It is cold here..and snowy...and cold. Even my brain is cold. But then our Gov. Cuomo didn't really help me feel all warm and fuzzy, so maybe that's why I feel the cold so intensely. With all of the problems in New York, he decided to take pot-shots at state Republicans last week.
As reported in the New York Daily News:
It kind of reads like "blah, blah, blah, REPUBLICANS, blah, blah, blah, HAVE NO PLACE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK [SO LEAVE], blah, blah, blah..." Considering that he isn't actually running against anyone yet, it seems kind of out of context to tell people to leave if they do not share the same political beliefs as you. Needless to say, this set off a firestorm with state Republicans and a soft back-tracking ensued from Cuomo's team along the line of "I know you think he said that, but you didn't hear what you thought you thought you heard. He didn't mean "no place" as in "leave". He meant something else entirely."
Funny thing is that Andrew Cuomo is a savvy politician, so I am sure he knew exactly what he was saying and the effect that it would have. Or maybe state Republicans are just being over-sensitive. Either way, he has no problem spending our tax contributions every month.
Any thoughts? As always please feel to free to comment on this or change the subject.
As reported in the New York Daily News:
“Who are they?” Cuomo said about the Republicans. “Are they these extreme conservative, right to life, pro assault weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are, and if they are the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York. Because that’s not who New Yorkers are. If they are moderate Republicans, like in the Senate right now, who control the Senate - moderate Republicans have a place in this state.”
It kind of reads like "blah, blah, blah, REPUBLICANS, blah, blah, blah, HAVE NO PLACE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK [SO LEAVE], blah, blah, blah..." Considering that he isn't actually running against anyone yet, it seems kind of out of context to tell people to leave if they do not share the same political beliefs as you. Needless to say, this set off a firestorm with state Republicans and a soft back-tracking ensued from Cuomo's team along the line of "I know you think he said that, but you didn't hear what you thought you thought you heard. He didn't mean "no place" as in "leave". He meant something else entirely."
Funny thing is that Andrew Cuomo is a savvy politician, so I am sure he knew exactly what he was saying and the effect that it would have. Or maybe state Republicans are just being over-sensitive. Either way, he has no problem spending our tax contributions every month.
Any thoughts? As always please feel to free to comment on this or change the subject.
29 comments:
I'm glad to hear he's endorsing moderate Republicans over Democrats. LOL!
Bev, In all seriousness, he knows what he's doing. If you think about it, this was a brilliant shot:
1. His left flank will love it that he's attacking Republicans and basically calling them extremists. They'll see this as the kind of attack Hillary won't make, and he picked the two big issues that have the left somewhat energized -- abortion and guns.
2. His center-left flank and moderates will love that he sounds moderate by saying he can work with moderates, but won't work with fringers.
3. True RINOs will embrace him as a moderate.
4. The fringe right will lose their mind and give him the publicity he needs to raise his profile a few notches. They'll call him the worst leftist since Stalin and that will give him his bona fides with his base.
There is no lose proposition for him.
Of course, it does say something about his base that they would welcome a label like "Worst Leftist Since Stalin."
Between this apostle of fairmindedness and De Blasio possibly using snowplows to screw over New Yorkers with money, the Empire State seems especially blessed in its political leadership just now.
Well, T-Rav, as anyone in the know will tell you, Stalin was never really a communist. He was right wing. If he'd only been a true communist, then it would have worked.
As an aside, Cuomo is running ads out here touting New York as a "low tax" state and claiming they'll give you a tax-free zone if you relocate your business to New York. So much for believing his ideology.
His present designed to get more campaign contributions.
Well, so long as New York has a place for severe conservatives, Mitt Romney can feel comfortable there.
Seriously, like Andrew observed, its kind of insane how Republicans tend to embrace words which have a negative meaning in most contexts.
Tell most people you're an extremist, they will nod, smile and slowly back away, even if the other guy (the one they are backing towards) is even more extreme (but not broadcasting that fact from the rooftops).
