I’ve seen a lot from the left in the last twenty-four hours that I, and conservatives in general, do not want to give Khalid Sheikh Mohammed a fair trail and that I, and the right in general, do not believe in our system of due process.

Let me be crystal clear: it is precisely because I believe in our system of due process in a civil setting that I do not want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tried in such a setting. The left ignores this at its peril.

I have full faith in our system of justice. Criminal defendants are given every advantage and resource to ensure they do not get convicted of a crime they did not commit. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will get most of those advantages and resources. But that is all a distraction from one central fact — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is not a criminal. He is a soldier in a war captured on a battlefield. That is not something our criminal justice system was designed to handle and should not handle.

I think Eric Holder is flat out lying when he said this past Sunday that Barack Obama had no knowledge whatsoever of the KSM decision until he was headed off to China. But, to be charitable, even were that true, it ignores the fact that Eric Holder, the Attorney General, should not have been the one to make the decision. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was picked up on a battlefield, not an American street.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is not a gang member. Al Qaeda is not a gang. 9/11 was not a drive by shooting or even a gang land massacre. 9/11 was an act of war. Al Qaeda is the enemy. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a soldier in a war. Our system of justice is not set up to try soldiers captured on a battlefield.

It is willfully naive and damnably indifferent to civilian American lives and our system of civilian justice to think otherwise.

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(H/T: Big Government) I’m actually not upset about this, seeing as I knew all along that he’d break his word.  Fish swim, birds fly, ‘conservative’ Democratic legislators betray their principles on cue.  And so it is, here:

GOUVERNEUR, NY - Congressman-elect Bill Owens was sworn in at noon today.

Owens indicated in a press release that he was now in favor of the bill in direct contrast to his earlier position during his campaign.

According to Politico.com, Mr. Owens assured voters that he felt the public option had no place in the health care reform bill.  Contrary to that position, Mr. Owens now indicates that he intends to vote in favor of the bill even though it now contains a public option.

More at the link, including the three other promises that Owens has already broken. I would like to believe that this is a record of some sort, but it’s probably not.

Moe Lane

PS: Do not expect any so-called ‘Blue Dog’ or supposed ‘conservative’ Democrat to voluntarily get in the way of their party’s health care rationing bill.  They vote as they are bid - and the ones doing the bidding are not their constituents.

Crossposted to RedState.

Folks, there are some serious questions as to the accuracy of the ABC News report linked to in this post showing a Steele quote criical of Palin, Pawlenty, and me.

As a result, I’m yanking the post and digging into it. I’ll see what I can do to sort it out.

Sorry for the inconvenience. This is bothersome. The actual video on which the interview was based does not reflect what was reported. Gail Gitcho from the RNC also say the Chairman was not dinging Palin, Pawlenty, or me.

While the Democrats are crowing a bit this morning over the unusual circumstances of NY-23, they might want to pay attention to one under-reported fact: Bill Owens, the man NY-23 sent to Congress last night, campaigned against the public option.

That is not exactly a ringing endorsement of Obamacare by the voters up there.

Democrats might want to rethink how they view NY-23.

New York’s 23rd Congressional District is, at this writing, too close to call, but it looks like the GOP Establishment’s candidate helped throw the race to the Democrat after the GOP spent $900,000.00 on her. That said, the Democrat’s lead keeps shrinking and there are 10,000 absentee ballots to count. We know for certain that if we combined the Republican and Conservative votes, that team would win.

What we do know for sure, from Virginia and New Jersey, is that in elections without the unusual circumstances of NY-23, is that the voters threw out the Democrats big time.

In Virginia, for the second time in history, the Republican Party swept all statewide offices. In New Jersey, despite multiple campaign trips by Barack Obama and his top pollster flown in to run Corzine’s campaign, Republican Chris Christie trounced Corzine. In Pennsylvania, the Democratic State entrusted its Supreme Court to the Republican Party, which could help the GOP in redistricting next year.

In every state in which Barack Obama campaigned for a candidate, the candidate lost. Too bad he did not make it up to NY-23.

More importantly, according to political expert Larry Sabato, there have only been two occasions when Virginia and New Jersey so thoroughly flipped to the opposite party: in 1993, before the GOP take over of Congress in 1994, and in 2005, before the Democrats took back Congress in 2006.

This signals the potential for great Republican gains in the House and Senate next year.

We also know, based on how Doug Hoffman is trending, that the GOP Establishment, if it continues to turn its back on the conservative base, will keep losing. Had the NRCC not so throughly botched NY-23, we would not be in this particular situation tonight.

It’s going to be late before we know anything about Harmer in CA-10.

As for the rest, it looks like the love affair is over. In 2008, the American public voted for Barack Obama to prove they weren’t racist and in 2010 the same public is voting for Republicans to prove they aren’t socialist.

For the 2nd time in history, the GOP swept Virginia’s statewide races, picking up Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General.

It looks like Christie is going to win New Jersey barring some last minute miracles for Corzine.

It is also looking good for Hoffman in NY-23.

We still won’t know about New Jersey and New York for a while, but the trend lines are good.

