For some warts-and-all background on Stone, check out this friendly profile in the Weekly Standard, from which this observation by writer Matt Labash stands out in the context of his work in the 20th:
It's hard to assume he's not up to something, because he always is.
You all should know what Stone thinks about bloggers who have the temerity to report the news that he's personally involved in the Tedisco post-election-day campaign.
This is mostly the ravings of the paranoid, increasingly paranoid left.
These blog freaks that interpolate going to the Albany area where I have many, many friends and is just north of where my parents live in the very tip of northern Westchester; they've decided that democracy is about to fall and there's all kinds of skulduggery.
It's just liberal raving.
A few points on this bit -- Stone himself has a blog where he raves about political matters. The blog does not mention his work for Tedisco, the only post this week is a screed against former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
And the Albany area is not "just north" of northern Westchester -- it's more than two hours away.
After that, Stone goes into the kind of spinning you'd expect from someone on Tedisco's payroll (which he denies, FWIW).
I have many friends who are involved in the effort to get a fair and honest count. All we want as Republicans is for every vote to be counted.
Dicker: Is there any reason to believe the Democrats don't want that?
Stone: Well, the Democrats, we do have a President from Chicago, and let's just point out that voter fraud has a long birthright in the Democratic Party, and these Democrats are hungry so we have to keep an eye on them.
While Stone says the mom-and-apple pie thing -- that he wants every vote to be counted -- the Tedisco/Stone strategy has been to challenge and seek to disqualify hundreds of absentee ballots, especially those cast by people who also have residences in New York City.
See Hudson's excellent diary on the shenanigans in Columbia County for much more on that.
Stone naturally thinks highly of Tedisco's prospects:
I would say after my trip that I am now highly confidential (sic) that Jim Tedisco is going to Congress.
And that's a good thing. I am a Tedisco supporter.
While all the other political leaders of the Republican Party have forgotten what the party is supposed to be about, he's been the hard-nosed guy out there opposing taxes, opposing spending, opposing the insane borrowing in New York state.
He's been a voice in the wilderness on the key economic issues, and if I wanted a guy to go down and take a close look at these bailouts, to make sure we're not getting ripped off, I think Jim Tedisco's the guy I'd send.
Stone added that coverage of the AIG bonuses and the state budget helped Tedisco "make a great comeback" to a "photo finish that I think he will pull out."
Stone is now physically out of the 20th, but his involvement here will no doubt continue until the last lawsuit is decided.
Please help Scott Murphy counter Stone's machinations and spin on behlaf of Tedisco here. |