Tim Scott recently showed why I have long considered him the most politically savvy black conservative, if not the most crowd pleasing.
The leader of a state chapter of the NAACP (a reverend) recently attacked Scott as a ventriloquist's dummy and lumped him in with gangbangers as disgraces to the legacy of MLK.
A stupider black Republican would have rolled out the plantation rhetoric. Instead, Scott gave a response which just highlighted his accomplishments and his opponent's pettiness.
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Scott explained that he has never met Barber and implied that the NAACP chapter head knows nothing about him.
“I did not meet him when I was failing out of high school. I did not see him on the streets of my neighborhoods where too many of my friends got off track and never recovered. I did not meet him when I was working 85 hour weeks to start my business, nor did I meet him when I was running for Congress against long odds. But who I did meet were people everywhere across this state who were willing to work hard and to help me succeed — and I them,” Scott said.
Noting that he has experienced the dreams of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “as a proud South Carolinian,” Scott pointed to his “Opportunity Agenda” as a way to promote success by providing Americans more opportunity and making government less intrusive.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/21/tim-scott-responds-to-naacp-insult-reminds-me-and-others-of-what-not-to-do/#ixzz2rExcmD8P
Bev, I believe the expression you are looking for is: "I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
Anthony, now there is a class act. Republicans of all colors, genders, and whatever other stripes, spots, or markers could learn a lot about rhetoric from a man who is so ready with such a profound response.
Yeah, Tim Scott is just a cool guy all around, and I'm hopeful that he will take a more prominent role in the Senate in the near future.
Sorry, I have been otherwise engaged digging myself out of large Upper Eastside snow drift...';-)
Andrew - The points you make are accurate. His intention was to drive a deeper wedge into what he perceives as a major rift in the NY Republican Party. He might have actually helped heal it a little bit (darn those liberal unintended consequences!) As even the NY Post editorialist Seth Lipsky pointed out in his editorial, the "right to life, pro assault weapon, anti-gay" conservatives in NY are the Catholics (of which Cuomo famously is one), Orthodox Jews, Protestants, Muslims etc.
Btw, the left is going to be hitting the abortion issue really hard in the next 9 months (interesting the timing) everywhere. Conservative candidates either need to meet it earnestly head on (no Todd Akins moments) or sideline it over more important issues like getting people back to work.
Andrew - Yes, Cuomo's ad touting the "low taxes" and "business friendly" atmosphere were met with a collective "Whaa?????" in NY. What the real deal is I will expand on soon, but in short, if you move your business within a few blocks of a college or university, the state will defer your taxes for 10 years. Or if you are a Hollywood production company you will get the same "tax incentives" to film here. Now, weren't these the same Democrats who swore that corporate welfare, "tax incentives", and "tax breaks to the rich" causes poverty and deficits and death and destruction to humanity?
Anthony - I read about Barber and that is probably the best response that anyone has every given to that kind of hateful rhetoric Barber was being applauded on the liberal blogs for calling Scott out. Interesting Scott's response was not published anywhere.
LL - Exxxactly. The other part of his statement was how he had to raise oodles and oodles of cash for his campaign coffers ($33million so far) to defeat any possible big moneyed Republican billionaire candidate swho might enter the race. Trump is making noises about running, but he wouldn't have a snowballs chance in hell of being elected. And he's not that moneyed despite what he wants people to believe.
Also, this isn't about his upcoming gubernatorial elections. This is about his potential 2016 Presidential bid. There is no way that he can lose in 2014 no matter who the Republicans run.
Tryanmax - Yes, that WOULD be what I meant if the soft pedaling back had been more coherent. ;-)
T-Rav - Next week I will report on just how "blessed" we have become in the Leftist Utopia. Btw, Mayor de Blasio apologized for not being on top of that snow situation on the UES. It is a lot more than just "rich people whining". The UES has many top trauma emergency rooms and medical facilities that left people in real peril. Also a lot of rich elderly people and UES dog walkers were in danger too.
