11/2: And Then There Were Two...

Conservative bloggers were delighted when NY-23 candidate Dede Scozzafava (R) dropped out of the race on 10/31. "We PWND The NRCC," Erick Erickson boasted. "Hey, GOP elites: Can you hear conservatives NOW?!" Michelle Malkin declared. Righty bloggers were subsequently disgusted -- albeit not surprised -- when Scozzafava endorsed Dem candidate Bill Owens over Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Conservative bloggers are portraying Scozzafava's endorsement of Owens as confirmation that she's a "radical leftist" who never should have been the GOP nominee. Righty bloggers are also rubbing Scozzafava's endorsement in the NRCC's and RNC's face. Erickson complains that NRCC Chair Pete Sessions and NRCC Exec. Dir. Guy Harrison "are failing to take responsibility for this disaster" and declares that they "must be fired if they will not resign."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Erickson continues to target FL Gov. Charlie Crist's (R) SEN campaign. Meanwhile, Erickson and his fellow RedState blogger Leon H. Wolf are accusing the NRSC of generating spam Twitter followers for CA SEN candidate Carly Fiorina (R) (the NRSC denies the allegation).
• Liberal bloggers (Aravosis, Benen, Waldman, BooMan) are criticizing Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) for declaring that he would prefer "nothing" to health care reform that includes a public option.

NY-23: Bloggers 1, Establishment 0

Conservative bloggers were thrilled when Scozzafava quit the race:

• Malkin: "Finally: The spoiler exits the race. [...] Hey, GOP elites: Can you hear conservatives NOW?!"
• RedState's Erickson: "We PWND The NRCC. Dede Scozzafava Drops Out. GOP Establishment Dies on Our Hill."
• Townhall's Jillian Bandes: "This is a huge victory for conservatism."

Righty bloggers were subsequently disgusted (but not surprised) when Scozzafava endorsed Owens, and they're rubbing the endorsement in the NRCC's face:

• Erickson: "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."
• Malkin: "Hey, how did that six-figure RNC donation to the NRCC plus $85,000 to the New York GOP plus nearly half-million-dollar investment in advertising and other independent expenditures on behalf of radical leftist Dede Scozzafava work out? She repaid the GOP by endorsing Democrat candidate Bill Owens. Some gratitude, eh? [...] I repeat: One thing is guaranteed at the conclusion of the NY-23 special congressional election: The Beltway Republicans who endorsed radical leftist Dede Scozzafava are going to have indelible egg stains on their faces. And GOP establishment fund-raising organizations will be the poorer for it. Suckers."
• Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: "There are two ways of looking at this. Either Scozzafava doesn't mind throwing Republicans under the bus for a little dog-in-the-manger revenge, or she's a lot closer in policy to the Democrat than the conservative candidate. Neither of those commends Scozzafava, nor the county party leaders who handpicked her to replace [ex-Rep.] John McHugh. In fact, it makes it clear that conservatives were right all along to point out Scozzafava's unsuitability for the endorsement -- and should result in replacing the GOP bosses in NY-23 who bungled it."

NY-23 II: What Does It All Mean?

Righty bloggers are talking up the significance of a Hoffman victory:

• Power Line's John Hinderaker: "[I]f Hoffman can win on Tuesday, it will be viewed as a watershed movement in the resurgence of conservatism."
• NRO's Jim Geraghty: "[A] Conservative party candidate eking out a plurality in a three-way race is one thing. A Conservative candidate winning head-to-head against a Democrat, with the endorsement of the Republican... well, the potential reverberations from this potential earthquake just got even bigger."

Hot Air's Allahpundit argues that conservatives have already won, regardless of whether or not Hoffman wins: "As gratifying as it would be to see Hoffman win, the guy didn't become a conservative grassroots cause celebre because people are dying to see Doug Hoffman in Congress. He's a cause celebre because conservatives wanted to send a message to the GOP about the future of the party, and that message has now been sent -- and received, to the tune of $900,000 down the toilet -- regardless of what happens on Tuesday. The party can still get away with putting up socially liberal Republicans in select purple districts next year, but fiscally liberal nominees are going to earn them either a primary challenge, a third-party challenge, or a disaffected base spending election day at home. And a Hoffman defeat will do nothing to change that."

Meanwhile, liberal blogger DougJ accuses his conservative counterparts of preemptive spinning: "It goes without saying that whatever happens in NY-23 on Tuesday, it will be good news for conservatives. If teabagger Hoffman wins, it will signal a profound political realignment, the likes of which have not been seen since the days of Ronaldus Magnus. If the Democrat Owens wins, it will still be amazing that Hoffman came out of nowhere to make the race so close; this will probably be true no matter what the vote totals are, though there is also the possibility that Hoffman will lose by so much that it will turn out that he wasn't a true conservative."

NY-23 III: So Much For Being A Big Tent Party...

