| So Liz, being the dogged reporter that she is, actually started making phone calls to inquire as to just why Roger Stone showed up in NY-20 in the midst of a fiercely contested and oh so close recount and just who he is working for. She didn't have much luck. Also, her inquiry seems to have struck a nerve. Stone insists he has "no formal role" in the recount and that assertions otherwise are "left-wing blog crap" from "paranoid" liberals.
"My parents still live in Northern Westchester." Stone wrote. "I visited them at the end of last week and then drove up to the Albany area to see some friends...I certainly have no formal role in the recount. I have many friends of long standing who are involved."
That's pretty much all I could get out of him after trying to reach him on several occasions.
He declined to say much more, and also declined to respond to any of the postings at TAP, which he referred to as "left-wing blog crap," adding in vintage Stone style: "Liberals are paranoid."
He also confirms, much as I suspected, that his buddy Michael Caputo in along for the ride, though he insists Caputo is only in New York to "revive his father's insurance business in Buffalo." Caputo is apparently doing all the reviving from Halfmoon. Or something.
Irene Jay Liu at CapCon goes a bit further and asks both the Tedisco campaign and the NRCC if Stone may be in the district at their behest. Both camps deny it and I'm pretty sure at least one of them is being, shall we say, less than truthful. She even gets a dig in at those of us who pay attention to such goings on as chasing a "white whale" in Stone. But, whatever.
Roger Stone, controversial GOP political consultant and white whale of sorts for New York's liberal bloggers, has been spotted in Upstate New York.
More specifically, the liberal "The Albany Project" alleges that Stone was spotted at the campaign headquarters of GOP 20th congressional candidate Jim Tedisco, which has pro-Murphy blog commenters all in a tizzy.
The Tedisco campaign says, unequivocally, that Stone has no involvement in the campaign. From Tedisco campaign spokesman Tyler Brown via email:
We've had no contact with Mr. Stone and he is not affiliated with the campaign in any capacity.
(He is not a volunteer and he is not on loan from the campaign committees).
Stone has not been retained as a consultant for the campaign by the National Republican Congressional Committee, said spokesman Paul Lindsay.
Let's make this simple. This is Roger Stone and (most likely) his pal Michael Caputo:
This picture was taken minutes after they left Tedisco's HQ. Period. Stone and Caputo may indeed not be technically working for the Tedisco campaign or the NRCC, but for the Tedisco campaign to claim that they have had "no contact" with Stone is simply not true. They know it. Stone knows it. Now you know it.
I have no idea who is paying for Stone's services up in the 20th, but someone is, and I can guarantee you that Stone and Caputo are not on the ground up there for the weather and they don't work for free.
It would be especially ironic if they were working for the NRCC, given that the NRCC blasted their list hours after the polls closed in NY-20 screaming, "Don't let them pull a Franken!" and steal this election. Then again, screaming "don't let them steal it!" whilst sending their chief election skullduggerer into the fight would be oh so poetic and par for the course these days. |
