kos: "I have nothing but ill will for all candidates in this race" + poll

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas made it clear today that he doesn't support Republican Dede Scozzafava in the 23rd Congressional District race - and that he resents that conservative pundits have used his Sept. 3 post as ammunition to hit Ms. Scozzafava and prop up Doug Hoffman, the Conservative candidate.

"I have no love for the Democrat, Owens, and I clearly have no love for Scozzafava in that post, so only an idiot would construe that as an 'endorsement,'" Mr. Moulitsas writes, in part. "An endorsement implies love for the candidate being endorsed. I wish nothing but ill will for all candidates in this race. But the GOP is full of idiots, and they've run strong with it, making my "endorsement" part of their anti-Scozzafava narrative. And now we're in a situation in which the conservative candidate Doug Hoffman has a real chance of performing better than the Republican."

Mr. Moulitsas concludes: "I'm no longer rooting for a Scozzafava victory. That gets us nothing. And I'm not rooting for a Hoffman victory, and I'm certainly not rooting for Owens because I'm over Lieberdems."

It's still not going to stop Glenn Beck, et al. from using this non-endorsement endorsement against Ms. Scozzafava. After all, they're fond of saying the assemblywoman has taken the endorsement of ACORN - while conveniently leaving out the fact that she is not, in fact, the Working Families Party candidate in this race.

Oh, and Mr. Moulitsas leaked his own Research 2000/Daily Kos poll results early: Mr. Owens apparently has 33 percent in their poll, Mr. Hoffman has 32 percent and Ms. Scozzafava has 21 percent.

Talking Points Memo says the margin of error is plus or minus 4 percent, which means Mr. Owens and Mr. Hoffman are in a dead heat.

"At this point, though, we have enough evidence to say with a reasonable level of confidence that the race is probably between Owens and Hoffman," TPM writer Eric Kleefield notes.