Voter ID Laws: Racist or Reasonable?

Voter ID laws are not racist. Only liberals who claim minorities and poor people are too stupid to obtain an ID are racist.

The Virginia Voter ID Law is a sham. It does nothing to ensure the integrity of the voting process and the default setting is voter fraud, because if a person is required to cast a provisional ballot due to not having an ID, that vote is still counted if no one contests it. In Texas, a voter who casts a ballot without an ID is required to return with a valid ID within a certain timeframe, or that vote is thrown out. No ID, no count.

The integrity of the election process must be inviolate. We cannot be left to wonder if the results being reported are accurate, we must know with a relative degree of certainess that the candidate being held up as the winner, is actually the winner. Voter identification, verification of residency, and verification of eligibility are basic requirements which go a long way towards ensuring that degree of certainess and are simply good practices. Liberals will give anyone a ballot. If you're not a legal citizen of this country you cannot vote in this country. That is the rule of law. Voting is a right we earn by virtue of citizenship, whether natural born or naturalized. It is an obligation of citizenship. It is also a privilege that can be rescinded if you are convicted of a felony. That, too, is the rule of law. Liberals are more than willing and capable of suspending the rule of law when it suits their agenda.

Voter ID Laws: Racist or Reasonable?

It was Democrats who were predominantly responsible for the Jim Crow laws against black Americans voting. Democrats have historically exhibited a tendency to go to any lengths to ensure that the results of elections turn out in their favor, as was the case during Jim Crow when they didn’t want black Americans to participate in choosing non-racist leaders.

Republicans often point out the recent example of the community organizing group known as ACORN. As outlined in Matthew Vadum’s Subversion Inc., there have been 55 convictions for voter fraud and voter registration fraud from ACORN’s efforts, which leaned heavily in favor of the Democratic Party.

The media began to focus on the findings from the Harris County [Texas] tax assessor’s office and True the Vote. Shortly after the August 24 press conference announcing the results of the office’s investigation, a fire of unknown origins burned down the warehouse containing all of Harris County’s voting equipment. In total, the fire claimed 10,000 voting machines, which was approximately $30,000,000 worth of equipment. Harris County then spent $750,000 dollars on paper ballots as an emergency measure. Meanwhile, Houston Votes, Texans Together and the Democratic Party of Texas all filed lawsuits against Catherine Engelbrecht’s organization in short order. The lawsuits are still ongoing.

Intimidation through litigation. The preferred method of liberals and extremists to silence the opposition.

Readers who are interested in helping Catherine Engelbrecht and her nonpartisan True the Vote effort to protect America’s elections can visit their site at www.truethevote.org and can attend the group’s 2012 National Summit in Houston, Texas. The summit is on April 27th-28th and includes our nation’s foremost experts on election integrity. The speakers are John Fund, Patt Caddell, Christian Adams, Anita Moncrief, James O’Keefe, Rep. Artur Davis, Hans Von Spakovsky, and Tom Fitton.

The Curious Case of the Martyrdom of Frances Fox Piven

The Curious Case of the Martyrdom of Frances Fox Piven

Last week, I was enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee while perusing my local New Jersey newspapers online. That moment of serenity promptly evaporated when I was jolted by a headline that read, “Stop the Vitriol of the Right? A Lesson From the ACORN Tragedy.”

What? This wasn’t the Huffington Post or Media Matters, it was my local NJ online news site. After reading it, I initially dismissed the post, shrugging it off as an asinine tirade by the author, John Atlas, who also lives here in NJ and is a very active supporter of ACORN and hostile to any views that aren’t on the far left. While I almost expected the lecture about promoting civility in the wake of the Tucson tragedy, it was the ugliness of his rant against the right and the stretch he made to connect it all to ACORN that befuddled me. Nearly a week later, that post was still on my mind.

Then came the left’s latest meme against free speech, and this bizarre charade of hoisting Frances Fox Piven as their newest martyr. Ah, now it made sense.

