing Democrat Doug Owens -- that broke while Ali Akbar and I were flying westward from Saranac Lake to Watertown this afternoon.

Reacting to the New York Daily News report, Ed Morrisey of Hot Air comments:

Doesn't this prove the point conservatives had been making about Dede Scozzafava all along?

Indeed, in the span of 36 hours, Scozzafava has gone from being a RINO to being an ex-Republican. Having planted this knife deep into the back of the GOP, Dede cannot now expect to win re-election to the state assembly as a Republican next year (or any year, ever, for that matter). Maybe that Working Families Party line will prove a winner for Scozzafava. Or maybe not.

More at Memeorandum, including a report from the Washington Independent by Dave Weigel, who must have filed from the airport. He's due into Watertown this evening. Kerry Picket of The Washington Times is already here, and says that as late as noon today, Owens staffers were denying the Scozzafava endorsement story.

Thanks to Smitty in our London Bureau for updating the previous item. while Ali and I were risking life and limb making the high-speed run on Highway 3 to Watertown.

UPDATE: Hoffman campaign press release:

Surprise Surprise: Dede is a democrat -- sells out the GOP for the liberal agenda of Nancy Pelosi
Statement from Doug Hoffman Campaign:
Senior Communications Advisor Rob Ryan said, "This afternoon Dede Scozzafava betrayed the GOP. She endorsed a Pelosi Democrat who will spend more, tax more, and push the liberal agenda that is dragging down this nation. Doug Hoffman represents the revolution that is taking place against high taxes. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are desperate. They are throwing everything they have at us but we're fighting back. The voters now know what Dede Scozzafava and Bill Owens believe in—the liberal agenda of Nancy Pelosi."

UPDATE II: Fred Thompson coming to town Monday!

UPDATE III: Michelle Malkin notes how Dede Scozzafava has repaid the national GOP establishment for their support of her -- which, as TCOT observes, amounts to about $1 million total.

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

That Shrill Charge of Extremism

by Smitty

Joe Gandleman at The Moderate Voice levels the usual charge: "White House: NY 23 Shows GOP Becoming More Extreme"

Political ByLine goes part of the way in rebutting this silliness:

My question to Joe and also to the White House; is this —– is that not this very tactics that were taken by the late Senator Joseph McCarthy; who engaged in a sort of "Thought Police" towards those who were of the mindset that Communism or as it now called, socialism; was the great alternative to American capitalism? I ask this in all seriousness, since when did disagreeing with political and ideological mindset become extremism?

The truth is my friends, is that the White House is engaging in the tactics of Saul Alinsky. That is to diminish and discredit those who are in opposition to the policies and politics of the socialists. What disturbs me is the fact that there are some Conservatives, who are engaging in the same tactics as the left —- in the name of Liberty. I am quite sorry but, utilizing "Rules for Conservative radicals" makes us no better than the liberal left. We simply have to arm ourselves with the honest truth; believe me, it will shine forth. There is no need to mimic the left. We are better than that; we should act like it.

Erick Erickson offers a few figures in favor of the more firm approach. Shorter Erickson: "Politics ain't bean-bag."

Where I was waiting for Pat at PBL's analysis to go is a consideration of the NetRoots and Joe Lieberman in 2006.

The sea change in American politics is that people are paying attention and getting involved. The Moderate Voice loses all credibility, and appears nothing more than a propaganda mill, when they lose the context of what is going on and decry "extremeism" on the Right.

What extremism? How is it extreme to ask basic questions about the Constitutionality of truly radical legislation that literally runs to multiple reams when printed? How?

The closest I can come to empathizing with the plight of the 111th Congress et al. is that they're still driving the Progressive status quo of the last century. The internet, social networks, and the recent Great Political Awakening are still shiny and new. There isn't much cause to get all worried about the Right until the ballots are counted in November 2010, but which time a new operating point may have been reached.

