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REPUBLICAN ESTABLISHMENT: WILL THERE BE ACCOUNTABILITY?

 

By Larry Pratt
November 12, 2009

NewsWithViews.com

The November 3 elections showed that President Obama and his statist allies in Congress have set off a political tsunami.

It seems to be obvious to all who were watching (supposedly the President was not, if you believe anything the White House says) that the huge reversal of Democrat and Republican margins from 2008 to 2009 in Virginia and New Jersey were an amazing reversal. Virginia in 2008 went 53 percent for Obama, but a year later only 41 percent went for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds. In New Jersey, Obama's 57 percent became Democrat Governor Jon Corzine's 45 percent.

Much of the GOP sweeps in Virginia and in New Jersey resulted from independents returning to the GOP fold - an identification they had surrendered when they could not stomach the big-government records of President Bush and the Republican Congress.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared the night a victory because the Democrat won in the special congressional election to fill a vacancy in NY-23, and similarly in CA-10. Of course, she did not discuss the fact that the CA-10 seat had already been held by a Democrat.

More disappointing is the unwillingness by some of the Washington, DC Republican establishment to admit what happened in NY-23. The Republican loss there was in fact a Conservative and pro-gun victory.

Republican bosses in NY-23 chose an amazingly leftwing Republican, Dede Scozzafaza (to call her a Republican in Name Only – RINO – is an insult to RINOs). Scozzafaza was rated the third most liberal of all the members of the NY Assembly. She has been endorsed by the Working Families Party, an Acorn-spawned entity. When people in the district began to learn how much of a leftist the GOP candidate was, her support began to head into the tank.

Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund, along with a number of other conservative political committees, endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Other endorsements came from prominent talk show hosts and leading Republicans such as Sarah Palin.

The race in the last month became a two-man contest between Hoffman and Democrat nominee Bill Owens. On Thursday before the election, Scozzafaza withdrew, and on Sunday she endorsed the Democrat – after having received nearly one million dollars from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the political committee of the House Republicans in Congress.


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This was the conservative victory. A total unknown forced out a completely unacceptable Republican nominee and almost won the seat. Hoffman – and conservatives and pro-gunners – made it clear that without them, Republicans better get used to being in the minority.

This was embarrassing not only to the NRCC staff, but to its chairman, Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas (a conservative pro-gun congressman) as well as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele. Gingrich and Steele claimed – and continue to do so even after the election! – that choosing Scozzafava was a decision that had to be respected because Republicans should respect local party decisions.

That argument does not fly. Erick Erickson has written on RedState.com that numerous sources have told him that the outrageous decision made by the 23rd district’s eleven county chairmen (the ones who selected Scozzafaza) was pushed by the “professionals” on the NRCC staff. They were convinced that the failure to win the special election in another NY congressional vacancy was because a man rather than a woman was the candidate. They are not concerned that the man, Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, was a RINO. So, naturally, they were not concerned that Scozzafava was beyond RINO.

When Ford introduced the Edsal automobile, it was met by car buyers with a yawn -- and it was quickly discontinued. When VHS beat out Beta for the video player market, Beta was also discontinued.

Now that Michael Steel and Rep. Pete Sessions (and their staffs) have been shown to be catastrophically wrong, will they step down? If they really believe that individual responsibility is a key to the success of capitalism and a free society, they should be making public their resignations.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (the NRCC counterpart in the Senate) seems to have gotten – and acted upon – the election memo. Senator John Cornyn of Texas had been pursuing a parallel strategy for defeat as his House counterpart. For example, Cornyn had bestowed the NRSC’s endorsement (and a fundraising advantage) on Florida Governor Charlie Christ who is running for the US Senate. Christ is the Arlen Specter of the South – a purebred RINO.

Immediately after the returns came in from the November elections, Cornyn stated that the NRSC will not be getting involved in U.S. Senate primaries. He has said that financial support will no longer be given to candidates in primaries, although he has not said if they plan to continue making endorsements -- which are signals that the establishment sends to donors as to which candidates they would like to see the grassroots support.

What does all this mean? If you want to advance the pro-Second Amendment agenda, contribute to the Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund.

Sorry, Sen. John McCain’s love of restricting your First Amendment rights means that you have to be a paid member of GOA to contribute to its Political Victory Fund.

Go here to join Gun Owners of America.

� 2009 Larry Pratt - All Rights Reserved

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Erich Pratt is the Director of Communications for Gun Owners of America, a national gun lobby with over 300,000 members. GOA is located at 8001 Forbes Place, Springfield, VA 22151.

Either Pratt or another GOA spokesman is available for press interviews.

Larry Pratt has been Executive Director of Gun Owners of America for 27 years. GOA is a national membership organization of 300,000 Americans dedicated to promoting their second amendment freedom to keep and bear arms.

He published a book, Armed People Victorious, in 1990 and was editor of a book, Safeguarding Liberty: The Constitution & Militias, 1995. His latest book, On the Firing Line: Essays in the Defense of Liberty was published in 2001.

The GOA web site is:  gunowners.org. Pratt's weekly talk show Live Fire is archived there at: www.gunowners.org/radio.htm

E-Mail: ldpratt@gunowners.org


 

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Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund, along with a number of other conservative political committees, endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.