Read the rest

More ACORN Nuts Fall

The voter fraud hall of shame:
Milwaukee voter fraud conviction makes ACORN’s 2010 total at least 15

Yet another former ACORN employee was convicted of voter fraud last week. This brings the total number of convictions for former workers from the embattled group to at least 15 so far this year.

Kevin L. Clancy of Milwaukee pleaded guilty last week to participating “in a scheme to submit fraudulent voter registration applications,” according to Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. Clancy admitted to filing multiple voter registration applications for the same individuals and registering himself and other voter registration canvassers to vote multiple times while working on an ACORN voter drive.

Clancy received a 10-month prison term for his crime. Clancy’s sentence will begin when he completes another sentence he is currently serving for armed robbery.
“The integrity of elections is dependent upon citizens and officials insisting they be conducted lawfully,” Van Hollen said. “Wisconsin’s citizens should not have to wonder whether their vote has been negated or diminished by illegally cast ballots.”

So far 2010 has been a banner year for ACORN voter fraud prosecutions.
In Milwaukee, former ACORN worker Maria L. Miles, who worked with Clancy, pleaded guilty to “falsely procuring voter registration.” She will be sentenced next month.

Also in Milwaukee, Frank Edmund Walton was convicted of “falsely procuring voter registration.” According to Van Hollen, Walton solicited voter registrations while working for a group called the Community Voter Project. Court documents indicate that after committing the crime he became an ACORN employee. Walton will be sentenced in December.

In Washington state, ex-ACORN canvasser Kendra Lynn Thill was convicted of voter registration fraud and given a 12-month deferred sentence.

In Miami, Florida, former ACORN voter registration canvassers Maurice Childress, Kashawn John, Liltovia Rhodes, Carlos Torres, Evangeline Williams, Lilkevia Williams, and Richard Williams, were all convicted of “false swearing in an election.”

All were sentenced to probation, community service, and forbidden to participate in political campaigns, according to the office of Katherine Fernandez Rundle, State Attorney for Miami-Dade County. In addition, Childress and Richard Williams were ordered to serve 72 days and 125 days in jail, respectively.

Arrest warrants were issued for three other former ACORN canvassers in the Miami area who are apparently still at large.

In Pennsylvania, former ACORN workers Alexis Givner, Mario Grisom, and Eric L. Jones, were convicted of voter registration fraud-related offenses. All three were sentenced to two years probation.

ACORN, the nonprofit shell corporation that runs the ACORN network, is still facing criminal prosecution in Nevada. Although ACORN filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Election Day to escape its debts, prosecutor Conrad Hafen, who is Nevada’s chief deputy state attorney general, previously said neither bankruptcy nor dissolution would “necessarily protect (ACORN) from prosecution” in Nevada.

The trial of ACORN for conspiracy to commit felony voter registration fraud was scheduled to begin Nov. 29, but ACORN lawyer Lisa Rasmussen had a scheduling conflict and the proceeding has been postponed. The trial will likely proceed in 2011. Hafen won’t be heading the prosecution’s team because he was recently elected a justice of the peace.

Read more

ACORN Is Like A Zombie

ACORN’s ‘Texas for Obama’ Labor Ally Could Provide Cover to Rebuild Discredited Organization
by Kevin Mooney

Political operatives connected with renamed ACORN affiliates are in position to help swing close, competitive races for left-leaning candidates in the 2012 elections, according to former insiders and policy analysts who are familiar with the network’s operations.

An ambitious rebranding scheme that began earlier this year has now accelerated to include affiliates in at least 12 states. The bankruptcy filing the organization slyly submitted on Election Day is properly viewed as “a head fake” and a “public relations gimmick” arranged to distract attention away from the partisan political activities of renamed affiliates, sources say.

It is worth recalling that the organization known in full as the Association of Community Activists for Reform Now had initially denied reports that it would be dropping its tarnished name in press statements released in the summer of 2009.

Wade Rathke, who founded ACORN in 1970, had announced on his blog that ACORN International, one of many affiliate organizations, had officially changed its name to “Community Organizations International.” Former board members who came together under the banner of ACORN 8 in response to an embezzlement scandal saw the move as a possible opener to a larger rebranding effort.