Politics is a bore. Not the heavy-duty action of the campaign, but the ridiculous grind of dealing with the US Code, the budget, the scandals, the government worker unions (you think SEIU is a challenge?), etc. There is still no guarantee that, faced with the Really Ugly Details of the deficit and the debt, the conservatives will stay locked on, and continue to elect candidates who make Tough Decisions.

So really, the Right is more about naïveté than extremism. We're no sooner going to get transparency and insight into the sausage making inside Congressional budgeting and DoD spending than the fertilizer is going to hit the air circulator. THEN is when the worry about extremism becomes real. When the cute budget deficit graph and the funny 'national debt road trip' turn into a scylla and charybdis of economic doom is when times will become 'interesting'.

Maybe Joe knows all this, and maybe that's why he's trying to help keep the dream of the lotophagi going.

Stamping out Federalism

by Smitty

When two or more related items crop up in the Google Reader, one is tempted to post. Big Government points out that 244 years ago today began the enforcement of the Stamp Act. Other than the part where the Colonies declared independence some 11 years later, the Stamp Act was a big success.

Scroll forward to today. Tyler Cowen notes with some apprehension the plans for Tyson's Corner, VA, which is more or less between Washington DC and its big airport at Dulles.

Amidst noting the WaPo's report of a 15 billion dollar price tag, Tyler quotes: "For funding, Fairfax [County, VA, where Tyson's Corner is located] officials say, they will look to the Obama administration, which is committed to subsidizing growth projects in urban areas."

As a Virginia resident, this doesn't hurt my property values any. However, it strikes me that anyone not living in Northern Virginia ought to be telling their Representatives to tell the Virginia delegation to lay by its dish.

Having grown up on the left coast, it pains me to see the US turn into one of those third world countries where you've a nice airport and five-star hotels in the capitol, and the rest of the country looks like a full-on junk yard. If a State wants to sex up its capitol at the expense of the rest of the counties, it's their prerogative. The Federal government shouldn't be raping the rest of the country so.

That Fairfax County seems to deal directly with the Obama Administration, with Richmond left in the cold, is also worrisome. One hopes that Bob McDonnell, an Army vet, has a come-to-Beavis meeting with these jokers and educates them on the importance of the chain of command, should he win the gubernatorial election next Tuesday.

The US Constitution was written to give the Federal government enough juice to ward of re-absorption of the States into England, or some other European country (among other motives). The crap-tacular policies of the Obama Administration seem a modern variation on the theme of the Stamp Act.

Sarah Palin and the Deft Play

by Smitty (h/t @HeyMonet on Twitter)

Sarah's FaceBook Page states she never suggested he eject, much less contacted Chris Daggett or his campaign. She ends:

So, to the good people of New Jersey, please know that Daggett’s claims are false. I've never even suggested he should drop out of the race. But, come to think of it...

Couple of points:

• We all need to keep a whole lick of salt handy in the Internet age, and let even the 'too good to check stuff' sit as long as possible before committing to action.
• Sarah's actions seem to help Christi most of all, which helps Sarah with the GOP, which hopefully points towards future solidarity on the Right.

UPDATE: And, in the Western corner, Patriot Room points to Fox News.com, where:

Obama's scheduled to appear Sunday at a pair of rallies for the only incumbent governor seeking re-election. Just one of two governors' offices on the ballot for Tuesday's elections, the White House is aware Democratic losses would be spun as a referendum on Obama.

The results could also foreshadow next year's elections, when 37 governorships come up for grabs.

The president plans to appear with Corzine at two New Jersey campaign stops, in Camden and Newark, before returning to the White House.

Let's see now. Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the Economy, PeloisCare, Cap & Trade, Immigration... Nope, nothing really going on. Why not just get some of that campaignin' on?

UPDATE II:Dan Riehl,

if she hurts Daggett enough in New Jersey to help get Christie over the finish line, or is perceived as doing so, whatever will the Beltway GOP establishment do?

