I’m not one who buys into conspiracy theories and I’m not sure that this theory is much more than the musings of a windy Sunday afternoon. But I have been giving some thought to the news out of the election in New York’s 23rd district. The withdrawal of the Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava has led to a great deal of discussion about the war within the party and the split between moderates and conservatives.

One of the more interesting aspects to this campaign was the fact that Markos Moulitsas, editor of the far left web site Daily Kos, more or less endorsed Scozzafava as a better candidate that the Democrat in the race. This fact was used by many on the hard right as evidence that she was unfit to be a Republican and should be removed from the race.

I’ve been skimming the Kos site since and haven’t seen much more discussion of the contest in terms of Markos urging his readers to back Dede or to donate to her campaign.  This is a departure from his usual practice where he pushes hard to get all kinds of support for the candidates he backs.

Which led me to ponder whether this was a head fake on the part of Markos to spark right wing attacks on Dede by expressing support for her. If it was the it is one of the more clever political snow jobs as it has seriously enhanced a split in the NY GOP and has exposed fractures in the national organization.

I’m not sure if he did it, but if he did then he’s a pretty clever guy.

Myself, I’m backing Owens.