Quick Takes (v7): Paladino Threatens NY Republicans

Quick Takes

Failed NY gubernatorial candidate and Western New York businessman Carl Paladino has gone off the rails, and on the record, with his plans to harass New York's Congressional Republicans unless and until they throw their support behind Donald Trump.

According to an article on Syracuse.com,

The Buffalo businessman said in an interview that he will use email to rally his supporters against New York's Republican members of Congress who have remained neutral in the presidential race. Paladino, who ran an insurgent campaign to capture the GOP nomination for NY governor in 2010, said the emails will become increasingly personal in the coming weeks, targeting individual members of Congress.

Paladino, advised the GOP representatives in part that

None of you is a profile in courage... You cannot stay neutral any longer; it conflicts with your job description. You're supposed to make decisions in the best interests of your constituents. They're angry. It's a festering anger, built up over the years by a smoke and mirrors government working to keep the political class comfortably feeding at the public trough. 

I guess Paladino believes our Representatives are supposed to make decisions in the best interest of Carl Paladino, who has some festering something-or-other built up over the years by a desire to stay relevant. However, nothing in the job description of the people we send to Washington says they have to listen to their party bosses, or to marginal party members sitting on the sidelines.

Heck, if that were the case you might as well require them to listen to armchair pundits like me.

Paladino's threat to ramp up the personal attacks was supported by one of his WNY minions, Chris Collins, who texted other members of the NY delegation to help bring them to heel.

I know Carl Paladino has been aggressively pushing all of you to endorse Trump. And I know he has indicated he will start 'attacking' NYers who don't endorse Trump. You may or may not care, but he does have a formidable email list. 

Collins noted that he was only relaying a conversation he had with Paladino, and that he asked that the attacks not start until after primary petitions had been passed.  How generous of him.

One person who did not fall for the bluster is my representative, John Katko of Camillus. Katko has been a solid representative for the district, in my opinion. I'm a Democrat, but I voted for him, and I'm glad I did. I don't always agree with him,but neither do Republicans -  which in my book means he's doing his job pretty well.

And, I can confidently say, none of the explanations he's given for his votes have included anything close to "because Carl Paladino told me to do it."

In an interview, Katko noted that he would back whoever the party's nominee is, but noted

whoever it is, I will point out my differences. I've acted independent in Congress. I'm going to continue to be an independent voice in Congress. And if I agree or disagree with my party leaders, I'm going to let that be known.

To me, that's what he should be doing, not running around strong-arming his fellow representatives, and not kowtowing to the whims of unelected party members who live outside the district.