Something between a kow-towing and genuflection, I expect.

UPDATE III: Analysis from Soren Dayton at The Next Right. Analysis focuses on Huckabee and Romney, both of whom look as clueless as Newt on NY-23.

Just South my current position, someone at Samizdata sounds prophetic:

I suspect her principle-over-party endorsement of an obscure New York conservative over an obscure New York Republican on the far-left of the party, may represent one of those seemingly minor events that turn out to be the precursor to something quite interesting and far reaching. Only time will tell but I think the winds of change are blowing and quite a lot of people are going to be genuinely surprised when their political careers get dumped in Boston Harbor.

UPDATE IV:
Another Black Conservative: So with that, let me be the first to say: Drop Out Daggett!

NY23: Rumors swirlConfirmed

LAKE PLACID, N.Y.
A desperate struggle to control the narrative of the crucial special congressional election in upstate New York's 23rd District has broken out in the wake of Republican Dede Scozzafava's concession yesterday.

The Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times -- which previously endorsed Scozzafava -- stirred the pot this morning with an editorial backing Democrat Bill Owens and claiming that this was also Scozzafava's agenda:

During the day Saturday, she began to quietly and thoughtfully encourage her supporters to vote for Democrat William L. Owens.

That single sentence sparked online commentary and inaugurated a race by reporters to confirm or refute the newspaper's assertion. Kerry Picket of The Washington Times was first to follow up:

Former Scozzafava campaign spokesman Matt Burns seems to distance himself from Ms. Scozzafava's latest reported actions. He sent the Washington Times Water Coooler the following statement:
"As of yesterday, I am no longer affiliated with the campaign. Dede knows the most about the district and would have represented it well in Congress, but I am not familiar with her current thinking or decision-making." . . .
Ms. Scozzafava has yet to release a statement on the Watertown report.

Meanwhile, Democrats continue pouring on TV ads attacking Hoffman as a greedy millionaire whose agenda is to export jobs to India and China. Anti-Scozzafava TV ads -- purchased by outside groups not under control of the Hoffman campaign -- also continue airing.

Ali Akbar of 73Wire's Campaign Trail will be riding with me to Watertown this afternoon, and we will continue to pursue the story.

UPDATE: 73Wire now has their own report up. We're hitting the road to Watertown.

UPDATE II: (Smitty) TCOT Report points to the NY Daily News:

At 10 p.m. last night - right in the middle of the Halloween festivities - Scozzafava's husband, Ron McDougall, president of the Jefferson/Lewis/St. Lawrence Central Labor Council issued a statement through the AFL-CIO that he is endorsing Owens against Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman.
...
Now that Scozzafava has bowed out of the race, her union backers are rushing to endorse Owens, which could prove crucial to him in the final hours of the race when it all comes down to the kind of GOTV that unions (or some of them, anyway) excel at.

Hopes for reconciliation dim.

UPDATE III: (Smitty) The hits just keep on comin'! Here comes the Puffington Host:

In the White House, at the very least, officials are bracing themselves for a loss, calling Scozzafava's departure bad news for Owens. The one hope, they say, is if Scozzafava -- who has more philosophical similarities with the Democratic Party than Hoffman's brand of Republicanism -- was to formally endorse her former rival.
"This hurts," one administration official told the Huffington Post on Saturday, "unless we can get her on board."
And on Sunday, the White House all but confirmed that it was after Scozzafava's endorsement. Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Obama's senior confidant, Valerie Jarrett said the administration "would love to have -- of course, have her support."

If Dede keeps up the good work, she's a shoo-in for the Arlen Specter Award for Deeply Held Principles.