Just for the record, I DO live on the UES of Manhattan, but I live in what would be considered the 5 floor walk-up housing built for the servants of the UES Park Avenue millionaires in the 1920's.
tryanmax, Ouch. I think that caused part of my brain to explode.
Bev, I knew there was a catch! LOL! I look forward to your report. :) But yes, that is precisely the kind of thing liberals routinely scream about being sops to the extreme rich meant to exploit the noble poor... by giving them jobs.
Good luck with the snowdrifts! Watch for Yettis!
Bev,
Liberals not calling out the NAACP idiot is just the way the game is played.
In politics nutjobs can be pretty nasty about people on the other side and not catch much if any heat from their sides. For example, some liberal sites are making much of the fact Ted Nugent recently called Obama a subhuman mongrel and a chimpanzee, but its not hurting him in conservative circles.
http://thedailybanter.com/2014/01/nugent-mongrel-chimpanzee/
Anthony - I don't care what Ted Nugent says, this is about Rev. Barber. And who really listens much to what Ted Nugent says anyway?
The President of the NAACP of North Carolina is a credible position. and what you don't expect is that the President of the NC NAACP to use his position at this credible organization to level such vitriol against someone who has in fact...advanced to the level of US Senator, the only Black US Senator, btw And all this vitriol because Sen. Scott does not tow Barber's "Ted Nugent-style" version of the NAACP party line. And to make matters even worse, Barber did it during the weekend festivities leading to Martin Luther King's birthday.
I must concur with Bev. I expect a certain sort of discourse from a man holding multiple degrees in political science, public policy, and divinity received from institutions such as Duke and Drew. I expect a different sort of discourse from the writer of rock songs such as "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Wango Tango" and founder of the 90's supergroup Damn Yankees.
I would agree with Bev, though I'm still processing the idea that she lives in "what would be considered the 5 floor walk-up housing built for the servants of the UES Park Avenue millionaires in the 1920's."
Very colorful. LOL!
You guys have a higher opinon of the NAACP than I do. I am tremendously grateful for and respectful of their legacy, but in the past few decades they've done nothing useful but that's besides the point.
The point I was seeking to make was that political groups letting useful idiots foam at the mouth is par for the course. Guys have to go waaaay over the line before they are criticized by their own side.
What was remarkable about the NAACP episode was not the shot at Scott (black conservatives are not popular in the black community) but his response. *Shrugs* But take what you will away from it.
Anthony, I have zero respect for the NAACP. My whole life, they've been nothing but a racist, racial agitation machine. And I get your point and think you are right.... BUT I agree with Bev that an organization that claims a respected place at the table (whether I think they deserve it or not) needs to hold their rhetoric at a higher level to be considered legitimate.
To me, this is just more proof of their illegitimacy.
Andrew - I know, I know, I have the sophistication and panache of a Park Avenue penthouse dweller, but sadly, I must deign to live amongst the rabble of the "servant class" of the UES. In "Downton Abbey" patois, I am hopelessly "downstairs" material.
If only my parents would give me that Trust Fund that I KNOW they have secretly held for me. I asked them every time I talk to them about it, but they swear there is no "trust fund"...yeah, riiiiiight. ;-)
Anthony - I understand what you are saying and I agree whole-heartedly about the vitriol on all sides. I probably have a higher level of respect for NAACP because of their historical significance rather than their present day rhetoric.
Anthony, I don't particularly see my comment as all that respectful of the NAACP. If anything, it shows how one is able to hold Ted Nugent in higher esteem. Actually, one might calculate personal respect as the difference between what is encountered and what might have been expected beforehand.
Bev, "UES" sounds like some sort of economic zone or UN created region in the Middle East.
Sorry to hear that you are hopelessly downstairs, but I hear the downstairs people have more fun. :D
Anthony, a certain segment of conservatives will always defend Nugent. To me, such remarks are a verbal equivalent of public urination or vomiting - sure, it makes the guy feel better, but it is not exactly conservative. And watching it gets old quick. Then again, he is a old rock star not known for excessive self control so it is not wrong to apply a different standard.
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