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Molinaro, Is That You?

by: NYBri

Wed Feb 21, 2007 at 16:33:57 PM EST

You know, politics is a dirty game, and it's a bitch when you get caught playing a particularly old but messy hand. And it seems that's just what the 103rd Assembly District's newly elected Marc Molinaro did...he got caught playing the same move that our old friend, Shelly Silver, played recently as documented here by our own BrooklyRaider.

It all has to do with Marcus' appearance at a local high school that was covered here. Mr. Molinaro was caught using the perks of office to do some really questionable politicing in a public school on the taxpayer's dime, and when he was called on it, it seems he had his minions do some dirty work.

Let's let the Registar Star's editorial snark artists take it from here. (This appears in the print version only)

Much more after the flip...

Register Star 2/20/07, Editorial

OUR VIEW

Send off sound off

For those who don't follow our Opinion page with the rigor it deserves, you may have missed a brief letter to the editor that ran recently taking issue with Assemblyman Marc Molinaro's "Send Off" at Red Hook High School.

That letter set off a firestorm not seen since Gavrilo Principe lodged a bullet in Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

The response to that letter - written by a former political opponent of the assemblyman when he was a legislator and suggesting that Molinaro's appearance at the event may not have been as altruistic as his camp portrayed it - has been comprehensive and withering.

When the first letter or two came across our transom, we didn't suspect anything. We expect our letters to the editor to be a lively forum reflecting the many voices of the community we serve.

But as that small trickle turned into a deluge, our Spidey sense began to tingle.

Well, it seems that lots more letters began arriving in the Hudson newspaper's mailbox and the fine folks who read them got a bit suspicious.

We smelled the diesel fumes of a well oiled political campaign at work.

Perhaps we wouldn't have been alerted as quickly if certain phrases - "sour grapes" comes to mind - had not been liberally sprinkled throughout more than one letter.

And still the letters continued to come.

Never, in the history of humanity, had one man been the victim of such injustice. How dare anyone question the aims of Molinaro!

Well, as a matter of policy, those fine folks did some calling around and they found that Marcus had put lots of people up to writing those letters. A few offered that they had indeed done the writing at Molinaro's request.

The Editorial Staff finshed up by offering some advice to their new Assemblyman:

Molinaro has been in the political game for more than a decade. He should know better - and have thicker skin - by now. Being in the public eye and serving your constituency means you'll be criticized at times. Choose to respond gracefully, and people will be impressed by how you handle yourself.

Overreact, and wethinks he doth protest too much.

We'd like to remind Molinaro that he's already won.

Now it's all about how he plays the game.

Snark lesson over.