Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Sweeney misfires again (and again)

and he'll probably misfire again this afternoon.

Misfire #1

Feeling the heat from WFP-endorsed challenger Kirsten Gillibrand, Republican incumbent John Sweeney has started running negative ads in their CD20 race. Taking a page from the Karl Rove playbook, Sweeney is telling people that Gillibrand - a district resident - doesn't live in the district. The basis for Sweeney's claim is that at one point in her life Gillibrand didn't live in the district.

What makes this a Karl Rove-style attack is that Sweeney didn't live in the district when he first ran for office while Gillibrand is a fifth generation upstate New Yorker. He's trying to take his weakness - that Sweeney's lost touch with the district while Gillibrand has deep roots there - and turn it against her.

But it's a pretty transparent ploy, and is failing to distract from Sweeney's numerous ethical problems. Count it as a misfire.

Misfire #2

Speaking of Sweeney's ethical problems, today Tuesday at 2 Assemblymember Brodsky will hold held the second hearing investigating Sweeney's taxpayer-funded ski vacation with lobbyists.

Sweeney is stonewalling the investigation by refusing to testify. But, just like with Tom DeLay, it won't work. Count it as a misfire.

No wonder Sweeney won't debate Gillibrand - his misfiring campaign loses on the ethics and on the issues.

Update: The scandal around Republican incumbent John Sweeney's taxpayer-funded ski vacation for him and his lobbyist friends expanded with Tuesday's hearing. Sweeney refused to testify, but Stephen Bull tried to cover for Sweeney by saying that not everyone Sweeney wanted to invite was invited. Bull did admit that if Sweeney wanted to invite someone Bull tried to "accomodate" that.

Sweeney's defense - claiming that he made the invitation list but didn't actually decide who got invited or put the invitations in the mail - is confused at best. He would be better off coming clean and testifying now than continuing to stonewall. Count it as a misfire.

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