Remember Carl Paladino? He was the 2010 Republican candidate for New York Governor who ran one of the most jaw droppingly awful campaigns in recent memory. The New York Times reminds us: "Before his primary win, the volatile newcomer had gained attention for revelations that he had forwarded e-mails to friends containing racist jokes and pornographic images, espoused turning prisons into dormitories where welfare recipients could be given classes on hygiene, and defended an ally’s comparison of the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, who is Jewish, to 'an Antichrist or a Hitler.'”
Yeah. That Carl Paladino.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Paladino is on the sidelines for this election cycle --after being crushed by Democrat Andrew Cuomo-- and apparently has ample time to engage in a toxic, truly vicious e-mail war with the chairman of the Albany County Republican Committee, Donald Clarey. If you want a glimpse into the cage match for the Republican soul, look no further:
Clarey: "I am embarrassed that I voted for you in the primary and general election in 2010. Your clownish, thug-wannabe campaign cost us Harry Wilson’s victory, one House seat (NY1), and at least one Senate seat. Your continued effort to hurt the Republicans lead me to believe you are a double-agent on behalf of the Democrats – by the way, when did you switch parties? I’m sure that irrelevance is hard to take – and you sure are taking it harder than most; please crawl back into your clown car and drive it back into the hole you came out of. By the way, take me off your email list. I am afraid you might forward racist, obscene, and misogynistic e-mails like you have done in the past.
Paladino: "Like your treacherous predecessor Graziano, you live in a unique area of the state where the people do not suffer the financial peaks and valleys suffered elsewhere in New York. You are insulated from reality by the thousands of fat and comfortable state jobs living off the fat of the land. You never suffer recessionary pressures. You live and participate in the Albany petri dish of corruption and incompetence. You read a newspaper (frightened by the Cuomo/Silver threat of intimidation) more interested in advancing the progressive elitist agenda than doing the right thing for the taxpayer. Why? Because you are one of the worst of the RINOs. You get excited when in the presence of the three men in a room power brokers. You’re the loyal slob willing to kiss their rings to get into their favor for the nickel dime patronage and breadcrumbs they throw at you."
Hug it out, Republicans. Hug it out.