The following is a column by Bob Gorman, a writer for the Watertown Daily Times in New York. He is writing about Dede Scozzafava, the Republican challenger for the 23rd Congressional District in the Empire State left open after John McHugh became Secretary of the Army. While major bloggers have called Scozzafava a “radical leftist,” Gorman presents a view that isn’t so radical. I should add that Watertown, NY is in the 23rd Congressional District. Four years ago, you read this...

Two polls have suggested that Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman is in the lead in the race for the 23rd Congressional District in the State of New York. The first poll released yesterday, comes out this way: Hoffman with 31.3%, Democrat Bill Owens with 27.0%, and Republican Dede Scozzafava with 19.7%. Twenty-two percent are undecided. The second poll released today has Hoffman again in the lead with Hoffman at 34 percent, Owens with 29, Scozzafava with 14 and 23 percent undecided. Both...

Since there are many conservatives that have flooded the blogosphere with basically falsehoods about Dede Scozzafava, the GOP candidate for NY-23, I thought I would repost in its entirety a blog post I found on the liberal blog called the Albany Project. Since many conservatives hard argued that Scozzafava is a radical leftist, you might think this blog would love her right? Well, read on and find out. A lot of people, including people here in New York, have made the same argument. Part of it has...

Well, I guess we can say that Newt Gingrich is no longer a conservative since he endorsed Dede Scozzafava: In a major coup for her campaign, Republican Dede Scozzafava today will pick up the endorsement of Newt Gingrich, one of the nation’s leading conservative figures and the architect of the “Republican Revolution” in the mid-1990s. “The special election for the 23rd Congressional District is an important test leading up to the mid-term 2010 elections,” Gingrich said in a statement to...

Friday’s Wall Street Journal reports on how Tea-Party conservatives are successfully trying to damage a moderate Republican’s shot at a vacant Congressional seat in Upstate New York that has long been a Republican seat. The Republican in question is Dede Scozzafava, a Republican State Assemblywoman who is running to suceed John McHugh, a Republican congressman that was tapped by President Obama to be Secretary to the Army. Tea-Party conservatives along with other hard right activists...

I heard most the President’s speech tonight over the radio. Here are some of what I thought were highlights and what I thought. What this plan will do is to make the insurance you have work better for you. Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. As soon as I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it most. They...

Whenever health care reform is talked about, Republicans respond in an almost Pavlov-style manner. Immediately we start talking about the evils of the Canadian and British healthcare systems and about the loss of American freedoms. Some even go a step further and claim as blogger John Vecchione writes in a recent post, that there is no health care crisis and when nations make universal health care a goal it also makes conservative parties unconservative. Such claims amount to sticking one’s...

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune: Gay ministers will be allowed to lead parishes, representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted today in Minneapolis. The 559-451 vote marks a historic change for the 4.8 million ELCA members, including 830,000 in Minnesota. The vote repeals the ELCA’s ban on gay clergy unless they agreed to remain celibate. The new position allows the installation of gay pastors but leaves the decision to call a gay pastor up to individual congregations...

I rarely shop at Whole Foods, which has two locations in the Twin Cities. If I am looking for organic foods, I tend to look for them at the regular grocery store I shop at or go to Trader Joe’s, which one person described as the “poor man’s Whole Foods.” But I might consider shopping at the grocery chain more in the near future because of the insane and asinine boycott going on by some on the Left. Why would people who normally shop at the organic retailer decide to abstain?...

I have not said much on any blog concerning the rising tempers taking place at town halls, the “birther” movement, or the nasty words coming from right-wing radio hosts. The reason for that is because there are a lot of twists and turns that I am dealing with concerning the whole mess. But I think I have some thoughts to share, so I will share them, muddled mess they maybe. On the one hand, I have always found such trash-talk repugnant no matter who says it. I’ve always believed...

During the election last year, we were reminded again and again that Barack Obama was in the vanguard on gay rights, while John McCain was incredibly anti-gay. Nevermind that both candidates had basically the same position on gay marriage: they were against it. When Obama became President, many liberals and not quite a few Republicans believed that he would advance the cause for gay rights. So far, he hasn’t done that much. He has dragged his feet on allowing gays to serve in the military...

As I can now number the days until I turn 40, I’m starting to realize the generation that is coming up behind me. The Millennials, the generation born after 1980 or so, is starting to enter adulthood and take their place on the world stage. What I’ve noticed is how more tolerant this generation is on social issues and how much they are hungry for change. If Generation X, my generation, is the one that is cynical and suspicious of life, then this generation is defined by hope. Hmmm…hope...

I work part time as a pastor at a church near downtown Minneapolis. A few months ago, I went to the church one Saturday evening to do some work. The church has an alarm system and I tried to disarm it with my code only to realize that the code did not work. After some time, I was able to use another person’s code to shut the alarm off. Unfortunately, I was not able to prevent the police from coming to the church. I came out of my office to see a white cop looking into the church. I came...

