When, at the end of September, Rep. John McHugh (R) resigned as the congressman from New York’s 23rd District to become Secretary of the Army it represented an opportunity for the Republican party. The off-year special election to fill McHugh’s seat — set by New York Governor David Paterson to be held on November 3rd, to coincide with the scheduled general election – is the closest thing to a preseason game the GOP will get in preparation for the 2010 midterm elections that many analysts feel are vital both to the future of the party and our nation. By choosing Deidre “Dede” Scozzafava, the party of Reagan has — in basketball terms — thrown up a golden 3-point shot, but at the wrong basket.

Scozzafava, who currently represents District 122 to the New York State Assembly, is what you would see when looking up RINO (Republican In Name Only) if an American encyclopedia of political zoology were to exist. If the GOP selected its nominees the way that eHarmony identifies potential soul mates, her pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and pro-card check positions alone would almost certainly have returned a response of ‘incompatible.’

The list of those endorsing Scozzafava is, to put it politely, eclectic, and includes:

• the Wish List, a PAC devoted to electing pro-choice Republicans the House and Senate
• Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga, founder and published of the Daily Kos
• the Working Families Party, a self-identified “progressive political party” that has close ties to scandal-wracked ACORN

[Shame on Newt Gingrinch and House Minority Leader John Boehner for their support as well.]

Were Scozzafava’s status as a Republican solid, some of us who look at the chess board and recognize that there is safety in numbers might see the wisdom in party luminaries backing a candidate even if they do reject so many of the GOP’s core principles. But when New York Democratic party chair June O’Neill reveals that Scozzafava’s husband was pimping her out as a Democrat-in-waiting shortly before she accepted the Republican nomination, the “R” beside her name looks more like an accessory that might be changed depending on her mood. From the New York Daily News:

Her husband spoke with several Democratic officials and, you know, people who are aligned with the Democratic Party,” O’Neill said. “There was some discussion about whether or not Dede might switch parties…

According to O’Neill, this isn’t the first time the Democrats have spoken to Scozzafava about switching sides.

Furthermore, it is painfully ironic that after months of scathing criticism from GOP leadership regarding the Obama administration’s conga line of of tax cheats, and the White House’s nonexistent vetting process for high-level staff and appointment, Red State’s reporting in July that three of Scozzafava’s companies had a total of $192,000 in outstanding tax liens.

Current polling indicates that Scozzafava is splitting the Republican vote with Doug Hoffman, who sought the GOP nomination early on but on losing to Scozzafava picked up the banner of the Conservative Party of New York. The Democratic party nominee Bill Owens, leads in the latest polls by a slim margin. In the two consecutive polls, taken less than three weeks apart by Siena Research Institute, only Scozzfava has been losing ground while her two opponents have made significant gains.

Hoffman has almost certainly benefited from the endorsement of prominent conservatives such as Michelle Malkin, Bill Kristol, Rush Limbaugh, former Sen. Fred Thompson, as well as groups like the American Conservative Union and the Club for Growth. They are only a subset of the list of the third party candidate’s supporters.

No matter what the vote tally indicates on November 3rd, continued support for Scozzafava by establishment Republicans will send a chill through the ranks of only recently awakened conservative grass roots networks. Now is the time for Republican strategists to consider drawing up escape routes for Scozzafava’s withdrawal from the race or for the GOP to distance themselves from the candidate.  The potential sea change that could manifest from the mixture of an invigorated choir of conservative voices and growing disillusionment about President Obama’s radical left-wing agenda will be made monumentally more difficult if morale is low in the conservative base during these critical fundraising months. It is time for the captains of conservatism in the Republican party to steer the ship into the fight, instead of sailing away to fight another day.

*EDITOR'S NOTE: Help out the true conservative in this race, Doug Hoffman, by visiting his website and contributing to his campaign: DougHoffmanforCongress.com. He will need all the resources he can get in these last days before the election!