(CNN) - Vice President Joe Biden challenged Republican voters in New York's 23rd congressional district to teach conservative "absolutists" a lesson in the special House election Tuesday by voting for the Democratic candidate in the race.
"We aren't asking you to switch your party," Biden said at a rally for Democrat Bill Owens in Watertown, New York Monday morning. "We are just saying join us in teaching a lesson to those absolutists who say no dissent is permitted within your own party."
The comments come a day after Republican Dede Scozzafava, who withdrew from the race Saturday amid heavy pressure from conservatives - endorsed Owens. Many high-profile Republicans, including Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Dick Armey, have already thrown their own support behind third-party conservative candidate Doug Hoffman.
Related: Scozzafava campaigns for Owens
In his remarks at the rally for Owens, Biden elicited boos from the crowd when he mentioned Palin, Limbaugh and Armey.
"The idea that Rush Limbaugh would handpick [the] successor is kind of unusual," Biden said of the popular conservative radio host who has heavily backed Hoffman over the national party's choice of Scozzafava.
"I would have thought the last person I would bring up to the North Country is Dick Armey," Biden continued, pointing to the former Texas congressman and current chairman of the conservative group FreedomWorks. "He's a decent guy, but he represents a view so alien it seems to me to the pragmatism to the North Country. Sarah Palin, a former governor - her views are real and consistent with Armey's and Limbaugh's and Dick Cheney's."
"This is a different ideology," Biden continued. "This is different than anything I've known in my 45 years of being familiar with this district. You know, they may not have any room for moderate views in the Republican Party upstate anymore, but let me assure you, we have room, we have room."
Later in his remarks, the vice president couldn't help but return to the subject of the former Alaska governor when the issue of energy came up.
"Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy is 'Drill, baby, drill,' he said, leaning into the microphone. "It's a lot more complicated, Sarah, than drill baby drill."
A just-released Siena College poll suggests Hoffman holds a 5-point lead over Owens, while 18 percent of likely remain undecided.
Update: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fired back at Biden Monday. "As the vice president knows, I have always advocated an all-of-the-above approach to American energy independence," Palin wrote in a note on her Facebook page. "There's one way to tell Vice President Biden that we're tired of folks in Washington distorting our message and hampering our nation's progress: Hoffman, Baby, Hoffman!."
Follow Alex Mooney on Twitter @awmooneycnn
From CNN Politics
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Sounds like a lot of republicans like CNN. Go CNN. THey will eventually leave the camp and join us.
Joe Biden is great.
I am always an independent and rarely bothering to put my political opinions out (busy to work, busy to take care of my kids/family, and of course, BUSY TO PAY MY TAXES). I know what kind of life under socialism and communist ruling. The current direction of this country, the policies of this administration, and the far left extreme of congress, have make me so concern about the future of this great, but imperfect country. Americans need to teach the far left democratic a LESSION and bring this country back to THE PEOPLE.
Glad to know that finally true conservatives are fighting back and Republicans pretending to be truly conservatives are being ousted. Republicans should stick to their conservative values and they will definitely gain the trust of a many conservatives.
If Palin is a nobody on the eyes of liberals, why are they so worried about her? She must be speaking and fighting for something that ticks off the day light of many liberals.
The Dems claim Limbaugh is the leader of the party and then, when he supports someone outside the party, claims dissent within the party is not allowed.
Am I the only one who sees the rich irony?
Palin and other Republicans are dissenting. Biden simply can't fathom doing something that wasn't in lockstep with the Dem party.
Perhaps Joe should take a look at what his followers call Blue Dog Democrats who don't toe the line on health care. Why is it that Lieberman is now an Independent? Face it, the ultra-left has a stronger lock on the Democratic Party than Limbaugh does on the Republican Party. When Hoffman wins, who will have learned the lesson Joe?
Biden you need to go back to probing steroid use in baseball. You really can't do too much harm there.
If the Republicans keep forcing out the moderates in their party they'll become more and more irrelevent to mainstream America. Just as the Dems moved too far left in the 70's & 80's, so are the Repubs moving too far right. The Dems paid for it and the GOP will too. It's hard to win elections when only 20% of voters view your party favorably.
Becareful what you say about Sarah and Rush, these Fascist's have a way of remebering their enemies and yes, the people of the U.S. are the stated enemies of the fascist conservatives.
