Got a call from Dave Mance at about 8 oclock. The International Man of Leisure was at his Florida bungalow watching CNN. Dave told me to tune over because Assemblywoman Diedre Scozzafava was set to be interviewed.

She was on to talk about being "Scozzafava'd."

That's the new verb referring to the phenomenon of a centrist (some say liberal) Republican being attacked viciously by conservatives seeking idealogical purity in the party.

Ms. Scozzafava is seeking to join former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork who had his name become a verb after a pack of rabid Democrats ran him down like a deer savaged by pooches who suddenly were not so much like the family pet.

Scozzafava sounded reasonable and made the "big tent" argument. Indeed that was the argument last July that putting a Republican... even a Jacob Javits-type Republican was better than allowing the numerical majority of Speaker Pelosi to increase.

Like all the candidates her handlers had kept her under wraps mouthing blather through a spokesperson of dubious value until it was too late and her campaign was, as I said before, like a crippled Bismarck circling in the Atlantic while she was plugged with torpedo after torpedo till sinking into the murky deep.

Two late campaign appearances by Scozzafava (October 27 on the HOTLINE and October 29 on WSYR-TV) showed her best able to answer questions. The other two candidates were either hiding or unable to speak, or both.

By then it was way too late. Too many torpedoes had left the Bismarck's fate sealed and it was just a case of whether she sank on Saturday or Tuesday.

The news out of this morning's interview was Scozzafava intends to stay a Republican and may use her new platform to speak in favor of the GOP big tent.

She will have the opportunity to speak about what happened and should use it. If she had taken more time to speak for herself in July, August, September and early October the result may have been the same, but I suspect not.

For now, she is a verb in the lexicon of victims of the "rabid right." She will find solace and sympathy from some quarters and may be content to finish out her term before taking the job June winked at her over.

Maybe she will choose to remain in the political fight. Who knows, but for now the best therapy may be to become a talking head for a time.