Dede Scozzafava, the New York state Assemblywoman and former Republican candidate in the NY-23 special election, told the Syracuse Post-Standard about her experience in withdrawing from the race and endorsing Democrat Bill Owens -- and decried the national conservative activists who mobilized against her and in favor of Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Scozzafava said that she received calls from two key New York Democrats, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Steve Israel, who she says did not ask her for any endorsement but instead simply told her they were sorry for how she'd been treated by the GOP. As for the Republicans, Scozzafava said: "The one thing that wasn't occurring, as the Republicans in Washington were changing their allegiances, no one bothered to call me."

Scozzafava denounced national conservatives for "the amount of hate and lies and the deceitfulness" used against her: "I don't believe that should be the characteristics that define the Republican Party. I think people should be allowed to have discussions and reasonable disagreements. But this was a full frontal assault on me personally and politically, for weeks."

She also gave an example of the sort of calls she's gotten from across the country since endorsing Owens. "There was a man from Oregon," she said. "We talked for half an hour. In the beginning, he just started lecturing me on the Bible, lecturing me on sin, on liberalism. Finally, I said, 'How about honesty? How about telling the truth?'"