Scott Levenson, a spokesman for organization’s national leadership, issued a statement claiming that the name has not been dropped and that Rathke is no longer connected with ACORN.

“ACORN is not changing its name,” he declared. “ACORN International, is a five-year old organization from which ACORN withdrew a year ago as part of an overall restructuring process and requested that they stop using the ACORN name, which they have now done. Wade Rathke was fired as Chief Organizer of ACORN in June 2008.”

Awww..Thats Soooooo Sad!!!!

ACORN files for chapter 7 bankruptcy — and blames (or credits?) ‘right-wing media’ for downfall

BAAAAWWAWAWAWAWAW!!!!!!!

Basically, Chapter 7 is telling the people you owe money, "screw you, I ain't paying and you can't make me."

Typical socialist liberal.

IT'S NOT MY FAULT!!!!

Dig this, Kiddies:

In his book, “Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America’s Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group,” published months ago by Vanderbilt University Press, ACORN historian John Atlas said ACORN plans to resurface under a new name after the 2010 elections.

One new institution tentatively called the Community Action Support Center will be created “to provide a range of training, technical assistance, and oversight services to the new community organizations.” ACORN’s Brian Kettenring will be interim executive director. Lewis plans to create a Black Leadership Institute. ACORN executive director Steve Kest, who recently joined Van Jones as a “senior fellow” at the left-wing Center for American Progress, quit ACORN “but will work with the new community groups in a consulting and voluntary capacity.”

Read more:

Andrew Briebart On Searchlight Rally

The bus was egged as they arrived in Searchlight and SEIU goons were positioned with signs directing rally attendees in the wrong direction.

Remember who you are dealing with as we move into the summer election season. They will stoop to any action to make you look bad or transfer blame. Everyine should have a video camera with good sound capabilities.

Morning Must Reads from DCExaminer

Washington Post -- Senate's deliberate pace frustrates the House
President Obama will today sign into law the most sweeping expansion of the American welfare system since the New Deal. More than 30 million Americans are getting health insurance, whether they like it or not.
The administration doesn’t usually shy away from melodrama at big moments, so expect a collection of the very sick and the very old plus some more of that weird civil rights theme from Sunday.
I’d invite presidents Clinton and Carter, and relatives of Johnson and Truman too.
While the fruited plains are being harvested at the White House, though, the Senate will be figuring out how to finish the last leg of the Tour de Obamacare.
Senate leaders promise action this week on passing a package of changes to the bill already approved by the House. But the House bill adds substantially to the costs – covered by a mix of big taxes and big deficits – and eliminates the carve outs and sweeteners that were added to get the original measure through the Senate.
Majority leader Harry Reid is using budget reconciliation to push through the House bill and can therefore afford to lose eight members of his 59-member caucus (seats on that lifeboat will be more precious than 1,000 AFSCME fundraisers).

But there are two problems:
1. Reconciliation rules say you can’t fiddle with Social Security and the House bill diverts $23 billion in taxes from bankrupt old Social Security to Obamacare.
2. Republicans are allowed to introduce a theoretically limitless number of amendments and parliamentary challenges, a situation that has to be handled with public relations pressure not Senate rules.

After a bunch of partisan hackery and shady tactics that would make Tom DeLay blush, Democrats will have problem talking about the need for bipartisan cooperation. And surely Democrats don’t want to have the Vice President overrule the Senate parliamentarian for the first time in history to advance legislation that already has the scent of the smoke-filled room about it.

But that doesn’t matter in the House and to liberals everywhere. They’re pumped up about joining the ranks of LBJ and FDR. (Or is it MLK and the ERA? I can’t keep it straight anymore.)
Writer Perry Bacon explains that flush with victory, the House will be keeping the pressure on the Senate to act quickly on Obamacare and a passel of other liberal wishes.

“In that chamber rests the fate of not only the health-care changes that House lawmakers desperately want but also other major bills they have approved over the past year: legislation to combat climate change, a reform of the way financial firms are regulated, and provisions to combat youth unemployment that have been championed by the Congressional Black Caucus. The climate-change bill passed the House in June, the latter two measures in December.”

