DeDe Won't Drink... She Won't Even Talk About Drinking...
One thing we know for certain is that Scozzafava isn't exactly proud to be a Republican. She doesn't even vote like a Republican. She won't say that she won't run as a Democrat. She might just as well attend both the Republican and Democratic County Committee interviews to see which party would make her their frontrunner. We can't say we blame her for it. We see the wisdom in it.
According to the Watertown newspaper, "Possible strong Republican contenders include Mr. Barclay and Assemblywoman Dierdre K. Scozzafava, who has been fighting rumors she is considering switching parties under pressure from organized labor, with the Obama administration playing a role in the background."
How is DeDe fighting the rumors? Has she been public about it anywhere? All the news claims she won't give a definitive answer one way or another.
Second, it is not hard to believe Obama and his team would be playing around in the background. The New York Daily News broke a story today that Rahm Emanuel tried to persuade Long Island Representative Peter King an ambassadorship to Ireland. The story went on to say Rep. King, "still has no doubt that Obama's top aide [Rahm Emanuel] would target his House seat if the opportunity arose."
Who is to say that the White House Chief of Staff hasn't talked to big labor in New York, the DCCC, or even Scozzafava herself about the prospect of running as a Democrat. Or maybe Emanuel just dragged a RINO to the Democratic pond, but couldn't make her drink the water. We learned today that he couldn't get King to drink our Irish whisky.
But the Mayor of Watertown also sees it another way. According to someone who forwarded his blog to our coalition, "The prospects for Diedre Scozzafava running for Congress still appear dim to me, but a key GOP insider tells me there is still strong support for her candidacy among the country chairs in the 11 county 23rd CD. Under a weighted voting system, I am told the chairs in Oswego, Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties would carry the day. Good news for DeDe." We agree with that mayor that Scozzafava would be a poor candidate for the Republicans to put up. Although if McHugh's replacement is Scozzafava it is, for all intents and purposes, still a victory for us because we will have her on all of our key issues from card check, to health care, to taxes, social issues, and who knows what else.
Still, one has to wonder how it would look if DeDe were to only garner 3 of 11 GOP county chairs? If 8 county chairs voice a strong opposition to DeDe would she even be credible within her own party to make it to the finish line this fall? Whichever party she runs with we hope she wins. [On a side note it would be interesting to see how the Oswego chair votes if Assemblyman Will Barclay decides to get in the game. That would be a nightmare for DeDe. Does anyone know if the county chairs votes will be made public?]
So what do we make of the rumors that DeDe is exploring the option of attending the Democratic meetings to test the waters? Here is what we have gathered. The DCCC has already announced that they think "the district is winnable with the right candidate... Right now our focus is on working with local Democrats to recruit a strong candidate." The language is so interesting in that quote, "winnable with the right candidate... working with local Democrats to recruit a strong candidate."
The drum beat continues and two serious questions remain:
1) Have the DNC, the DCCC, Rep. Steve Israel (tasked with recruiting Democratic candidates for the US House), White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, our local Democratic county chairs, local labor chambers, or even Obama himself reached out to DeDe? That might be all she is waiting for before she drinks the water.
2) Why is Scozzafava so shy with the media about the prospect of running as a Democrat? One thing is for certain, we know Emanuel isn't afraid to drag the RINOs to their pond. Perhaps Emanuel's master strategy all along is to have it both ways. Support another Democrat to win the district, or in the event that Scozzafava wins as a Republican just twist her huff on important policy to make Obama's agenda look like it has bipartisan support. Whatever Emanuel's master plan is we support it and have full confidence in him. It's a win-win situation anyway you look at it.
