“Some bloggers just rattle…the anonymity of the computer gives them free reign to incessently idle about with their conspiracy theories and salacious gossip. GM didn't do that; he backed up the reasons for his statements (which is more than we can say for many bloggers). You may not have agreed with what he said … but the mere fact that we came back and engaged him – and ourselves – is a testament to the power of his words, and the popularity and importance of the political blogger."-Black Pride (5/23/06)
“The Hippocratic Oath begins with the injunction “First do no harm”. It is not a high standard to meet, but it is one at which the WFP has utterly failed. It is time to put the patient out of its misery and pull the plug on the WFP. Vote for Spitzer for Governor on the Democratic line”- Gatemouth (10/28/06)
“For those who’ve recently watched me unrelentingly dump without mercy on the Working Families Party (WFP, I should make it crystal clear that if you want to vote for Eliot Spitzer, but you cannot bring yourself to do so on the Democratic line, then I plead with you to instead do so on the line of the WFP, rather that for one second consider a vote for Spitzer on the line of the repugnant Independence Party (IP) (for the reasons why see here, here, here, here, here, here and here).If necessary, write Spitzer in; your vote won’t be counted (since under state law, write-ins count only for candidates whose names do not appear on the ballot) but it’s still preferable to a vote for the IP. Even a vote for Faso, or the goddamned Bush-enabling Green Party would be preferable to one extra minute of the IP’s continued existence"– Gatemouth (11/05/06)
“So, in the end, I urge a vote for a candidate who’s recently expressed sincere interest in the job, and clearly has no compunction about taking on deserving targets from every end of the political spectrum without fear of the consequences. In fact, he seems to relish it. Despite my sometimes harsh and well-earned past criticisms, in this year’s Comptroller’s race, I am urging people to “Vote Green”. On Election Day, Gatemouth urges a write-in vote for Adam Green for New York State Comptroller. I am being as serious as a heart attack when I, in all sincerity, urge a vote for Adam Green, because, this time, the other guys are the joke!” – Gatemouth (10/24/06)
NYC Vote For Spitzer For Governor on the Working Families Party Line: 74, 221
NYC Vote For Spitzer For Governor on the Independence Party Line: 36,882
NYC Vote for Comptroller:
Alan Hevesi 856,056
Adam Green 4
Scattered 259,070
To paraphrase Bernstein from “Citzen Kane”, with an 800,000 majority already against him and the church counties still to be heard from, I’m afraid we’ve got no choice:
ADAM GREEN DEFEATED, FRAUD AT THE POLLS.
I know EnWhySeaWonk and the guys at “Left Behinds” will hold out a little longer, pointing out, with some justice, that the church counties are not exactly Hevesi strongholds either, and while the returns from Westchester indicate that the rest of the state holds at least one more Green vote, the City remains Adam’s stronghold, so it’s time to throw in the towel.
Sadly, one cannot ignore the monumental dimensions of Green’s defeat. Not only was he outrun by every candidate actually on the ballot, but by three others as well. Anti-abortion activist Michael Cronmiller, the candidate of what, back when they had ballot status, politicos used to call the “Dead Baby Party” (their emblem on the voting machines was a fetus), had filed petitions to run, only to be knocked off the ballot as a result of Spencer/McFarlane blowback; he got 37 write-in votes. Bill Thompson got nine votes, and Brooklynite Paul Dann, an actual CPA, active in the “City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism” (one guesses they'd oppose circumsizing dogs), who’d received one vote in last year’s Public Advocate Primary, got five (if he keeps up this exponentially astonishing rate of improvement, he'll be elected Mayor sometime in the 22nd century). Two other candidates tied Adam’s total; Mark Green, whose votes I’m convinced actually belonged to Adam, costing him 8th place; and Mickey Mouse, who, unlike novice candidate Adam, is a veteran vote-getter (in fairness, I should point out that while the Mouse is a more seasoned candidate, he was handicapped by the presence in the race of Chris Callaghan, who had already make clear his intention of running a "Mickey Mouse" type operation; on the other hand Adam's films are much funnier than Mickey's). To put the icing on the cake of humiliation, within the City, Betsy Gotbaum's stalker received 10 votes for US Senate (I kid you not).
The IP and WFP victories, together with Green’s defeat, and the loss of Ned Lamont in Connecticut prove conclusively that “the popularity and importance of the political blogger” is not all it has been cracked up to be, showing the Netroots to still be a sapling, although one with no shortage of fertilizer.