Wall Street Journal -- Strict Abortion Rules Mean Fewer Insurers May Offer Coverage
Writer Laura Meckler tells us of a strange paradox of Obamacare – while anti-abortion groups are outraged over the loopholes for federal funding of elective abortions allowed by Rep. Bart Stupak’s last-minute cave-in, elective abortions will actually be harder to get.
This is how Stupak and President Obama have managed to make both sides of the most divisive issue in American politics bitterly unhappy.
Anti-abortion folks are mostly absolutists – one is too many and a dime of tax money going to the procedure is an abomination (Witness Rep. Randy Neugebauer’s “baby killer” outburst). Pro-abortion folks are mostly interested in volume – they want maximal access to the procedure for the greatest number of women and any diminution or stigmatization is anathema (Witness the drive for full federal funding of the procedure for poor women).
While most Americans oppose the practice but are squeamish about eliminating access to women in dire circumstances – pro-life but not stringently anti-abortion – the argument that some tax dollars may go to the procedure but that insurance companies will stop covering it will be unsatisfying.
Plus, at a cost of about $400, it’s unlikely that new rules will actually reduce the number of elective abortions (1.2 million in 2005).
“It's not known how many Americans with private insurance have abortion coverage. One survey by Guttmacher, whose data is respected by both sides, found that 87% of typical employer-based policies covered the procedure. Another survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research group with no position on abortion, found that 46% of workers had the coverage.
A separate survey by Guttmacher found that just 13% of abortions were paid for by private insurance. That's partly because many women seeking abortion were uninsured or have Medicaid, which in most states does not cover abortion.”

Clive Crook -- A Tainted Victory
Writing in The Atlantic, Crook makes the case for Obamacare and against the means of its passage. He warns Democrats not to let the thrill of defying public opinion become a habit.
Taking a Tory’s perspective, Cook says the bill is hardly the kind of socialism that will destroy a nation overnight. Take heart – it will take decades for the American colossus to slouch under the weight of more unaffordable entitlements.
But his understanding of the way American politics works is right on point:
“I am used to explaining to foreigners that the US political system is, by design, exquisitely sensitive to public opinion, with its lower house up for election every two years. American governments cannot ignore their people, as Europe's governments can and frequently do, I used to argue. And I would cite my favorite example. Germany's government abolished its currency and forced the euro on a country that was opposed to monetary union throughout, saying, "You are wrong. We know better. We will do this regardless, and you will come to like it." Can you imagine such a thing happening in the US, I used to ask? Could anything be more un-American? The usual response would be laughter.
Who's laughing now? And one wonders, is this trampling down of public opinion going to be habit-forming? Recall Pelosi's recent comment that once the Democrats have "kicked through this door", they can move on to the rest of their (equally unpopular) agenda.”

Wall Street Journal -- Financial Overhaul Advances
The White House strategy is to move as much legislation through Congress while Democrats are back in a mood for magical thinking and the electorate is still gobsmacked.
The Senate won’t likely budge on issues like new global warming fees or, even more improbably, amnesty for illegal immigrants. But there is a chance that Democrats will unite behind a bill that makes American borrowers the wards of a new regulatory panel and that codifies the concept of being too big to fail.
And even if they can’t pass the bill, they could force Republicans to cast votes against “financial reform.” Expect the House to move similar legislation from Rep. Barney Frank soon too.
Damian Paletta explains:
“Business groups are also weighing in, though their influence with Democratic lawmakers and the White House remains strained. Many banks and business leaders have pressed lawmakers to continue negotiating, complaining that the uncertainty about what is going to happen is putting a strain on the economy.
"I think there's going to be some smart people involved that understand if you screw up the financial system, everybody else follows," U.S. Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Thomas Donohue said.”

