Hoffman 2010?

Apparently I wan't the only one thinking about this. Last night third party candidate Doug Hoffman came close to winning a congressional seat in NY's 23rd Congressional District. Very close, but not quite. Does Hoffman take another run in 2010, just 12 months away?  Hoffman, in the GOP in 2010, after one year of a Democrat in a Republican stronghold, would seem like a lock for Congress.  What's not clear though is does he do it as a third party candidate or does the GOP welcome him into the fold? And if so, would he join the GOP, which obviously botched the NY23 job the way a Jimmy Carter would botch a hostage rescue?

And why did a Democrat won the special election at all.  Is it because conservatives were so mad at the GOP establishment and the likes of Newt Gingrich that they stayed home, or punished the conservative in the race out of spite?  Is it that the electorate didn't want to experiment with a third party candidate who could turn out to be a radical like say a certain President turned out to be?  Or that the district has turned blue?

None of those explanations wash entirely.  But they aren't as important as the GOP getting right with conservatives.  It doesn't mean they have to slip off the right end of the table, but they have to be different than what they became over the last 8 years, as embodied by Dede Scozzafava; liberal, sell-outs. Democrats-in-Republican-clothing.  No one needs that.  Democrats don't, Republicans don't, and conservatives won't tolerate it, even if Newt Gingrich says it's the right thing to do.  It isn't.

Hoffman 2010? As a GOP candidate?  Seems like a logical fit. As long as the GOP doesn't shoot itself in the foot again.