For Carl Paladino, it was bad enough that the media misconstrued his views on homosexuality, but it was entirely intolerable that Andrew Cuomo used it as an opportunity to ascend to the role of gay-marriage messiah. So he's come out with a new, foolproof strategy to attack Cuomo's gay-friendly vibes: attacking Cuomo about his gay stance. Um, maybe this'll go better than last time?
Paladino promises to release a daily "Cuomo Land" attack, to "assure the facts are straight on what he says and what he does," according to campaign manager Michael Caputo. Coming on the heels of last week's controversy, he picked a strange topic to begin with. Today he accused Cuomo of being a hypocrite for touting his support for same-sex weddings at events like the Empire State Pride Agenda's Fall Dinner, but being "all but invisible" when the issue was before the Legislature last year. Hasn't Paladino figured out that he should just stay away from this issue? "All it will do is reinforce the fact that he looked like a bigot last week," veteran Democratic operative Hank Sheinkopf said.
Maybe this is just another case of Carl not being articulate enough. His wife Cathy thinks that's usually the problem: “I know how he feels. I don’t know how it came out. Probably badly—it usually does.” She told the Times that her husband isn't "full of hate," but his comments last week had upset her nephew Jeff Hannon, who is gay and works for Paladino’s campaign. And while her husband is strongly against gay marriage, she sounds more open to it: “I have gay friends, and they’re some of the most generous, loving people you ever want to meet. If they want to live together and be together and share a life, that’s their business.”
