As the Old Professor observed long ago, “They say it can’t be done, but sometimes it isn’t always true.”

Casey Stengel was talking about overcoming the odds in baseball, but like many of his baseball lessons (“Good pitching beats good hitting — and vice versa”) this one encompasses wisdom of wider application. For one of the things “they,” the custodians of conventional wisdom, often say you can’t do is win with a third party candidate. You are, they will tell you, wasting your vote, not to mention your time, effort and money, by backing a candidate who is trying to buck the revered two-party structure of politics in America. All you will accomplish, they will tell you, is the siphoning off of some small minority of the vote from the lesser evil, resulting in an increased likelihood that the greater evil will triumph. Better to swallow hard, hold your nose if you must, leave your conscience outside the voting booth and vote, when necessary, for Abomination Lite.

Apparently those hardheaded idealists in the New York Conservative Party never learned the conventional wisdom. In a special election for U.S. Representative in District 23, voters in that northern New York region were offered a choice between Attorney Bill Owens, a Democrat who favors nationalized health care, abortion “rights” and civil unions for same-sex couples, and state Assemblyman Dede Scozzafava, a Republican who favors nationalized health care, abortion “rights,” and marriage for same-sex couples. And while Owens supports repeal of the Bush tax cuts “for the wealthy” Scozzafava is also, as The New York Times has described her, “considered too liberal on various economic issues” by much of the GOP’s conservative base. The Conservative Party, which often endorses Republican candidates, this time nominated Doug Hoffman, who immediately began attracting significant conservative support both within the state and nationally in the only congressional election being held this year. The special election is to fill the vacancy created when President Obama picked Republican Rep. John McHugh to be Secretary of the Army.

But rather than merely playing the spoiler, Hoffman succeeded in defeating Scozzafava three days before the election. The Republican nominee dropped out of the race on Saturday and on Sunday announced her endorsement of Democrat Owens, “an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for the people for New York.” Scozzafava’s discovery of her opponent’s virtues and her fondness for independence came after she found herself trailing in the polls, despite support from national organizations as disparate as the National Abortion and Reproduction Rights Action League and the National Rifle Association. She was also endorsed by ACORN’S Working Families Party, the left-wing blog, DailyKos and the New York State Union of Teachers. 

All of that was too much for many conservative Republicans to swallow. So while the party establishment, both state and national, backed Scozzafava, a few Republican luminaries broke ranks and endorsed Hoffman. Former Alaska Governor and 2008 Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who prides herself on being a maverick, announced her support for the Conservative Party candidate, as did former Texas Congressman and House Majority Leader Dick Armey and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson. But the Republican National Committee and Chairman Michael Steele backed Scozzafava, as did former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, who, like Palin, is considered a potential candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2012. Minnesota’s Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, another likely presidential contender, cast his support to Hoffman. That did not please Mr. Gingrich, ostensibly the most powerful leader of the party during his glory days as Speaker in the 1990’s.      

“I think we are going to get into a very difficult environment around the country if suddenly conservative leaders decide they are going to anoint people without regard to local primaries and local choices,” Gingrich said. Steele, meanwhile, was flexible enough to see a double advantage to the party candidate’s surrender less than 72 hours before the polls open on Tuesday morning. The party chairman simultaneously praised both Scozzafava’s “selfless act of releasing her supporters” and the opportunity it provided to “unite around a candidate who shares Republican principles and will serve the interests of his constituents in Congress by standing in opposition to the liberal policies of President Obama and Speaker Pelosi.”

Does that mean Republican voters in District 23 did not have in nominal Republican Scozzafava a candidate who “who shares Republican principles” and would oppose “the liberal policies of President Obama and Speaker Pelosi”? Apparently not. But we’re not apt to hear that much plain-spoken candor from the party chairman.

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RP said:

	... The ONLY truly wasted votes are the votes never cast and the votes which violate the voter's conscience. By voting the "lesser evil", what are you going to get? EVIL!! When voting the "lesser evil", you have to ask yourself, "Am I willing to bear culpability for the harm done when this "lesser evil" wins?"
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November 02, 2009
Votes: +5

Still Free said:

What are "they" cooking up now? Finally, some encouraging news. But the battle has only just begun. With the upcoming elections I hope someone somewhere who is both honest and impartial will be watching the polls and counting the returns. And I do not mean Jimmy Carter. Anyone else bothered by the just-released list of "guests" to visit the White House? Why would George Soros, Jeremiah Wright and a Black Panther be hobnobbing with POTUS? Anyone have some insight on this? Sorry to be negative, but I fail to see how the visits of these people could be a good thing. And Gadaffy just visited recently, staying in New York, wasn't it? Inquiring minds want to know.

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November 02, 2009
Votes: +3

Larry Brown said:

	... Were I in the 23rd NY district, I would never vote for the evil of two lessors.
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November 03, 2009 | url
Votes: +3

Pat Henry said:

Land of the Free requires Home of the Brave Is it possible that the prayers of the Reformation Prayer Network and others are opening the heavens to allow this effect? This is a great manifestation of the one party, two-winged apparatus that Newt used to de-fang us with his phony "Contract." We need the courage of voters and "outsiders" (read not lifetime, career politicians) to stop listening the the D/RNC. For some help in this process, see http://libertydefenseleague.com . It is ESPECIALLY in the STATE Houses and Senates that we can effectively draw the legal line, even as we work on replacing Federal reps and senators over the larger base. The Founders wisely created state checks, too (http://libertydefenseleague.com/liberty/2009/11/03/choosing-federalism-choosing-freedom/)

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November 03, 2009
Votes: +4