Dede Scozzafava is a Symbol of What’s Wrong With the Republican Party – Updated

Dede Scozzafava picked up a big endorsement by Newt Gingrich today. It’s a shame Newt couldn’t put principle before party and endorse Doug Hoffman to be NY 23′s next representative. When will republicans learn? It isn’t conservatism or conservative ideas that lost elections for them in the past several years. Just the opposite, it’s the so-called moderates they insist on backing.

The Wall Street Journal published an interesting piece today about the race for NY 23 and the trouble the Tea Party movement is causing the GOP. One quote in the article infuriates me:

Brian Walsh, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a group that coordinates GOP Senate campaigns, says the party has chosen strong candidates. “It’s healthy to have debates about the future direction of the party,” says Mr. Walsh. But he adds, “We want to make sure we have candidates on the ballot in the best position to defeat the Democrat candidate.”

That’s all party leadership cares about – winning elections, and they aren’t very good at it. Doug Hoffman went from something like 11% in the polls a few weeks ago to 23% this week. Obviously, had the party chosen him he’d certainly be polling well above the Democrat Bill Owens’ 33%. But party leadership makes excuses for Scozzafava, saying she’s electable because she’s a moderate – in a conservative district no less. So what if Obama won 52% of the vote last year. Lot’s of conservatives fell for his schtick. Now that they’ve seen him in action they aren’t likely to make that mistake again.

Just how moderate is Dede Scozzafava? I’d say she’s to the left of moderate. Not only is she liberal on social issues, her claims to be fiscally conservative don’t stand up after scrutiny of her record. Michelle Malkin calls her An ACORN Friendly, Big Labor-Backing, Tax-and-Spend Liberal in GOP Clothing. She was backed by the Working Families Party – an arm of the SEIU and ACORN, for crying out loud. Yet this is the only person the GOP could come up with that’s “electable?” She’s only electable if the voters aren’t paying attention to her record.

I don’t know when GOP leadership is going to wake up and realize that enraging their base is not the way to beat the democrats. Perhaps running candidates who aren’t democrats at heart would be a good first step towards electoral victory. “Hold your nose and vote” is hardly a winning campaign slogan.

If you agree, please consider volunteering or making a donation to Doug Hoffman’s campaign. His poll numbers have more than doubled in two weeks. Let’s help him double those numbers again so the people can send a clear message to the democrats and the republicans in Washington, DC.

In case you’re wondering, I do not work for Mr. Hoffman and I have no affiliation with his campaign at this time. But I may sign on as a volunteer if I can find the time.

Update: Wow! It only gets worse. Scozzafava won’t even confirm she would run in a republican primary in 2010 and not switch to democrat. How do you like that, Republican leadership?

Update 2: Worse yet – Scozzafava was endorsed by the founder of Daily Kos!

Hellooooooo NRCC!?!? Helloooooo New Gingrich?!?!? Is anybody home?