UPDATE IV: (Smitty) Couple of posts at NORC,

• The Newtist Colony smack-down
• Hoffman Sends Out Request For Aid

UPDATE V: (Smitty)
TCOT Report points to the Watertown Daily Times, where, at 1406 local, Dede laid it on the line, emphasis mine:

You know me, and throughout my career, I have been always been an independent voice for the people I represent. I have stood for our honest principles, and a truthful discussion of the issues, even when it cost me personally and politically. Since beginning my campaign, I have told you that this election is not about me; it’s about the people of this District.

It is in this spirit that I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same.

I, for one, hope that the people of NY-23 form the bolded words into a polite suppository on Tuesday.

Project Valour IT Update

by Smitty

In shameless and loving devotion to Project Valour IT, this blog would like to point out a splendid new video from the No Sheeples Here Awesomeness Works.

This blog is a registered part of the Navy Team, but will not feel in the least bit slighted should donations go to our sister service. The cause is worthy.

Rule 5 Sunday

by Smitty

So Rule 5 Sunday finds us momentarily jubilant over NY-23. Set that aside briefly, and consider the following links:

• Jeffords brings us Maggie Gyllenhaal whose loveliness we admire despite her politics.
• Nation of Cowards features an Oktoberfest roundup, and chided Taylor Swift for horrible taste.
• The Classic Liberal brings Shakira, and a history lesson on Mao. My wife only likes Shakira in Spanish. The wife might like Mao in Spanish, but Mao left us with little output in any Romance language. Skipping over to Europe, he celebrates Oktoberfest. He also has a Michigan bikini roundup. My question is, how will the Troglopundit respond? Will he response be something that can be discussed in mixed company?
• Bob Belvedere brings you: Jayne Mansfield, and Belly Dancers.
• The Indentured Servant Girl celebrates Wonder Woman.
• Makes My Brain Itch has a Rule 5 post centering on protesters.
• A Conservtive Shemale celebrates Bruce Willis and Dita von Teese, then chases them with April Wine. Then there is Eric Bana and Diane Krueger, with a Fatboy Slim vs. The Rolling Stones mix chaser.
• For the ladies, Israeli Cool has a post on Palestinian bodybuilders.
• HotMES features Kelly Brook and then Elizabeth Banks.
• Little Miss Attila plays the Gina Elise card, admittedly more in support of Project Valour IT, but she'll probably flog me and then overlook my indiscretion. She, having something of a Queen streak, includes a Roger Taylor clip, noting that men are shameless hussies about cars or girls. Also, LMA, the sky is blue. LMA follows up with the Bangles doing Hazy Shade of Winter. Go, Susanna Hoffs.
• Anorak features ToM favorite Pamela Anderson skiing in her knickers for PETA. Wouldn't you? Neither would I.
• Three Beers Later is a Rule 5 enthusiast. Here is a glimpse of Leslie Nielsen getting a glimpse in one of those Naked Gun flicks. I'm not sure if TBL is located in New England, but the blog seems to have a lot of fun hammering Chris Dodd. Extra effort went into bringing Cyd Charisse, so enjoy.
• Yankee Phil tracked the wedding of the daughter of The Donald.
• American Power presents 'Soft Power Hotness'. Douglas doubles down with a bedtime totty.
• Fischersville Mike contributes the lovely Jessie James.
• House of Eratosthenes forges ahead with the Alphabet of Hotness project. In this episode/experiment, Leeann Tweeden loses to Marisa Miller. Then there is a KGB commercial with a Rule 5 moment at the end.
• Boom Boom Boom brings Brigitte Bardot.
• Dustbury, a man who knows how to have pun, gives us "Original Shin".
• Smash Mouth Politics, my vote for Secretary of State, gives us an international bikini review, with a few surprises. Impressive work, sir.
• Rightofcourse features TCU cheerleaders this week.
• The WyBlog features Kim Guadagno, the NJ Lieutenant Governor.
• Support Your Local Gunfighter has the Lingerie Football League.
• KURU Lounge favorite Jana Defi returns.
• Puffington Host has something about Playboy Yoga. I think that human origami might be rough on the satin robe.

