Hoo-boy, NY 23 heads for the trash bin again in 2010

Man, this place sounds as bad as the embedded Beltway GOP. Here we have a bunch of slobs at least one of whom is an alcoholic or possessed of other emotional disorders. So much for thinking these guys got bossed around by DC GOP hacks into doing something they wouldn't have done on their own (run a pathetic candidate). Watching the country go down in flames doesn't matter to these guys. Being a back-slapper does.

• 8/26/10, "The Unrepentant Republican Party," American Thinker, by Sam Foster

"While Matt (Doheny) certainly appears to have superior qualifications, the lawyer-turned-banker has an extremely flawed past.

• Earlier this month, Matt Doheny admitted to having been charged with two separate BUI convictions two weeks apart from each other. During one of Doheny's altercations with the Coast Guard, he became so belligerent

• that he needed to be restrained with handcuffs.

The charges weren't just some mild, youthful indiscretion from twenty years ago; this happened in 2004. Highlighting perhaps both a lack of judgment and character, records show that Doheny was sued twice for rent evasion at two separate apartments as recently as 2005.

• Matt may be articulate and affable, but his past trouble with the law is not going to play well in an election where voters are particularly sensitive to their candidates' ethical fiber.
  
• Did the Republican leadership even bother vetting this candidate?

I attempted to contact Matt Doheny's campaign and several Republican Committee Chairmen to determine whether Matt had informed them of his criminal convictions prior to receiving the Republican endorsement. I received no comment. However, they say actions speak louder than words,

• and local Republican bosses are still flocking to Doheny's camp. Last week, former NY-23 congressman David Martin endorsed Doheny and, in a show of solidarity with the party elite, defended the party chairman's political decision-making.

The unrepentant GOP is not unique to NY-23, either. In NY's 1^st congressional district, Chairman Ed Cox continues to push his son's candidacy over conservative and district favorite Randy Altschuler at the expense of losing an opportunity to unseat three-term Democrat Tim Bishop.

While the September primaries will likely resolve the Republicans' mistake in NY-1, the damage has already been done in the case of NY-23. Given NY's proclivity for third-party ballot lines, Matt's name will appear on the Independence Party ticket, and Doug Hoffman on the Conservative line, despite the Republican primary outcome.

• The flagrant hatred exhibited by Republican leaders for Hoffman makes it hard to believe that party bosses could unite under Doug Hoffman's potential candidacy. Thus, another three-way race is brewing in NY-23, and the possibility for the district to shed its sickly shade of blue is quickly slipping out of reach

• Republicans hope to flip as many as eight NY seats in their bid to retake Congress and halt the Obama agenda.
  
• In a state as blue as NY, every race counts, which makes the unrepentant Republicans in NY-23 all the more culpable. By never recognizing or admitting their mistakes with Dede Scozzafava, they have repeated their mistakes in their support of Matt Doheny.

Despite numerous opportunities to change course over the last year, NY-23's Republican kingmakers have made it clear that they are not asking for forgiveness. It demands the question: how long will this NY-23 story repeat itself, and where will it happen next? "
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