New York Times -- Acorn to Shut All Its Offices by April 1
Is this the end of the golden age of the community organizer?
ACORN went from hustling social spending in exchange for votes in big cities to a national profile in 2008 and helped get Barack Obama, a former lawyer for the group and a former community organizer himself, elected president. With Democrats in power, ACORN looked to expand its patronage to a national level.
But it’s a long way from Brooklyn, N.Y. to Brooklyn Park, Minn. What had promised to be an era of triumph for ACORN was punctured by a filmmaker in a pimp hat.
It was overreach, miserable finances, and internal corruption that sank ACORN. O’Keefe just sped the demise before another election cycle – with paid voter drives, etc., -- could prop up the group.
Local organizations will persevere, but the idea of a franchised organization to swap votes for free stuff – sort of a McPolitical Machine – took a hit.
Writer Ian Urbina explains:
“In reaction to the videos, the Census Bureau ended its partnership with the organization for this year’s census, the Internal Revenue Service dropped the group from its Voluntary Income Tax Assistance program, and Congress voted to cut off all grants to the organization.”

Musings From the DCExaminer

Byron York - How Obamacare hits industry and threatens jobs
The people at Zoll Medical Corporation saw a ray of hope in January when Scott Brown was elected senator from Massachusetts. Located in Chelmsford, 30 miles outside Boston, Zoll is the nation's leading manufacturer of heart defibrillators, which save thousands of heart attack victims each year.

Back in January, as the Senate race was raging, both House and Senate Democrats wanted to impose a crippling new tax on the makers of medical devices, Zoll included, to help pay for Obamacare. The total tax on the industry would be about $2 billion a year, or $20 billion over the next decade.

Susan Ferrechio - Ten inconvenient questions about Obamacare
President Obama is promising a massive campaign to sell the health care plan just approved by Congress -- starting with his signature on the Senate version of the legislation on Tuesday. The sales pitch begins even as the Senate considers a raft of modifications to the plan already approved by the House.

But as the president makes his pitch, critics will be looking to knock down many of the central claims he and other Democratic leaders have made. Here are 10 inconvenient truths that could dog the president:

Mark Hemingway - ACORN shutting down April 1st
On the verge of bankruptcy, with 15 of its 30 state offices closed, ACORN is officially shutting down:
but read this after you finish here.

OMB Issues ACORN-related Memo
OMB spokesman Ken Baer tells Fox that agency Director Peter Orszag sent a memo on March 16, see below, instructing agencies of a ruling from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York barring enforcement of a congressional ban on ACORN funding as called for in the 2010 Continuing Resolution.
The Orszag memo informs agencies of the District Court's declaratory judgment and permanent injunction on the ban on funding for ACORN and that OMB must rescind its earlier order/memo blocking ACORN funding.

Sara Carter - Pakistani commander warns against negotiations with Taliban
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — American military and political leaders have said they are willing to join the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai in negotiations with the Taliban. That makes some top military commanders in Pakistan, locked in their own bitter conflict with the Taliban, very anxious.

Julie Mason - After a costly win, Obama pushes for Dem unity
The tone from the White House was quietly triumphal following Democrats' upset win on health care, but the prospects for riding that success to greater future political gains is far from certain.

Community Organizers Can Be Dangerous

They will not concede easily. If it ain't close, they can't cheat.

Easily Hacked Voting Systems to be Used in MA Special Election for the U.S. Senate

BOSTON, MA - Next Tuesday's Special Election for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts looks to be coming down to the wire. Surprising pundits in what had previously been thought to be a cakewalk for State Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate hoping to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, Republican state Senator Scott Brown has come on strong in the final days of the campaign.

But as the election looms, tempers flare, money is poured into the contest from all sides, and Democrats sweat out what should have been a safe seat for them - a Democrat named Kennedy has held that particular seat for more than the last 50 years - questions about whether the election results can be trusted have already emerged in a race where the stakes couldn't be higher.

As the 60th "filibuster-proof" Democratic U.S. Senate seat hangs in the balance - and the party's healthcare reform bill and other key legislative hopes along with it - fears are mounting that the final vote tallies could be as questionable as they were in the recent NY-23 Special Election for the U.S. House. Perhaps even more so.

