This is cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!
Michael Illions was one of many bloggers today across the right-wing spectrum to call for Dede Scozzafava to withdraw from the NY District 23 House race. The movement to call for Scozzafava’s withdrawal, though, started brewing earlier this week. Here’s a little background.
Over at NRO, Jim Geraghty did a piece on the NY-23 House race on Monday in the Campaign Spot. In that piece, Geraghty contended that conservatives ought not fault the NRCC and RNC for supporting a Republican chosen by the local party.
This is not a defense of Scozzafava. I’m just saying it’s a contradiction if a conservative denounces the National Republican Senatorial Committee, when it backs Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio and Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey (yeah, that one went well), for not letting Republican grassroots have their say, and then denounces the NRCC and RNC when they try to help Scozzafava win. In this case, the NRCC and RNC are backing the choice of the local party, after the choice has been finalized. It may be a lousy choice, but you rarely if ever see national parties overruling the selection of local parties; once you open that door, you face the question of how often these national committees get to exercise a veto over the local parties’ selection.
Two days later, though, Geraghty changed his tune after Scozzafava had a run-in with Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack. Geraghty explains:
Earlier this week, I was noting that it was unrealistic for conservatives to expect national Republican committees, like the RNC and National Republican Congressional Committee, to do anything but back the Republican in New York’s special congressional election.
But the situation has changed.
It’s not just the inanity of Dede Scozzafava’s campaign calling the cops on a reporter; it’s doubling down and calling McCormack a liar. With audiotape now exposing the Scozzafava campaign as the liar in their account of the candidate’s interaction with John McCormack, it’s a different ballgame. I’m actually finding myself driven to a position beyond the editors.
It’s time for the NRCC and RNC to cut their ties, and more. It’s embarrassing enough when a candidate won’t answer reasonable questions from reasonable press and her campaign attempts to smear them in order to cover up their mess. Forwarding McCormack’s e-mails to Talking Points Memo just shows how upside-down the Scozzafava campaign is.
The time has come for the RNC and NRCC to ask for their money back. This goes well beyond any reasonable difference on policy. There’s room in the party for pro-choice Republicans and pro-gay-marriage Republicans and maybe even the odd pro-card-check Republican. But not this kind of arrogance, this kind of clumsy dishonesty, this kind of reckless hostility to a reporter and a publication that need not be an enemy.
The RNC and NRCC are better than the Scozzafava campaign. It’s time for them to demonstrate that they know how a candidate and her staff are supposed to react when asked a question, and to show that Scozzafava’s team’s behavior is just not acceptable.
Well, this represented the last straw for many in the right-wing blogosphere, prompting several sites this morning, starting with Red County, Red State and the American Spectator (Quinn Hilyer), to call for Scozzafava to withdraw. Red County, in particular, led the way on this starting with a post this morning from Joshua Sharf. A flurry of posts followed on Red County including here, here, here and here.
Red State and the American Spectator were also among the first to call for Scozzafava’s withdrawal. From there, the calls for withdrawal spread quickly. As Michael mentioned, all of the following outlets also joined the bandwagon: RightWingNews.com. Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com. The Washington Examiner. The Washington Times. Michelle Malkin also got on board.
All of this goes to show just how powerful this medium called blogging has become; and how bloggers, when working in concert, can affect change. In the past, a candidate like Scozzafava would have flown well under the radar. Her views not known to the rest of us until well after the horse was out of the barn. Now, we have the power to fight back when our party puts forth wholly unworthy candidates who do not uphold any of the core values the party stands for.
One can only hope that Mrs. Scozzafava now does the right thing and steps aside. In fact, that would be the only way to show any last bit of true allegiance to the party whose banner she now is running under.
Great news today for conservatives. Dede Scozzafava is suspending her campaign.
