Wingnut Wendy Long, the Republican challenger to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in November, did some campaigning around Albany Monday.
Her major focus was to get some free media for her hopeless campaign, some of which she got from her Capitol steps press conference.
Which was, as with most Republican candidates' press conferences, regurgitated GOP talking points and related pabulum.
Far more interesting was her visit with a few score local tea partiers/far-right Republicans at a Clifton Park Elks lodge.
The mini-tea party rally for Wingnut Wendy, only covered by a reporter from the local weekly, was naturally a love-fest.
No surprise, given that the event's sponsors -- the Upstate Conservative Coalition, Saratoga 9-12, and the NY 20th District Advocates -- are all remnants of the Fox/talk radio/Koch-promoted tea party movement of 2009-10.
Wingnut Wendy knew how to get her tea party base excited:
In her remarks she called former president Ronald Reagan her political hero and quoted former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when discussing economic policy.
Long said if President Barack Obama and Gillibrand are not stopped in November, the pair will work to move the country "down the disastrous path now seen in parts of Europe."
"We must teach politicians to follow the limits set down in this," she said holding up a copy of the U.S. Constitution. "It says our source of power is in nature and God."
Wingnut Wendy waved the Constitution, just like some tea party ignoramuses did at all of their rallies and town hall confrontations in their heyday.
And Wingnut Wendy believes the Constitution "says our source of power is in nature and God," when the Constitution says nothing of the kind.
Wingnut Wendy affects to be a Constitutional lawyer -- clerk to Clarence Thomas and well-paid cheerleader for Bush's judicial nominees -- yet she makes absurd stuff up about the Constitution.
Like a good Republican liar.
Interestingly, though the reporter wrote that "Long’s appearance drew nearly 100 residents from across Saratoga County," the only attendee he quoted was from two counties and an hour-plus drive away, in Columbia County.
June Simons of Chatham said she came to learn more about Long the candidate.
"I’m especially interested in someone who’s going to follow the Constitution when elected," Simons said. "If they did follow the Constitution a lot of problems would be resolved."
I'll bet my house that June Simons, and every attendee at Wingnut Wendy's little get-together with her wingnut base, have voted Republican for President all their lives.
They are the 27 percent Republican base, and they feel more empowered now, after the 2010 House elections, and primary-electing Carl Paladino in 2010 and Wingnut Wendy this year.
Romney/Ryan, Wingnut Wendy, and a handful or so of NY Republican House incumbents will soon learn that 2012 is a way different political year than 2010.
When waving the Constitution before ignoramuses will not work anymore.