Manhattan DA Candidate Appeals To Liberals Who Hate Cheney

It's August in a city election year, which means many registered Democrats (and Republicans, but mostly Democrats) are receiving campaign mailings from a candidate basically every day. And this weekend, Manhattan DA candidate Richard Aborn sent out one featuring former Vice President Dick Cheney! Featuring Cheney examining a rifle, the flyer says, "One candidate for district attorney has spent 30 years taking guns out of the hands of criminals"—ha!

Alex Navarro-McKay, spokesman for Aborn's campaign, told the Daily News, "If someone happens to believe that Dick Cheney is some kind of war criminal and they like the fact that Richard Aborn is exposing Cheney for the barriers he placed in the way of keeping New Yorkers safe, then that's a happy coincidence," pointing out that Cheney is "visceral symbol of everything that progressive Democrats, Richard Aborn's base, oppose." Last week, the NY Times had a feature on him—reactions from two people while he stood near a subway station to hand out his campaign material, "Ah, the alternative candidate. Nice to meet you. Best of luck" and "Are you the one who says we lock up too many black men?"

Speaking of Cheney, he's defending the CIA's interrogation tactics and called the Justice Department's investigation an "intensely partisan, politicized look back at the prior administration."