I am not really advocating we throw Pete Sessions out of Congress, just the NRCC. Nonetheless, I think it is hiliarous that he is going to get primaried by a corporate financial analyst. The disgraceful conduct of the Sessions’ led NRCC up in NY-23 has a lot to do with it. But Sessions’ TARP vote is the primary motivator.
Again, I’m not really an advocate of tossing Sessions out of Congress, but maybe a stiff primary challenge will teach him a few lessons he clearly missed along the way.
On Friday, when Dede Scozzafava dropped out of NY-23, she said she hoped to work toward a “stronger GOP.”
Yesterday, word began to break that Scozzafava and her husband are working with union activists to push her voters toward Bill Owens, the Democrat.
I guess for Scozzafava, a stronger GOP means one in which the Democrat wins.
It has been 48 hours since Dede Scozzafava dropped out of NY-23.
After $900,000.00 wasted on her candidacy by the GOP, the candidate is now returning the support by encouraging votes for the Democrat.
In the old days, when disgracing your employer, your co-worker, or screwing up your job, you either quit on your own accord or jumped out a window to your death. There was a quiet dignity that came with resignation in the face of defeat.
That is not happening with the NRCC. The people whose judgment has fractured the GOP and inspired scores of third party candidates and primary challengers for the GOP remain in place still calling the shots.
How can we trust them to get it right now? With no accountability comes a failure to take responsibility. And if they will not take responsibility, we must continue to question their judgment.
It is unfortunate because candidate recruitment and fundraising have gone well. But all that has to be overshadowed by an unwillingness to take responsibility for NY-23. The failure to take responsibility led the GOP off the cliff and out of power in 2006.
Vigilance and accountability must be imposed from the outside if they will not impose them from the inside.
I had intended to start a daily reminder that Pete Sessions and Guy Harrison remain on the job and should be fired. They wasted $900,000.00 on a “Republican” who dropped out and endorsed the Democrat.
If Pete Sessions and Guy Harrison have such little respect for donor money in this race, how can we trust them in other races. After all, except for the Pauline Kaels of the Beltway GOP, it was abundantly obvious to everyone else that Dede Scozzafava was not a moderate, but a Democratic leftist.
Sadly, I don’t have the time. There are bigger fish to fry. I do think either or both Sessions and Harrison must be fired if they will not resign. Dignity and common decency demand it.
They seem to have none though and there are only so many fronts on which we can fight. So we will remember this, but we will choose to fight another day.
After all, we did win. But if I were a Republican Congressman, I’d be hacked off by the malpractice at the NRCC.
*Kael, by the way, was the New York Times writer who commented that she was stunned by Richard Nixon’s election because she knew absolutely no one who had voted for him.
Generally round about Labor Day if not before, the NRCC comes knocking on all our doors saying “you haven’t paid your dues.” Our “dues” are funds Members pay into the NRCC’s coffers that they then turn around and use to elect more Republican congressmen.
This is October 25, 2009, more than a year before Election Day. But the NRCC is beating on all our doors already saying we need to cough up cash. More than one Member has been pushed to pay up. Why now? Probably because our leadership has decided to put a millstone around our necks named Dede.
Maybe the NRCC and the Gentleman from Texas 32 will realize a few Members are withholding “dues” until November 3rd so none of our donors’ dollars go to New York 23.
Growing up in New York, I recall an old commercial for the lottery that sought to sucker in the math-challenged by telling them ‘you gotta be in it to win it.’ While I still consider that an indefensible way for a state to get people to throw away their money, it’s undoubtedly true when it comes to political campaigns. You may be unable to predict the political climate months before election day (or even days before). But if you hope to have any chance of winning seats that may be unexpectedly within reach, you have to have credible candidates. So far this cycle, it’s the Republican campaign committees that are winning the race to find strong candidates for potentially-winnable races:
It’s not just the Senate races, however. The National Republican Congressional Committee has announced sought-after candidates early and often. These include Martha Roby (Alabama’s 2nd District), Van Tran (California 47th), Charles Djou (Hawaii 1st), Vaughn Ward (Idaho 1st), not to mention rematches in two races that would allow Republicans to recapture seats lost in 2008; Andy Harris vs. Freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil (Maryland 1st) and former Rep. Steve Chabot facing the man who defeated him, Rep. Steve Driehaus (Ohio 1st).
Last Friday, ten House Republican leaders sent a letter to President Barack Obama. In it, they offered to work across party lines and Congressional divisions with the new president to achieve the latter’s stated commitment “to fiscal transparency and accountability and ensuring that [all] spending commitments are paid for without burdening our children and grandchildren with excessive debt,” and to “slash[ing] earmarks to no greater than 1994 levels and ensur[ing] all spending decisions are open to the public.”
The Republican leaders wrote:
In keeping with these pledges to the American people, we urge you to veto the so-called “omnibus” spending bill passed this week if the Senate fails to reject it.
Like the trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending bill that was rushed through Congress without any Member having read it, the $410 billion legislation passed this week openly defies your commendable objectives of fiscal transparency and accountability. It contains nearly 9,000 “airdropped” earmarks, most of which were not even considered in committee let alone on the House floor as is routine — compared to roughly 4,000 in 1994. …