The electronic voting systems used in Massachusetts are notoriously plagued with problems and vulnerabilities, and are in violation of federal voting system standards. Moreover, they are sold, programmed, and maintained by a company with a disturbing criminal background.

Donald Lambro On the Mid-term Elections

Congressional openings
Democratic retirements in troubled economy

The column notes that democrats aren't in panic mode yet. I beg to differ. I think their collective panties are in a very tight wad, and they will do anything to maintain the staus-quo. Just remember the axiom, "If it ain't close, they can't cheat."

It is difficult to remember when the American people have expressed such a deep level of disdain for Congress as they do now under the leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll finds a pathetic 7 percent of Americans give Congress an above average job approval score. Worse, 34 percent now call this Congress one of the worst.

The survey numbers are especially bleak among incumbents. Only 38 percent say their representative should be re-elected, and 49 percent say it's time to give a new person a chance - the same percentage who said that before Republicans took control of the House in 1994.

No one is saying that retirements alone endanger the Democrats' 258-seat majority. Independent election analysts I've talked to say the number would have to climb a lot higher before than can happen.

"Democrats aren't at the panic point in this process. Keep in mind that Democrats lost 22 open seats in 1994. Right now, they only have seven potentially open vulnerable seats, including the four recent retirements," said David Wasserman, senior House elections analyst at the Cook Political Report, which closely tracks congressional races.

If This Doesn't Chill Your Blood, You're Not Breathing

Democrats trying to criminalize citizen journalism

By: Mark Hemingway
Commentary Staff Writer
12/03/09 5:10 PM EST

An amendment to a bill currently being considered by the Senate would deny ordinary citizens doing vital investigations in the public interest the same legal protections as professional journalists. If it were to become law, the change could significantly stifle important citizen journalism efforts similar to the recent ACORN expose.

The Senate is currently considering a new press shield law sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa. The bill would "maintain the free flow of information to the public by providing conditions for the federally compelled disclosure of information by certain persons connected with the news media." Except that Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Cal., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., want to ensure that any new journalistic protections would only apply to professional journalists and not regular citizens. An amendment filed by Durbin and Feinstein would modify the legislation to define journalists thusly:

Read the rest after the jump

An Appeal From Doug Hoffman

Sometimes justice requires some help. I have no doubt ACORN and SEIU were involved in any voting irregularities. If sending this man 5 bucks will help offset whatever damage those useful idiots have done, its cheap at twice the price and money well spent.

As evidence surfaces, we find out that reported results from election night were far from accurate. ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens.

I was forced to concede after receiving two pieces of grim news - - down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night - and barely won my stronghold in Oswego County.

On Election Night, the information we received was far different from what we received this week!

Rest assured, they will not succeed, and I am therefore revoking my statement of concession.

That is why I am writing you today. Recent developments leave me to wonder who is scheming behind closed doors, twisting arms and stealing elections from the voters of NY-23.

I'm sure you are as dismayed as I am to learn of the mischief that took place in
Oswego and neighboring counties. We know this would not be the first time for the ACORN faithful to tamper with democracy.

Now it's time to actually count every legal ballot and I need your help to ensure the people of NY-23 get the Congressman THEY ELECTED.

Please donate now to help me ensure every vote is counted!
A recanvassing in the 11-county district shows Owens' lead has narrowed to 3,026. In Oswego County, I was reported to lead by only 500 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election night, but inspectors found I actually won by 1,748 votes

Let’s force them keep this recanvassing active! Let’s give this election a chance to end differently!

Oswego County elections officials blame the mistakes on "chaos" in their call-in center that included a phone system foul-up, and on inspectors who read numbers
incorrectly when phoning in results. This sounds like a tactic right from the ACORN playbook.

The district's second biggest voter turnout was in Jefferson County, where I had also benefited from a turnaround since election night, gaining another 700 votes. Owens led by 300 votes on the final election night tally, but after recanvassing, I'm now leading by 424 votes.

Jerry Eaton, the Republican elections commissioner for Jefferson County, said
inspectors found a problem in four districts where my vote total was mistakenly entered as zero.