UPDATE: RNC Chairman Michael Steele just hopped a plane to New Jersey. Signs are pointing to a Christie victory.

UPDATE 2: Keep in mind on Doug Hoffman that 3 counties will not report their results online and one county, Fulton, has had a machine breakdown and will not report its results until tomorrow.

On his third trip to the polls, a Hoffman supporter and poll watcher had his tires slashed this afternoon —as you can see he had a hoffman sign in his back window.

A police report has been filed.

[updated:] Local police are not willing to confirm it was a tire slashing and say it could be that the poll watcher ran over a bottle.

I’m hearing across the board that things are looking good. It’s early, obviously, but in sampling Democrat and Republican precincts, the GOP precincts are seeing higher turn out that the Democrat precincts in key areas. That suggests GOP enthusiasm is much higher.

Notable too, the Democrats are already pushing out their talking points on how Corzine and Deeds losses do not reflect on Barack Obama.

Just remember this data when Democrats keep saying it does not reflect on Obama. Then ask what they’d be saying by wins.

I’ll keep you posted as I learn more.

Josh Marshall says the GOP is going to fire up the vote fraud stories. Of course, Josh Marshall already has logged into the TPM queue mass stories of voter suppression that he will blame on the GOP.

Because, you know, the GOP always suppresses black turn out, but ACORN never commits fraud.

And we know that given what is happening on the ground right now, the GOP just might sweep. New Jersey is going to be close, but then there have already been a few Democrats alleging voter fraud in municipal elections.

In any event, while Josh is waiting for the voter fraud stories he will work overtime to disprove as credibly as he failed to disprove Bobby Jindal’s hurricane story [Note to Josh: Moving the goal posts with every draft is not actually disproving the facts], he’s going to have to work closely with Media Matters and the DNC to also create a flurry of stories about the evil GOP suppressing the vote.

It’ll be a busy night for TPM’s overworked narrative.

Talking to Andy Roth at Club For Growth, I’ve gotten a few tips on things to look out for in New York tonight. By the way, if you are looking for a place to send some money, consider that the Club got in early for Doug Hoffman and did great work. We’re going to need their coffers replenished for 2010. Go join now and give.

The eastern part of the district is where Owens is strongest. He was leading there before Dede got out of the race, and her exit should not change much there. Do not be worried if Owens comes out ahead in Clinton, Essex, and Franklin Counties.

The western part of the district is the most conservative. This should be strong territory for Hoffman. The counties are Madison, Oneida, and Oswego. Oswego is the largest county in the district.

The northern part of the district is Dede’s home area, where she was strongest. She will likely still retain more votes here than anywhere else. Hoffman should win here, but if we see Owens doing well in this area, we will know that Dede’s supporters are moving in the wrong direction. St. Lawrence and Jefferson Counties are the big ones here, and there is also Lewis.

Finally, there are two small counties, Hamilton and Fulton, which are in the Albany media market. Because of superior resource allocation here by the Dems, we suspect that Owens wins here.

The attached picture was taken at 8:30 pm last night in the main call center room at the RNC where the volunteers sit for phone banking. There were about 10 people there from 5:30-8. After that? Well . . . you get the point.

Oh, and let’s not forget Harmer, Christie, and McDonnell.

I’m told, by the way, that there are some private rooms with just phones. Certainly, there could have been people in those rooms, but this is where the volunteers were told to go last night. Not a great effort.

The Obama administration and the media are together going to downplay today’s electoral victories for the GOP.

They will, to the mainstream media, not be relevant to or any sign of a rebuke against Barack Obama and his far left agenda.

In fact, the media is already beginning the narrative that we cannot see today as a referendum on Barack Obama.

Consider these facts:

New York 23

• Barack Obama sent Joe Biden to visit.
• Obama’s White House negotiated Dede Scozzafava’s endorsement of the Democrat.
• Scozzafava and Owens both supported and campaigned on supporting the stimulus.

New Jersey

• Obama sent his top pollster to take command of the race.
• Obama visited multiple times, including the day before the election.
• Obama is featured in most of Corzine’s advertising.
• The Democratic Governors Association and DNC all pumped in a ton of money.
• Corzine ran on helping Obama at the state level.

Virginia

• The Democratic Governors Association spent $4 million to get Creigh Deeds elected.
• The Democratic National Committee spent $6 millino to get Deeds elected.
• Obama campaigned for Deeds multiple times.
• Organizing for America sent a mail piece to 300,000 “surge voters”, or voters who voted for the first time in 2008, urging them to vote for Deeds.
• Organizing for America set up phone banks for Creigh Deeds.

The state owned media is going to tell us none of this matters and this was no rebuke of Barack Obama.

Don’t believe it. The facts speak for themselves.

These guys keep shooting themselves in the foot.

“This lady clearly has as agenda that’s different than most Republicans, she was out there promoting herself,” Boehner said, noting that he has encouraged all members of the GOP conference to support Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Mr. Boehner, with respect, this was blindly obvious to all of us outside the Beltway. You guys have spent $900,000.00 on a leftist who returned the favor by stabbing you in the back.

