NY23: Greetings from Syracuse!

I'm in the business center of the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Syracuse. I'm not actually staying at this hotel, but . . . ah, it's a long story. At any rate, I hope everybody's been following the blogging that my buddy Jimmie Bise did Wednesday. Because I was on the road for six hours, what I did was to work the phones, talking to my sources to get the basic landscape as I headed up here to cover the race on the ground.

You've seen how, in the old black-and-white movies, the court would adjourn at the big trial, and all the reporters would race to the pay phone, make a call and say, "Get me rewrite!"

The reporter on the scene would be connected to a writer on the city desk, who would then take dictation from the guy covering the trial -- the quotes, the notes, the facts. The guy on the desk would then be in charge of turning the raw report into a finished story.

So that's how it was with me and Jimmie, as I flew up I-81 Wednesday en route to Cicero, N.Y. This isn't the first time we've worked together this way, and it's also how I worked with Stephen Green of VodkaPundit to provide exclusive on-the-scene reports from the 9/12 March On D.C. At any rate, the post that Jimmie put up Wednesday afternoon was well-written, crammed with news, and full of links. Excellent work!

The reason I went to Cicero was to cover a Tea Party meet-up featuring former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, now with Freedomworks. (Jimmie also blogged about that.)

Armey is a classy guy with a great sense of humor, but the really exciting news from the Wednesday night meet-up was that the activists -- all of them supporting Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman -- are totally fired up. I talked to about a half-dozen of them, including the event organizer Lamar Wells, and the excitement is palpable.

Armey told them, "This is the big one." And it is. Like they said at Chicago in '68, the whole world is watching. I told Jimmie during our conversation that if Hoffman wins, his campaign here in NY23 will become the template for hundreds of similar grassroots conservative campaigns nationwide at every level next year.

BTW, there's a reason I'm in Syracuse. It's actually south of the 23rd District, but is the regional media center, which is why they're having a luncheon here tomorrow. I'm staying at the same hotel as Armey's crew, and I'll have to get up about 6:30 a.m. if I'm going to be ready to roll about 7:30 a.m. for the trip up to Watertown for a 9:30 a.m. event, then turn around and come back to Syracuse for the luncheon.

Joke of the day: Dede turned me into a Newt! (I got better.)

If you are a Tea Party activist who has been looking for a way you can really make a difference -- what are you waiting for? Get in touch with the Hoffman campaign, and get up here!

And if you're in Syracuse, try the club sandwich at the Renaissance Hotel lounge. I recommend it highly . . .