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On October 28th I wrote a post exposing the Newt Gingrich betrayal on global warming and his “mistake” of appearing with Nancy Pelosi to pitch an Al Gore organization. Since then, Newt’s professional politics has helped him add a level of entertainment to his debate performances, giving him a bump in some of the more liberal polls.
It’s Saturday night, the CBS/National Journal debate just ended, and it’s time for another reality check. A lot of Newt fans lashed out at me on Facebook in response to my last post, crying that Newt’s betrayal on global warming is not a big deal because Gingrich admitted it was a mistake. I “might” be inclined to “somewhat” agree if it was just one mistake. But with Newt, we see a plethora of mistakes.
In Part 2 we’re going to focus on Dede Scozzafava, Newt’s direct betrayal of the tea party movement in 2009. Just who is Dede Scozzafava? Why, only one of the liberal Republicans to ever walk the face of the earth.
Scozzafava is an abortion rights advocate who favors gay marriage. It would be one thing if Scozzafava balanced that social liberalism with fiscal conservatism. But as a state assemblywoman, she voted for massive tax increases, Democratic budgets and a $180 million state bank bailout. She also supported the trillion-dollar federal stimulus package — which every House Republican voted against.
More troubling, Scozzafava in past elections has embraced the ballot line of the Working Families Party — a socialist outfit whose political DNA is intertwined with scandal-ridden ACORN. ACORN and the WFP have shared office space in New York City, Arkansas and Illinois. ACORN head Bertha Lewis, a close Scozzafava friend and political supporter, wears a second hat as vice chairman of the WFP. The WFP has been listed in ACORN documents dating back to 2000 as an “affiliate.”
Under fire for her cozy relations with organizations that have shown lifelong hostility toward the Republican Party, Scozzafava now claims she would have voted to de-fund ACORN in the wake of the multiple BigGovernment.com sting videos showing ACORN employees advising undercover journalists on how to evade tax laws, lie on housing applications and smuggle underage illegal alien prostitutes.
And it gets worse…
But there’s another inextricably linked ACORN and WFP affiliate that Scozzafava would not likely disavow: Big Labor.
Refresher: The Service Employees International Union is co-located with several key ACORN offices across the country. ACORN founder Wade Rathke founded influential SEIU Local 100. As John Wilson reported in the New York Post this spring, the WFP’s largest donors are the SEIU, which pitched in more than $300,000, and the teachers union, which donated $200,000. These organizations have worked together to increase left-wing political clout, undermine capitalism and ensure “social justice” on the public’s dime.
Scozzafava’s husband is a leading upstate New York union organizer. She supports the federal “card-check” legislation that would massively boost union rolls — and Democratic voting rolls — at the expense of rank-and-file workers’ free choice. And for that matter, at the expense of Republican electoral prospects. Card check is the key to a Democratic majority in perpetuity. Big Labor bosses have said as much.
Movement conservatives and limited government activists are battling the establishment GOP over its endorsement of Scozzafava’s candidacy. The Club for Growth, former GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson and others have lined up behind a truly mainstream and viable candidate — Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman.
Meanwhile, “moderate Republican” Scozzafava has earned the enthusiastic endorsement of far-left blog entrepreneur and political strategist Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, who runs the Daily Kos website. He enthused that Scozzafava has “been willing to raise taxes when budgets require it, and is to the left of most Democrats on social issues.”
That’s not moderation. That’s extremist fringe. This race isn’t a fight over the heart and soul of the Republican Party. It’s a battle over its brain.
The “mistake” Newt made in this race is his open and defiant endorsement of leftist Dede Scozzafava. This hits me personally, because fellow bloggers Steve Foley, Ali Akbar and I were all in upstate New York covering the special election as it unfolded. We were there on the ground and we saw first hand the damage Gingrich heaped upon the process by digging his feet in behind Scozzafava.
We’ll get to Newt’s “mistake” in a minute. First, let’s finish the story on Dede Scozzafava.
For those who don’t know the full story, conservative warrior Doug Hoffman jumped into the race, making it a three way fight between Hoffman, Scozzafava and Democrat candidate Bill Owens. Doug Hoffman should have stomped all over Owens, but leftist Dede Scozzafava stood in the way.
After several weeks of crushing conservative support that turned the race against Scozzafava, she eventually dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. The Democrat, using a robocall recorded by Scozzafava, went on to narrowly win the race and the movement lost.
Standing in the corner for Doug Hoffman was virtually the entire tea party movement, Sarah Palin, FreedomWorks, American Liberty Alliance, Club for Growth and many, MANY more. In the corner for Dede Scozzafava? The NRCC, the RNC and Newt Gingrich.
In addition to the party support, the RNC pushed a six figure donation to the NRCC plus $85,000 to the NY state GOP. The RNC also dropped about a half million dollars in independent expenditures for media buys and promotion.
Again, Dede Scozzafava dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. But wait! There is a cherry to put on top of all of this…
In 2011 Dede Scozzafava somehow magically landed a job working for, wait for it… NY Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the following appointments and nominations to senior positions within the state government.
…Dede Scozzafava will serve as Deputy Secretary for Local Government at the Department of State. Ms. Scozzafava served as a member of the New York State Assembly from 1999-2010, serving as Minority Leader, Pro Tempore from April 2009-December 2009. She served as Chairwoman of the Assembly Republican Review Committee and the SAVE NY TASK FORCE. Prior to joining the Assembly, Ms. Scozzafava was Mayor of the Village of Gouverneur from 1994-1998. In the private sector, Ms. Scozzafava spent 20 years working for Tucker Anthony/RBC Dain Rauscher as an investment advisor. She is a graduate of Boston University and received an MBA from the Clarkson School of Management in Potsdam.
Quite a pick there for such an “intellectual,” don’t ya think?
Now for those of you who think Newt is a principle before party guy… I give you the next example.
In this video, we see an audience member suggest principle go before party.
In the next video, we see Newt explain that party should go before principle.
Newt Gingrich also blasted the tea party movement for our desire to “purge” the party of dangerous liberals and leftists. His claim in doing so is that we wouldn’t have been able to win NY23, or be able to beat Barack Obama, without supporting a moderate message where needed.
Yeah, Newt, because we all know that John McCain could have won if he had been just a little more liberal, right?
Wrong.
Newt Gingrich betrayed us on global warming, and he betrayed us in New York’s special election for CD23. That’s two pretty big red marks so far, and surely you can’t just shrug both of them off as acceptable “mistakes” if you truly do wish to vote in a new direction.
Food for thought…
-Eric Odom
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Thank you for posting this. I had forgotten about NY23 and Newt’s remarks about the Tea Party. The libs would try their best to promote Newt.
Newt is the best example of a RINO next the McCain.
Newt Gingrich is not who he makes out to be! See Bing.com — This person is abouut MONEY — He will do anything to make and spent more money. He is not for any of us and he doesn’t mention the reason he left Congress==We got rid of him and he didn’t balance the budget — Congress did — He is a bad person — check him out!!!
[...] the latter was ahead in the polls and his conservative credentials were impeccable. However, Gingrich defiantly supported Scozzafava when other high-profile Republicans (Palin, Pawlenty, etc.) were supporting Hoffman. Does that [...]
[...] not a fan of Newt Gingrich. My reasons are numerous and you can read some of them here and here. That said, there is no denying Newt Gingrich has somehow captured the support of half of the tea [...]