| I'm sure you remember a few days ago that state Republican committee golden boy, and likely 2010 candiate for Governor, Chris Collins got in some hot water with members of his own party over a joke equating Sheldon Silver to Hitler and the Antichrist. Not that Silver doesn't deserve to be beaten up, but from a guy who wants to run for Governor of New York, a Hitler/Antichrist joke about an orthodox Jew is probably not the brightest thing you can do.
In the aftermath, Collins of course apologized and swore up and down that it was just a casual joke, completely accidental, one time thing.
Come to find out he made the same joke at least once before to a group of Buffalo State political science students, as well as their two faculty escorts. Geoff Kelly over at Artvoice puts it as well as I ever could.
Yesterday I asked Grant Loomis, the county executive's director of communications, if Collins had ever made a similar reference to Silver before. He assured me that Collins had had not, that the remark was "unscripted" and "off the cuff."
He then paused a moment and backed off a little, adding, "...to the best of my knowledge."
I told Loomis about the Buffalo State students, and the two members of the faculty, and Loomis said, "Oh."
Generally speaking, it's a bad sign for you when your communications director's best rapid response and fierce advocacy for your cause is reduced to "Oh." |
