I had been dying — no pun intended — to go to one of those congressional health care reform town hall meetings.

You know, the ones where the insulated inside-the-beltway politician, with the expensive shoes, has to contend with a rowdy crowd of peasants with pitchforks deep in Flyover Country.

Well, I got my wish.

I saw Congressman Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat of the 1st District, in action. The 57-year-old Stupak, in fact, has been in the national spotlight, of late, for being a thorn in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s side for opposing a provision for the funding of abortions in the oft-changed and recently re-named national health care bill.

As an avowed right-to-lifer, representing a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment district, who lives at the Christian-friendly ‘C Street’ facility run by “The Family” while in Washington, D.C., Stupak seems like he’d be more at home in the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

As the Old Professor observed long ago, “They say it can’t be done, but sometimes it isn’t always true.”

Casey Stengel was talking about overcoming the odds in baseball, but like many of his baseball lessons (“Good pitching beats good hitting — and vice versa”) this one encompasses wisdom of wider application. For one of the things “they,” the custodians of conventional wisdom, often say you can’t do is win with a third party candidate. You are, they will tell you, wasting your vote, not to mention your time, effort and money, by backing a candidate who is trying to buck the revered two-party structure of politics in America. All you will accomplish, they will tell you, is the siphoning off of some small minority of the vote from the lesser evil, resulting in an increased likelihood that the greater evil will triumph. Better to swallow hard, hold your nose if you must, leave your conscience outside the voting booth and vote, when necessary, for Abomination Lite.

Apparently those hardheaded idealists in the New York Conservative Party never learned the conventional wisdom. In a special election for U.S. Representative in District 23, voters in that northern New York region were offered a choice between Attorney Bill Owens, a Democrat who favors nationalized health care, abortion “rights” and civil unions for same-sex couples, and state Assemblyman Dede Scozzafava, a Republican who favors nationalized health care, abortion “rights,” and marriage for same-sex couples. And while Owens supports repeal of the Bush tax cuts “for the wealthy” Scozzafava is also, as The New York Times has described her, “considered too liberal on various economic issues” by much of the GOP’s conservative base. The Conservative Party, which often endorses Republican candidates, this time nominated Doug Hoffman, who immediately began attracting significant conservative support both within the state and nationally in the only congressional election being held this year. The special election is to fill the vacancy created when President Obama picked Republican Rep. John McHugh to be Secretary of the Army.

For the past several weeks, JBS President John F. McManus has been answering questions for The Hill, the newspaper published for Capitol Hill for and about the U.S. Congress. Periodically, we will reprint the questions along with Mr. McManus’ responses.

The Hill: Dede Scozzafava drops out of the special election in New York's 23rd district and endorses the Democratic candidate. What does it all mean? Are there national implications for this weekend's events in New York?

JFM: Scozzafava's endorsement of the Democrat demonstrates quite dramatically that there is very little difference between establishment Democrats and establishment Republicans. Further, her abandoning the race because of the obvious voter preference for Conservative Party candidate Hoffman indicates that voters are turning once again toward traditional values. Should Hoffman win, his victory will send a large shock wave throughout the nation (her dropping out sent a small shock wave) and signal the shift of momentum away from big government toward the strictures in the U.S. Constitution.

The Hill: What do Democrats stand to gain or lose politically if they go it alone on healthcare?

JFM: As the American people become increasingly more distrustful of government (a very good development!), the Democrats who are pushing hard to establish a more complete federal takeover of the health industry face large-scale repudiation in the 2010 and future elections. There is certainly a possibility of a repeat in 2010 of the 1994 victories by GOP candidates, even though that victory was deceitfully squandered by then-Speaker Gingrich and his essentially meaningless "Contract with America." The rising tide of displeasure over the many federal power grabs will affect the large body of independent, swing voters much more than Democratic and GOP bases.