Okay, that the above title might be a bit harsh. But even so, we Moderates really are in a world of hurt. The moderate/liberal movement in the GOP that once had the likes of Thomas Dewey and Dwight Eisenhower is barely alive these days. Some of that is due to the fact that social conservatives have driven moderates out of the party with their emphasis on issues like abortion and gay rights as litmus tests. As David Jenkins has reported, hard right conservatives have done what they can to get rid...

Blogger Note, the following is by Ian Tanner, a blogger at the Progressive Republican. Reagan Bowling I was sitting in my office listening to Pandora,when I heard a song that started me thinking. The song was called “1985″ by the band Bowling for Soup. The song got me thinking about the current shape of the GOP with regards to the newest generation of voters, the millennials. In case no one is familiar with the lyrics, here is the passage that struck me the most: Springsteen, Madonna Way...

The recent resignation of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has had many a blogger and commentator talking about her and the GOP. That she has chosen to step down from her job less than eighteen months before she up for re-election has made many (myself included) believe that her career in politics is over. However, there are many who believe she has only begun to prepare for the presidential race in 2012, even though she will have had hardly any experience in governing. It’s easy to think those...

Republicans historically have been known as the Party of Lincoln, the party that freed the slaves. Of course, in recent history that legacy has been tarnished by a long string of politicians and GOP leaders that have said things that can only be seen as bigoted. The recent story of Young Republican candidate Audra Shay responding to a racist comment on Facebook is but the latest sad story. Audra is running for the leadership of the Young Republicans and hopes to be elected on Saturday. Her recent...

Minnesota Public Radio is reporting that the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled unanimously in favor of Democrat Al Franken in the disputed 2008 Senate election case. Below is a summary of the court’s findings: 1. Appellants (Norm Coleman) did not establish that, by requiring proof that statutory absentee voting standards were satisfied before counting a rejected absentee ballot, the trial court’s decision constituted a post-election change in standards that violates substantive due process....

There has been an interesting exchange between Freddie deBoer and Mark Thompson over at League of Ordinary Gentlemen on how conservatives approach health care reform. It’s been fascinating because I think it explains why the conservative arguments against major change doesn’t ring very true to the larger public. I don’t always agree with Freddie, but this has been on of the few times that he is very spot on. He notes: …many conservative blogs, from all the various strata...

I wanted to let people know that I may not be posting as much because I’ve taken on the task of getting the blog the Progressive Republican off the ground. Travis Johnson started the blog and he is busy with another project to help unite Progressive Republicans, so he asked me to oversee the day-to-day operations of the blog. Don’t worry, I will still blog here and probably cross-post to the Progressive Republican. I hope people will give this new blog some love, since it is a venture...

Back in 2005, President Bush tried to reform Social Security. I don’t know if his partial privatization plan was the best, but at least he was acknowledging there was a problem with Social Security. Democrats, opposed to privatization, fought back against any reform by saying “there was no crisis.” In the concern over health care reform this year, many Republicans and conservatives are basically saying the same thing about health care in the United States: there is no crisis. Michael...

Republicans are upset about all the spending going on under President Obama. In someways, they should be concerned about all this. But then, if GOP leaders are upset, then they need to look at themselves first before they start accusing the Democrats. New York Times writer David Leonhardt, does a good job of showing how the rising tide of red ink flowing from Washington will harm the economy. But he is willing to show us that the red ink didn’t start with Mr. Obama: The story of today’s...

Living as I do in Minneapolis, a very, very Democratic city, you tend appreciate the times when you can get together with fellow Republicans and chat. We complain about specific Democratic policies and of course, believe that we have better answers. But every so often, I am left with a sense of unease. What bothers me is that some of those gathered (not all, mind you) tend to not just have a healthy suspicion of government, but an outright distrust if not hate. These chats have made me think...

Atlantic Magazine coorespondent, Conor Clarke has a bit of fun at the expense of conservatives who are crying “socialism.” He points to a pie chart that shows what industries have been nationalized and what still remains in private hands. Bloggers Justin Gardner and Pete Abel have chimed in accounting about the silliness of such conservatives. Now, I do think that Republicans have been too quick to use the word socialism to all things tied to the Democrats. (Of course, some liberals...

I have some mixed feelings on the ruling by the California Supreme Court to uphold the voter approved ban on gay marriage. It would have been nice to see the law overturned- I think it is a bad law and bigoted. Be that as it may, I didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of invalidating a vote of the people even if it is bigoted and went against my wishes as a gay man. The thing is, people voted on this issue. They heard all the sides and a majority voted…against gay marriage. Maybe...