Special Crypto-Necro-RuleFiveo Section:
Dead stuff and creepy goofy weird is not the usual speed for Rule 5. Internal fluids, dismemberment: these are not the stuff of natural elegance. Yet here we sit, links a-flexin', tryin' to dodge the witch's hexin'.

• House of Eratosthenese brings you Marina Orlova, a.k.a. Hot For Words, head in hand.
• The Instapundit noted some slutty nun costumes.
• Miss Cellania featured a Halloween Stripper clip that is at the edge of our PG-13 rating, but watch the whole thing.
• Jeffords had a Halloween Hollywood roundup.
• Three Beers Later has a saucy pinup.
• Yankee Phil includes a lady in orange rocking out to Who Are You.
• Belvedere rounds up the witches. For transport to Salem? one wonders.
• American Power has a Halloween lovely.
• SondraK demonstrates that ladies with swords are every bit as alluring as hotties with guns, in a medieval sort of way.

So there is a healthy Rule 5 outing. Please send more tasteful cheesecake to Smitty and get out the vote on Tuesday, ye Americans!

Drowned in Blood: Frightening Tales of an Adirondack Halloween

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned . . .

Passionate intensity filled the worst on a moonless Saturday night where the streets shined with the gleam of an autumn shower. There were the damned, the dead and the undead.

On the east side of Plattsburgh, New York, there was a bar -- quiet enough during the day -- which was increasingly loud and crowded as mere dark gave way to genuine night. What must surely have been the largest gay Halloween party in all of northeast New York was underway and, if everyone present was not some sort of homosexual -- well, they were queer nonethless.

How did a holiday once celebrated with childish pranks become, in our era, a lunatic adult bacchanal? When did elaborate Halloween home decorations become such a universal status-marker of membership in The Redneck Nation? Given the bizarre assortment of sexual diversity on display at this dimly-lit pub -- Satan introduced himself, but refused to smile for the photo -- what mere anarchy has been loosed up us?

There is no time now to think about such questions of cultural history. Sunday morning on the first day of November will come soon enough. Exactly how our society reached its present condition is one of those Big Picture questions that no one will ever pay me to write. My stock in trade is not depth, but speed. By midnight Sunday evening, I will have either filed a 900-world column for The American Spectator or else be on the phone making excuses to my editor as to why I'm late.

They don't call it "deadline" for nothing, you know.

Deadlines, Deadheads, death by a thousand cuts. Do our figures of speech betray an inordinate concern with death? Perish the thought!

Funny? You're killing me. I nearly died laughing.

Two of our three most recent presidents were Skull and Bones. Our current president went to Columbia and Harvard, not Yale -- and his health-care plan is dying, mainly because those with one foot in the grave don't want to be taxed to death to pay the salaries of their own "death panels."

Coincidence? I don't think so.

After a few minutes watching the transvestites dance in Plattsburgh, I was bored to death, and strolled back over to the campaign office. The thumping disco bass followed me across the parking lot. Perhaps Ross Douthat would be allowed to waste a few paragraphs contemplating the association between funky bass riffs and cultural decay, but he's a Harvard man and once swam naked with an elderly William F. Buckley who, like the Bushes, had been Skull and Bones.

But no, Douthat wouldn't be here and would never imagine (or maybe he would) that Plattsburgh was to these people kind of a regional gay mecca, the destination of a Saturday night pilgrimage, a ritual performed regularly. And this bar-shrine, where at least four of the male pilgrims dressed like Madonna, was directly across a strip-mall parking lot from the offices of the conservative campaign that has suddenly captured the spotlight in the final days before the fast-approaching Election Day of an off-off-year.

Irony? The drag queens, butch lesbians and various other costumed guests at the disco party didn't seem the least bit terrorized by their proximity to the red, white and blue presence of the phenomenon I've dubbed "Hoffmania."

