In New York's 23rd district, the Republican machine has put up a pro-abortion, pro-tax, ACORN supported liberal candidate to replace an outgoing Republican congressman in a special election. Yes, you read that right... she's the Republican candidate. Last week she was so ruffled by a reporter from the Weekly Standard who was asking her policy questions at a campaign event, that she called the police on him. A republican congressional candidate sicking the cops on the Weekly Standard is the philosophical equivalent of a Democrat sending their union thugs down to the Washington Post editorial board to break a few legs. It's beyond parody.
Fortunately, the NY Republican machine has long been a useless and inept group, so it looks very much like they're going to fail. Major conservative and Republican supporters have abandoned her, and are throwing their support toward Doug Hoffman, the only real conservative in the race who is running as an independent. The result may very well be a Democrat win in what has historically been a safe Republican district. But what the major media won't tell you is that it isn't the fault of the voters, or of Doug Hoffman but of the Republican machine. If it's a seat that's lost, it won't be because it was taken from the Republicans, but given away by them.
The only smart move left to them would be to have the Republican candidate drop out of the race and to let Hoffman replace her. In NJ we call this "Pulling a Torch"; So named after Bob "The Torch" Toricelli, who was replaced in his Senate run just days before the election by Frank Lautenberg, to prevent the loss of the seat because of Toricelli's corruption allegations.
And although it isn't quite as overstated and obvious as what's going on in NY23, we in NJ have a similar problem in the governor's race. Governor Jon Corzine is as popular in the state as swine flu. But rather than giving NJ conservatives someone they could vote for enthusiastically, the Republican machine has instead offered up Chris Christy,... yet another in a long line of 'tow the line' Republicans, who know what side the bread is buttered on in Trenton.
He's criticized here by the WSJ, for not running a particularly effective campaign, but I think the bigger concern is that he's not a particularly compelling candidate. In the end he'll do what all the Republicans in NJ do. Instead of taking campaign money from the unions, he'll take it from the Real estate developers, and 4 years from now he'll be trying to explain why it was impossible for him to do the things he wanted to do. In New Jersey that's as good as it gets.
In both cases we have a Republican system that is ignoring the current political environment. The issues that concern tea party and town hall attendees are being completely ignored. The reason that's so is because the Republican machine makes it's way in the world the same way the Democrat machine does... with the slow and steady increase of government authority over the individual citizen. They haven't signed on to the idea that smaller government is the answer. They remain a party devoted to big government, making both NY and NJ effective one party states.
This can't be changed at the ballot box or by starting a third party. The problem isn't the people in office but the people put up to replace them. And since that process is thoroughly undemocratic, we need to use undemocratic measures to do something about it. It's a corrupt process, and I find all of the people who are deeply involved in it thoroughly reprehensible. I don't want to spend a minute more with them than I have to, but I think we all have to. It's either that or remain their serfs.
So on election day I'm going to hold my nose again (same as I always do) and vote for Christy. Then I'm going to go down to my local Republican party headquarters, find the party boss, and punch him squarely in the nose.
(I'm speaking rhetorically of course... I don't intend any actual violence. The reporter from the Weekly Standard had the cops sicked on him for asking questions so it's probably to much to ask the folks in New Jersey to recognize a metaphor.)
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