The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which the state Board of Elections distributed about 10,200.

The people of NY-23 deserve to have their ballots counted properly, but we can't let ACORN or the unions keep that from happening. They have more lawyers and more experience tampering with democracy.

State Board of Elections Communications Director John Conklin said the state sent a letter to the House Clerk last week explaining that no winner had been determined in the 23rd District.

Now it's time to actually count every legal ballot and I need your help to ensure the people of NY-23 get the Congressman THEY ELECTED.

We need to make sure that fair elections are a reality in NY-23, just like our Founding Fathers envisioned.

So long as we remain the "land of the free," we MUST ensure every vote is counted. Help us today so we may be the first of many conservative victories during the Obama Regime.

Grassoots In New York 23

When the daily kossack and an ACORN group endorses the same candidate as the Republican "leadership" you know there's a problem.

New York race exposes the big tent GOP myth UPDATED!
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
October 28, 2009

Conservatives owe Dede Scozzafava a big thank you because her candidacy in New York's special congressional election has exposed the utter bankruptcy of the "Big Tent" school of faux Republicanism.

Scozzafava has been a New York Assemblywoman since 1998 and is now running for New York's 23rd congressional district seat vacated earlier this year by incumbent Rep. John McHugh's acceptance of President Obama's appointment as Secretary of the Army.

'She is opposed by Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Party of New York nominee Doug Hoffman. Surveys show the race is tightening, with Owens and Hoffman battling for the lead and Scozzafava fading in third place.

Scozzafava was selected by local GOP leaders to succeed McHugh. She is also heavily backed by the Washington GOP establishment, led by the National Republican Congressional Committee's chairman, Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, and Michael Steel's Republican National Committee. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich also backs Scozzafava.

Hoffman accepted the Conservative Party nomination after being rejected by the local GOP poo-bahs. A successful accountant and entrepreneur, he is backed nationally by a rebellious coalition of insurgent conservative activist groups led by the Club for Growth.

He's also picked up high profile endorsements from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, former senators Fred Thompson and Rick Santorum, and former NRCC chairman Rep. Tom Cole, R-OK. Hoffman is a Reagan conservative who favors limited government, lower taxes, less regulation, and a strong national defense. He's the classic citizen-politician, having never previously sought public office and wouldn't be now except for his worry about the country's direction under Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Scozzafava epitomizes the Republican-In-Name-Only (RINO) phenomena. She supports abortion on demand and special rights based on sexual preference. She's voted repeatedly in the New York legislature for higher taxes and more government spending. Even ACORN's Working Families Party has endorsed her, as has far-left blogger Marcos Moulitsas of Daily Kos.

The campaign' pivotal moment came last Sunday evening when Scozzafava's campaign manager - her husband, a local labor leader - called the cops on reporter John McCormack of The Weekly Standard after he persisted in questioning her about her views. The next morning, her press flak accused McCormack of screaming at Scozzafava, then changed his story when the reporter played a tape recording of the encounter for AP.

Washington Establishment GOPers claim Scozzafava is the best the party can do in a moderately liberal Northeast district like NY-23, and at least she will caucus with Republicans in Congress. But if that's the case, why is she running third? And what difference would it make if she votes against Pelosi for Speaker but then votes for everything Pelosi favors?

Therein lies the fallacy of the Big Tent: When feckless GOPers embrace RINOs such as Scozzafava, the only winners are liberal Democrats like Pelosi who can then claim "bipartisan" support for higher taxes, more regulation, bigger government and less individual freedom. Conservatives like Hoffman end up isolated and shivering in the cold outside the so-called Big Tent, unfairly branded as party poopers.

Hoffman may well win next Tuesday, but even if he finishes second, ahead of Scozzafava, it will advance the cause of genuinely competitive politics by sending a powerful message to Steel, Sessions and the rest of the Washington GOP Establishment that their Democrat-Lite game is a loser.

Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and proprietor of Tapscott's Copy Desk blog on Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and proprietor of Tapscott's Copy Desk blog on washingtonexaminer.com.