Yet Frank Rich was both heebed and jeebed, his nightmares haunted by right-wing accountants and menacing women on cable news shows. Dr. Frankenrich decided that his Halloween costume would be Madame Defarge listening for the telltale rumble of tumbrel wheels over cobblestones, as Jacobinism sends an innocent Republican woman to the "guillotine." Having missed the party in Plattsburgh, Frank Rich didn't know what I knew, and probably didn't care to learn.

A few hours later, I dropped in on a quite different Halloween scene in Saranac Lake. For some reason I am sure the locals understand, Hoffman's hometown has a huge hippie scene. The Woodstock generation lives on at the Waterhole on Main Street.

Saturday night, the big upstairs room at the Waterhole hosted a blues-rock band dressed for the occasion in bright yellow-and-black bumblebee costumes. They played a 12-minute rendition of the Allman Brothers' "Whipping Post" that was Fillmore-worthy. I captured most of it on video, but am now poaching the lobby computer at a hotel where I'm not a guest, so no more uploading video now.

The patrons of the Waterhole were not gay-fabulous like the Plattsburghers on the queen scene, but yet were gaily costumed. One young lady presented an impressively good imitation of the St. Pauli Girl. There were perhaps a half-dozen Satans, both male and female, and no shortage of zombies, ghouls and other horrid monsters.

There was also a 40-ish woman dressed -- tartan pleated skirt, knee socks, white blouse, blue sweater -- like a Catholic schoolgirl. She regretted her choice of shoes, having been unable to find either oxblood penny loafers or patent leather maryjanes to complete her ensemble.

Some of these Adirondack hippies are, in fact, Paulistas. There is more than one counterculture up here, and the doobie-burning anti-war free-marketeers are not really so rare. None of these dopehead peacenik capitalists seemed the least bit interested in politics. Their minds were a million miles away from anything to do with candidates and elections.

For a few moments, my thoughts were similarly remote from the story I had been chasing for days. The duel guitar solos of the bumblebee band's "Whipping Post" entranced me, and there was no deadline in my mind. They could have played all night, but I couldn't stay all night.

Here in this Sleepy Hollow land on Halloween, the resurrected Reaganite dream has disturbed the slumbers of Frank Rich many miles away in Manhattan. Is this the Second Coming? the Third? the Fourth? Goldwater to Reagan to Gingrich to . . . Doug Hoffman?

Haunted by Hoffman will never become a classic DVD in the collections of horror-movie buffs. Jason or Freddie Krueger, he ain't. And if the Nightmare On Main Street in Saranac Lake is any indication, the Left will have a hard time turning the town's native son into a Scary Right-Wing Monster.

"The Second Coming" by Yeats warns of apocalyptic consequences when the best lack all conviction -- a phrase that cannot be applied to Hoffman, whose strongest claim to the loyalty of his supporters is that he has quite strong convictions about matters economic, fiscal and monetary.

Watching while the apolitical adults of the Adirondacks reveled in childlike non-innocence on Halloween, I wondered what Judge Bork might say. Was this liberty or license? And what of Yeats, whose blood-dimmed tide has receded in cultural memory?

Questions multiply and answers are still as scarce as ever. Revelations? We've got none yet.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand . . .
The Second Coming! . . .
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

NY23: Who deserves credit?

His name is Nathan Cossey. He doesn't update his blog very often, and he works hard for his money. On Oct. 16 when I said, "Send me to NY23," Nathan hit the tip jar with such generosity, the mission was a "go" from that moment. So when traffic was surging Saturday morning on the strength of a breaking story, I made sure I gave Nathan a shout-out of appreciation.

Every day, Nathan and I talk by phone. There are many tip-jar hitters to whom I am grateful and please forgive me for having fallen so far behind on my thank-you e-mails. However, Nathan occupies a special place. He does not hesitate, but acts decisively. He is a Christian gentleman. You can follow him on Twitter. Be sure to express to him my gratitude as a friend.