| The day after having his hat handed to him in a district he should never have had to worry about, the day after he lost a seat his party had held since 1880, Joe Bruno opened his mouth and spoke. Perhaps not so surprisingly, a whole bunch of crapola fell out of it.
Let's unpack this load of BS, shall we?
Bruno The Optimist
Joe Bruno, backed up by fellow Republicans including Dean Skelos, Joe Robach, John Bonacic, Tom Libous, Steven Saland, Betty Little and Hugh Farley to name a few just gave his take on yesterday's defeat in the 48th SD, saying, as did Libous earlier, that "we lost the battle, now we are going to win the war."
Can you get more symbolic than who Uncle Joe dragged out to stand with him today. You've got the guy who worked on a losing special last year and might want Bruno's job (Skelos), the guy who is going to face the stiffest challenge of his career this year with people literally lining up to run against him (Robach) (and let's not forget how Robach became both a Republican and a Senator), the guy who probably had some sort of party ID ankle bracelet placed on him last night (Bonacic), the guy who was brought in to save Barclay's campaign and got spanked and who also is rumored to want Bruno's gavel (Libous) and the guy who's previous career was as a body double for this guy and who just had his own quality challenger announced (Saland). Basically, he surrounded himself with losers, those soon to lose, those he doesn't trust to wake up as a GOoP tomorrow and those who might just have knives out for him. Nice.
Oh, and the "Lost the battle, but we'll win the war" bit is just precious. He might as well have added, "I'm here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitress..."
Bruno also telegraphed how the Republican Senate plans to strategize November's upcoming campaigns: by running against "Steamroller" Eliot Spitzer and stressing, especially upstate and in the suburbs, that people would be ill served by a Manhattan-dominated coterie of lawmakers such as the Senate Dems.
Be my guest, Joe. Your boy Barclay came out of the gate running against the governor and banging the tired old upstate/downstate thing. You tried it in SD-7 last year as well. How'd that work out, Pops?
"It represents diversity. I represents checks and balances" Bruno said of the Republican Senate, which with a one seat majority is the last bastion of GOP power in New York.
You are making a "diversity" argument, Joe? Are you serious? That's all you've got? What's next, Joe? An affirmative action for wealthy geriatric white men so they can keep their sickly hands on the one last lever of power they've got? And don't even get me started on the "checks and balances" bit. That's a phrase no one associates with your party, Joe. It's embarrassing for you to make it. You should probably just stop.
Bruno also predicted they would increase their majority.
Um, sure, Joe. This speaks for itself.
"It's not about any one individual. It's about making sure every part of the state is treated fairly," added Skelos, who has been speculated as a possible, eventual replacement to Bruno, assuming the GOP holds it majority.
Fair Play Republicans, the rarest of breeds. Oh, and beware the ides of March, Joe. Keep your eye on that shifty Skelos fella. He's got something shiny in his hand...
Skelos also predicted that they would take back Craig Johnson's seat next fall. Democratic Johnson won that seat in a special election after Gov. Eliot Spitzer hired away former Republican Sen. Michael Balboni, creating an opening.
Whatever, Deanie-boy. First, you'll need a candidate, sport. This has been bothering me since last week when the Albany Times Union published this story about how Bruno's gang was targeting all these Dem Senate seats without ever asking them "Well, who are you going to run?"
It's almost March. You just lost a seat upstate you'd held since the 19th century. You spent a fortune doing so. Craig Johnson has proven to be not only a great fundraiser, but a very popular Senator in that district. Who exactly are you going to recruit to take him on and why don't we know that person's name yet? Who are you going to convince to run a very tough campaign, one they'll most likely lose, and even if they do win, will probably end up in the minority on their very first day in office? This is a serious question, Senator. Put up or shut up.
And it's not just Johnson. The TU story included these thumbnails about all these supposedly competitive seats that Bruno's crew was going to target. Check it out:
7th District
Incumbent: Craig Johnson, D-Port Washington
Challenger: None declared
...
23rd District:
Incumbent: Diane Savino, D-Staten Island
Challenger: None declared.
...
34rd District:
Incumbent: Jeffrey Klein, D-Bronx
Challenger: None declared.
...
5th District:
Incumbent: Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers
Challenger: Nicholas Spano is considering.
...
49th District:
Incumbent: David Valesky, D-Oneida
Challenger: None declared.
Wow! Look at all those awesome GOP challengers! How weak is this? "We're gonna challenge all over the map! We're going to increase our majority!" With who exactly? Nick Spano? Considering? Guess what? The odds of Spano actually coming out for round three against Stewart-Cousins just got a hell of a lot slimmer. Deal with it.
The truth is that Bruno's ability to recruit and fund these mythical dragon slayer candidates just took a huge blow. (Boy, do you think that SEIU feels a little stupid today? They get shamed into dropping another 100 large on Bruno and then watch his majority suffer a mortal wound. Oops.)
Not only are you not going to "expand your majority", Uncle Joe, your majority's days are numbered. Period.
I've got an even longer (sorry) and more macro piece about what all this means for this November that I'll be posting soon. But for now, I think it's plain to see that Bruno and his crew are and deep, deep trouble and, ya know, denial ain't just a river and all.
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