I am tired of CNN and the rest of the media for giving these teabaggers their time; it is like they are being unleased on us. Hoffman stated that he would follow the values of Beck, he did not even know the district but because he was a conservative that was all that counted plus he did not even live in the district.. Now you have all your teabaggers gloating. Wake up people you will have a lot of elections to keep up with in 2010. I heard Pat today on CNN say they wanted in 2012 another Regan. The repubs have reached a point that they do not care who they support to gain control they will do anything; and they do not care if who they endorse or support knows anything. Why do people not research.No one has the right at the expense of others for this kind of hate and egotiscal behavior.
Hanity – lying multimillionaire
Rush- Pill popping multimillionaire
Palin – dingbat multimillionaire
Beck – cry baby multimillionaire
but no, trust'em they are just looking out for the middle class.
How rich! Try asking Joe Lieberman if dissent in the Democratic Party is permitted. Last I heard his chairmanship was being threatened for "dissenting". Such hypocrisy.
Republican All Around tomorrow. Hoffman, Christie, McDonnell... Keep America Strong, Safe, and Secure!
Newt gingrich and michael steele have lost all credibility as members of the republican party! They should both resign now! No, token liberals and left wing nuts are not welcome in the gop especially when they try to run as a republican!
Conservativism is exactly what we need, the current government is writing checks they can't cash. It is time for everyone to wake up and smell the bull!! We are owned by the Chinese and this country is being bailed out/stimulated to the ground. We need to go back to our values; we are willing to give a hand up not HAND OUTS! Generations are being ruined by "entitlements" versus working.
Not terribly worried that 2 Governors races and a congressional race to replace a Republican in a conservative district will have much negative effect on President Obama. I would be concerned if I was (shudder, shudder) a Republican though – why would they want to disenfranchise even more of their members than they have now by backing only conservatives? The party of old white guys (and one dumb white female) needs to be more inclusive if they are going to survive. Oh wait! Who cares if they survive? Their ideals and policies couldn't be more wrong for the 21st century.
Funny that the Repubs slam Biden for speaking his mind and then turn around and say it's refreshing when Palin does it. Yet another inconsistency within this party. No wonder nobody can figure out what these people stand for.
Acorn registered something like a million voters during the election last year. Obama won by what? 7 or 8 million? even if every single one of those Acorn registries was fraudulent, it still would not have changed the outcome of the election even slightly.
Be quiet Joe.
We want the neo-cons to run Saint Sarah of the Silly in 2012!
The 30% of Americans that think she is qualified will help her "bust right through that door that God opened".
We want the neo-con "christians" to rule the republican party.
Don't cha ya know?
V.P. Biden is so Correct...........
There should be no "drill baby drill"......but rather "save baby save".
Save our energy.
Save our dollars.
Save our Planet.
Save our HUMAN RACE.
OK, so Biden is an embarrassment, a bit of a buffoon.
But, compared to Palin, Limbaugh, and the Bushes, he comes across as quite intelligent.
Absolutists is a good word for this set of beliefs.
Joe is right.
These elections are definitely not a referendum on the President.....If anything, they do say that politicians are not captivating enough since the Obama campaign, and are not believable..........
Conservatives are absolutist (not all), but it seems that most conservatives believe their way is the only way........which is false......They say conservatives want gov. waste to stop, and for the deficit to be dealt with.......Who doesn't? However the reality of the situation is that this President came into office w/ a gigantic deficit already, and a looming depression to fight off.....the stock market was crashed.....and consumer spending as well as lending had frozen to a stand still......The only entity that could deficit spend, was the government.......The fact is, (notice I said fact) is that it worked.....GDP is up 3.5%.......The next logical step is to get ones fiscal house in order.....Which I have confidence that the President will begin in spring 2010.....
And you wonder why the world thinks Americans are not the sharpest tools in the shed...
Then you read these political blogs and you have a segment of your society that defend Hannitty, Beck, Limbaugh, Plalin as "truth sayers". Serioulsy? No kidding?!
It's no wonder you elected a "C-average" student to 2 terms as POTUS.
The conservatidve among you are some of the least open-minded people in the civilized world.
And that people is why the world thinks "Americans is dum1". Thank your conservatives, ie. closed-minds, for showing anyone with a shred of intelligence that you can't fix stup!d.
I hope that voters in NY-23 teach the Democrats that they can't keep passing their shills as Republicans. That is all a "moderate" Republican is, a Democrat shill.
Biden makes me laugh. Not only is he dishonest, but he is also egotistical. If the chose had been between Palin and Biden for VP, I'd go Palin. Besides taking a government paycheck for 30 years, what has Biden done? Exactly.
Mitt Romney in 2012.