Today's news from the NY-23 special election that Republican Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava has withdrawn from active campaigning four days from Election Day has occasioned several excellent diaries, and a killer op-ed by Frank Rich of the New York Times.
Scozzafava succumbed to a nationwide wingnut oppo attack, because she was somewhat moderate on social and public services issues.
Rich catalogs that, and argues convincingly that the Palin/Beck/teabaggers may win this 1/435 battle and lose the larger electoral war next year.
Details, below.
Rich notes that the national wingnut intervention in NY-23, on behalf of a no-account nobody who does not live in the district, has created a "riotous, bloody national GOP civil war" that will not help the wingnuts next year:
No matter what the results in that race on Tuesday, the Republicans are the sure losers. This could be a gift that keeps on giving to the Democrats through 2010, and perhaps beyond.
snip
The battle for upstate New York confirms just how swiftly the right has devolved into a wacky, paranoid cult that is as eager to eat its own as it is to destroy Obama. The movement’s undisputed leaders, Palin and Beck, neither of whom have what Palin once called the "actual responsibilities" of public office, would gladly see the Republican Party die on the cross of right-wing ideological purity. Over the short term, at least, their wish could come true.
Rich recounts how the Palin endorsement of Hoffman was the key moment, though I think he somewhat discounts the effect of the Club for Growth spending $1 million-plus (in one of the nation's cheapest media markets) to run down Hoffman's GOP rival.
The wrecking crew of Kristol, Fred Thompson, Dick Armey, Michele Bachmann, The Wall Street Journal editorial page and the government-bashing Club for Growth all joined the Hoffman putsch.
Then came the big enchilada: a Hoffman endorsement from Palin on her Facebook page.
Such is Palin’s clout that Steve Forbes, Rick Santorum and Tim Pawlenty, the Minnesota governor (and presidential aspirant), promptly fell over one another in their Pavlovian rush to second her motion. They were joined by far-flung Republican congressmen from Kansas, Georgia, Oklahoma and California, not to mention a gaggle of state legislators from Colorado. On Fox News, Beck took up the charge, insinuating that Hoffman’s Republican opponent might be a fan of Karl Marx. Some $3 million has now been dumped into this race by outside groups.
Rich presumably does not listen to wingnut radio, or check out wingnut blogs. He missed a remarkable orgy of Scozzafava hate that energized the wingnut micro-minority.
But he's right-on about the big picture:
The right’s embrace of Hoffman is a double-barreled suicide for the GOP.
snip
It’s still conceivable that the Democratic candidate could capture a seat the Republicans should own. But it’s even better for Democrats if Hoffman wins. Punch-drunk with this triumph, the right will redouble its support of primary challengers to 2010 GOP candidates they regard as impure.
snip
The more rightists who win G.O.P. primaries, the greater the Democrats’ prospects next year.
Read the whole thing, he also discusses how the Palin/Beck/teabagger cult is "re-enacting Stalinism in full purge mode."
But be sure to have lots of popcorn handy.