If you are clueless as to who you are backing for office, exactly how can we trust you on the bigger issues? The character of a man is best revealed in how he handles the small things.

There is something about New York’s 23rd Congressional District that reporters and the GOP establishment are ignoring. According to the PPP poll and the Sienna poll, Doug Hoffman is expanding the base of voters willing to vote for a conservative, not shrinking the base as the press alleges.

In talking about this race this morning with Joe Scarborough on his radio show, he talked about the parallels to his race in 1994. Getting on Lexis-Nexis and doing some digging was an eye opening experience.

It is also a powerful reminder for House Republicans wanting to take back the House that they are going to need to ignore the NRCC and instead go right where right can win.

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There is poll volatility (PDF) in the NY-23 race. PPP has Hoffman over 50%. Sienna has him at 41%.

Both have Owens hovering in the mid-thirties.

Isn’t it interesting, by the way, that for the last month Owens has held in the mid-thirties while everyone else has bounced around him and in New Jersey Corzine has held around 41% while everyone bounced around him.

I wonder if that is because of the negativity associated with the Republican brand. People don’t want to vote for Owens or Corzine, but they just aren’t sure that voting for the R will leave them better off. That may very well be why Hoffman benefited from not being the Republican in the race for so long.

And it should serve as notice to the GOP that conservative polls better than Republican.

(H/t Ironman)

According to PPP, Doug Hoffman has raced into the lead against Owens, taking 51% to Owens’ 34%

The race, however, is not over and there is no guarantee the polling is even halfway accurate. That is not to slight PPP, it just happens to be a crazy race, with a last minute drop out, and lots of weekend polling scores to make up the foundation.

But, and this is a bit but, a lot of third party and internal polling does suggest Hoffman has gone into the lead. Likewise, it looks from PPP and other polling that even before Scozzafava dropped out, Hoffman had a big lead among Republican voters. Additionally, of the votes Scozzafava was holding on to, they were loyal Republicans and women.

If Hoffman can appeal to women, he should be okay. Scozzafava’s Republican votes will either go to him or stay home.

Now what they need are bodies.  Doug Hoffman’s calling for help… so if you have a day or two to spare, get thee hence to NY-23.

UPDATE: See also Hot Air.

Dede Scozzafava is throwing her support to the Democrat, Bill Owens.

She and her husband are working with union activists to drive the vote up for the Democrat.

The Republican Party spent $900,000.00 to help her and this is how she repays them.

And Pete Sessions, Chairman of the NRCC, and Guy Harrison, Executive Director of the NRCC, still have their jobs and are failing to take responsibility for this disaster, instead blaming conservatives.

[FURTHER UPDATE] Welcome, AoSHQ readers.  Note the petition below.

[UPDATE]: Thanks to Randy Mastro and our own Francis Cianfrocca - who will have a lot more to say about these races - here’s the petition cataloging said skulduggery; and you will not find it dull reading. (If you’re having trouble reading it, try here.)

It’s not that our opponents are geniuses at skulduggery.  It’s that they’re unaccustomed to being challenged on it.  When they do, they make mistakes:

A City Council hopeful won’t cough up documents related to whether the Working Families Party is scamming the campaign finance system — because the case could involve “criminal liability,” according to documents released yesterday.

The bombshell development was revealed at a court hearing where lawyers for the WFP and the campaign of Staten Island candidate Debi Rose tried to get a suit against them tossed.

Former Giuliani administration Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, the lawyer opposing the Rose campaign, called it an “extraordinary development.”

The suit itself - I’m working to get a copy of it sent to me - alleges that WFP (which is, of course, a front for ACORN) is violating campaign finance laws by having WFP front group Data and Field Services provide “canvassing and other services for [City Council candidate Debi] Rose in her primary campaign against [current Conservative candidate* Ken] Mitchell for which the firm received far less than the market value.”  In that context, trying to avoid financial disclosure on the grounds of possible self-incrimination is at the very least eyebrow-raising; which is why they tried to walk back on it before 24 hours had passed. It should also be noted that the Rose race in Staten Island is not the only one where this sort of thing went on; Queens City Council candidate James Van Bramer is likewise heavily involved with WFP/Data & Field Services, as this diary from the Daily Kos (of all places) makes clear.  I’m sure that his campaign is watching this case unfold with great interest.

The moral here?  Well, aside from the obvious one of “ACORN taints everything that it touches,” it’s this: one-party rule makes people stupid.  And stupid people make mistakes.  Keep that in mind the next time you’re trying to decide whether or not to fight City Hall.

Moe Lane

*Who is actually a Democrat.  Welcome to New York fusion politics.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Hoffman has not won. Yet.

Keep up the pressure. Redouble your efforts. Let’s be excited by the victory we have had, but don’t stand out. Stand up for Doug Hoffman.

PS - As one of our contributors noted private: It speaks volumes about the pathetic leadership of the GOP right now that we are beating up the GOP today instead of beating up the Democrats. Now is the time to beat up the Democrats and drive Hoffman, McDonnell, and Christie to victory on Tuesday.