UPDATE: Riehl-world View has NRCC scoop Dan Riehl lays out a sequence of events and characters in which Washington GOP Establishment-types do what they so often do - undermine the party's chances of a principled pickup and make money for insiders in the process.

UPDATE II: And here is the bitter fruit of RINOism

For the first time since Barack Obama was sworn in as president, a majority of the respondents in the Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey say the country is on the wrong track. But gues what? The GOP, which as the out party traditionally would be expected to see increasing support, is instead in continuing decline:

"But a dark national view of how everybody in Washington is conducting the public's business appears to be preventing Republicans from benefitting from concerns about the direction of the country, or the Democrat-led government's handling of the economy," the Journal said.

"In fact, disapproval of the Republican Party actually has ticked upward, along with the public's general pessimism. Asked which political party should control Congress after next year's midterm elections, Democrats now hold a clear edge over the GOP, 46 percent to 38 percent, a month after the Republicans were nearly as popular. In September, the Democratic edge was 43 percent of 40 percent."

This is yet more evidence for why I say the single most important qualification for congressional candidates in 2010 may well be having absolutely no connection to the existing power structures in the nation's capital. It may also help explain why Doug Hoffman has done so well in the NY-23 special election campaign to date.

Scozzafava, ACORN and Doug Hoffman

Congressman Cantor, its not too late to step up and let Virginia know you stand for true conservative principles. Get behind Doug Hoffman. You're going to need every conservative you can get in the House to stop this headlong rush into socialism.

H/T Michelle Malkin:

The NYPost editorial board endorses conservative Doug Hoffman for Congress:

No, Republicans needn’t toe the conservative line without any deviation.

Moderate GOPers like Rudy Giuliani have managed to stray on some issues without wholly betraying their party.

But a Republican should adhere to certain minimum GOP principles. Scozzafava is just too far to the left too often.

And not only on social matters, like same-sex marriage and abortion. In Albany, Scozzafava has been such a profligate tax-and-spender, she can almost make Speaker Sheldon Silver blush.

With the backing of the ACORN-allied Working Families Party, she supports Big Labor’s favorite organizing bill — card-check — as well as the federal stimulus, opposed by every House Republican.

Hoffman, by contrast, understands the dangers of unchecked spending, monster deficits and ever-higher taxes — i.e., concerns of average working Americans.

ACORN Group Skirts Election Laws

The Working Families Party, an ACORN front group whose ballot line Newt Gingrich-endorsed radical leftist Dede Scozzafava has embraced on multiple occasions, is up to no good again.

The NYPost reports:
The labor-backed Working Families Party has engaged in “an audacious scheme to violate the law” to help the party’s favored political candidates get elected, a sweeping new lawsuit charges.

The first-of-its-kind suit says the WFP created a political outfit, Data and Field Services, that it is using to “circumvent state election and local campaign finance laws.”

The way the scheme works, according the suit, is that the WFP gets involved in local races, backing its favored candidates, who in turn hire DFS for vital campaign services, such as phone banking, polling and get-out-the-vote efforts.

But under the plan, the WFP-endorsed candidates pay only “a nominal sum, well below fair market value,” for those services — giving those candidates a major, unfair advantage over their opponents, whose spending is limited by law.

“This is a case about an audacious scheme to violate the law by using corporate subterfuge to hijack our local election process,” says the suit, which was filed in Staten Island.

“It goes to the very heart of our local democracy and undermines the fairness and integrity of our local elections.”

The suit, filed on behalf of five aggrieved Staten Island voters, highlights the relationship between the City Council campaign of Debi Rose, a WFP-backed candidate, and DFS.

The court papers provide a case study for how the WFP, which has been increasing its influence, operates.

With friends like these…

Does this happen to 60 Minutes?

The Maryland State Attorney, Douglas Gansler (D) is considering prosecuting the brave investigators that overturned the rock under which ACORN hid.

I'm sure that Democratic politics have nothing to do with this. I mean, they'd prosecute 60 Minutes, too, wouldn't they?

The best news? ACORN has been kicked off of the Census Gathering Team.

h/t Pat Dollard