“The Stupid Party Is on a Suicide Mission”

Scozzafava is a piece of work. If you needed further proof, read on.

As a result of asking the candidate some (pointed) questions, a reporter from The Weekly Standard and found himself facing a police officer. John McCormack relates his excellent adventure at the hands of the New York assemblywoman:

…Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate for the November 3 special election in the 23rd congressional district, spoke to about 100 Republicans at the Lewis County GOP dinner …

[…]

It was a fairly typical evening--until the speech ended and someone with Scozzafava’s campaign called the police. On me.

Mr. McCormack was following up on information that the Republican candidate was coming out in favor of card-check legislation. This piece of dirty work was cooked up by the unions; it would eliminate the secret ballot in union voting and would give union leaders unprecedented powers to lean on individual members. No real Republican would vote for it.

Which proves the point in my previous post: Scozzafava is not a Republican. In reality, she would sell out for whatever support she can garner:
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Earlier today Lindsay Beyerstein reported that Scozzafava responded to an AFL-CIO questionnaire by saying she would support card-check legislation that eliminates the secret ballot requirement for organizing unions. As Beyerstein notes, this contradict statements made by a Scozzafava spokesman in September.

So after the dinner, I asked Assemblywoman Scozzafava if she supports card check. “Yes, yes I do,” she replied.

So far so good. She does an about-face and a reporter asks her about it. Then it starts to get ugly:

At that point someone from her campaign placed himself between Scozzafava and me and told me I should direct all my inquires to the campaign’s spokesman. I nonetheless asked Scozzafava if her signing of the Americans for Tax Reform pledge not to vote to raise taxes means she would oppose any health care bill that raises taxes. “What kind of taxes?” she replied. Then another couple of gentlemen interposed themselves between Scozzafava and me as Scozzafava headed for the door.

I spotted Scozzafava later as she was walking to the parking lot, and asked her: “ Assemblywoman, do you believe that the health-care bill should exclude coverage for abortion?” She didn’t reply. I asked her twice more. Silence.

You’re darn right there was silence. Scozzafava won an award from the Margaret Sanger Foundation for her abortion advocacy. The New York Post rightly calls her “a lib in Republican clothing”.

So the reporter, having been rebuffed by the candidate, goes back to his car to report on the event via laptop. That’s when the police show up:

Minutes later a police car drove into the parking lot with its lights flashing. Officer Grolman informed me that she was called because “there was a little bit of an uncomfortable situation” and then took down my name, date of birth, and address.

“Maybe we do things a little differently here, but you know, persistence in that area, you scared the candidate a little bit,” Officer Grolman told me.

Pardon me??

A reporter “scares” a political candidate who is actively campaigning because he asks questions of her in a public place? This woman is headed for oblivion.

As Mr. McCormack says:

…I do wonder if it’s the Scozzafava campaign that’s in trouble--with a candidate who supports card check, who is unwilling to say she’d oppose a health care bill that raises taxes or includes abortion coverage, and who is so reluctant to answer questions that she has someone with her campaign call the cops when she’s questioned by a reporter who is (if I may say so) polite--if a bit persistent.

What he didn’t mention was the fact that the Conservative Party nominee has been endorsed [pdf] by the New York State Troopers. I wonder if the police endorsed Hoffman because they’ve had experience, up close and firsthand, with Scozzafava’s tactics?

As Michelle Malkin reports in that earlier link:

It’s not just Tea Party activists and town hall protesters displaying discontent with Big Government in Washington. A recent Gallup Poll reported that self-identified conservatives now outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states -- and that more Americans nationwide now say they are conservative than have made that claim in any of the last four years. [my emphasis - D]

Scozzafava is an abortion-rights advocate and Margaret Sanger Award winner with a 100 percent Planned Parenthood rating who favors gay marriage. It would be one thing if she balanced that social liberalism with fiscal conservatism. But as a state assemblywoman, she voted for massive tax hikes, Democratic budgets and a $180 million state bank bailout. She also supported the trillion-dollar federal stimulus package -- which every House Republican voted against.

My guess is that Scozzafava hopes to get to Washington so she can pull a Specter. She’ll rip off her GOP mask to expose the rad lib Dem underneath:

Scozzafava’s husband is a leading upstate union organizer. She supports the federal “card-check” legislation that would massively boost union rolls -- and Democratic voting rolls… Card-check is the key to a Democratic majority in perpetuity. Big Labor bosses have said as much.

Movement conservatives and limited-government activists are battling the establishment GOP over its endorsement of Scozzafava’s candidacy…

Malkin puts it succinctly:

…Beltway fixture Newt Gingrich endorsed left-wing Scozzafava and the Republican National Committee made a six-figure transfer of funds to the National Republican Campaign Committee to support her. The Stupid Party is on a suicide mission.

And they wonder why we loathe them. The RNC doesn’t even have a clue bag so what's the point of trying to tell them anything?


NOTE: Another Black Conservative has a wonderful title for his post on this event. Notice he doesn’t call himself a “black Republican”.