The #1 talking point in the liberal blogosphere is that the conservative movement is hurting the GOP brand by rejecting moderates like Scozzafava:

• AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay: "There is no room for different ideas in the modern day GOP. The teabaggers rule their world."
• Daily Kos' Jake McIntyre: "The Republican establishment that at least pretended to speak to all Americans is deeply, deeply wounded, and a wild-eyed, exclusionist, birther religio-beast is taking its place."
• The Reality-Based Community's Mark Kleiman: "Obviously, I hope [Scozzafava's] endorsement helps pull the Democrat in the race over the finish line. But even if the Conservative wins -- now with the full support of the RNCC -- the message to centrist Republicans is clear: you're not wanted. Whether by skill or by luck, Obama's bipartisan gesture in appointing a Republican to a senior post has helped his opponents self-destruct."
• MyDD's Charles Lemos: "In today's Republican Party, it is the Jacobin wing that is seemingly ascendant. The Tea Party set are today's sans-coulottes and like those of yore, they are set on purging their party of any and all who do not subscribe to their rabid orthodoxy. Even former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is deemed too moderate."
• The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "When Newt Gingrich is too moderate, and trying to pull the Republican Party closer to the American mainstream, it's safe to say there's something deeply wrong. It's also safe to say the national Republican Party, which has suffered consecutive electoral failures and has seen its brand deteriorate further this year, has a problem for which there is no obvious solution."
• Balloon Juice's John Cole: "You know the thing that I find most amusing about the NY race is that what they are basically telling every moderate Republican across the country is that it doesn't matter if you've been a loyal Republican for decades, it doesn't matter if you know the district and the people, it doesn't matter if you fit the district, and it doesn't matter that you have given decades to the party. It just doesn't matter. If the teabagging wingnuts and the shrieking lunatics like [Michelle] Malkin don't like you, high profile crackpots like [ex-AK Gov. Sarah] Palin and [ex-Maj. Leader] Dick Armey and others are going to swoop in and back some clown who doesn't even live in the district and then shit all over the area's voters, telling them their interests are 'parochial.' Now that is how you build a sustainable party!"
• BooMan: "As far as I am concerned, the Democrats have already won. Either their candidate will win a seat that has been held by Republicans for something like a century or they will lose it to a teabagger. [...E]lecting teabaggers isn't a good sign for the health of the Republican Party in the northeast or any place else. Being crazy and out of touch is what got the party in all the trouble they're in. Seeing all the heavyweights of the national party swoop in and gang up on a reasonably moderate candidate for the House is going to scare off a bunch of prospective Yankee Republicans who might have thought of running for office."

The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan agrees: "Within the GOP whatever nerve anyone had to resist the imprimatur of Erickson, Malkin, RS McCain et al is surely gone now. If a moderate cannot survive even in up-state New York, it's over."

Not every liberal blogger is rejoicing over Hoffman's surge, however:

• digby: "[I]t appears that the teabaggers are gaining steam. And lest we think they are just a funny joke, it would probably pay to recall instances in history when radical, paranoid right wingers got legitimate political power. The joke can easily turn into a nightmare."
• FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver: "[D]o Democrats really want to be celebrating if an extreme conservative like Hoffman -- who, by the way, is not an especially good candidate -- is able to win a very middle-of-the-road district like NY-23? Sure, Hoffman would be very vulnerable as an incumbent (which might be a moot point anyway since NY-23 is liable to be redistricted out of existence.) But if a Glenn Beck-ian conservative is able to win a district that shares a frontier with Vermont and Canada, ought that not be at least a little bit worrying for Democrats in terms of the mood of the country?"

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Real Story

NRO's Jonah Goldberg:

"I'm writing about this for my USA Today column, but the Frank Rich hissy fit is a perfect example of the real story of the election. The story is not that the GOP is self-destructing, it is that the conventional wisdom is being shown to be ludicrous. For some time now Frank Rich, Sam Tanenhaus and countless others (including David Frum) have been arguing that the GOP is a rump party and the only way for it to survive is for it to embrace me-too Republicanism of one flavor or another. The story of all three major races (VA, NJ, and NY-23) is that this conventional wisdom was incandescently wrong and ill-advised. Hoffman and [ex-VA AG Bob] McDonnell owe their success to the support of independents (the independents all of these people said wanted moderate, Democrat-lite policies) and to Republicans determined to stay true to conservative principles. Not only was the conventional wisdom wrong, the idea that there's a 'civil war' within the GOP revolving around this argument is nonsense. The GOP is an unapologetically conservative party, providing a choice not an echo, and -- horror of horrors -- it's working."

LEST WE FORGET: Retiree Gearing Up For Errands With Lady Friend

From The Onion:

"POMPANO BEACH, FL -- Following a breakfast of shredded wheat and grapefruit juice, 76-year-old Martin Schoenfeld shaved, tied his shoes, and put on a fresh shirt in preparation for an afternoon of errands at the Pompano Citi Centre with his new lady friend, Marcy Larroway, 73. 'I've got the car warming up outside,' Schoenfeld said while working a dab of Brylcreem through his hair and deciding whether the two would purchase stamps at the post office first or go straight to the Hallmark store. 'Maybe we'll have time for a matinee after the pharmacy. It's right nearby.' At press time, Schoenfeld was calling to confirm his 5 p.m. dinner reservation for two at the HomeTown Buffet."