To: New York State Republicans
From: Carl P. Paladino
Many years ago William Ernest Henley, in the poem Invictus,
wrote that we are the masters of our fate, the captains of our souls.
Republicans must heed that wisdom today.
The Cuomo SAFE Act infringement "big mistake" has
given Republicans an enormous opportunity to capture and use the wave of
outrage it has evoked to end the Albany establishment's predatory era of fiscal
irresponsibility, economic decay, malaise and dysfunction.
Loyal Republican legislators have risked their political careers
to promote honesty in government and protect our constitutional rights.
Nevertheless, to maintain what's left of the family fabric, foster a growth
economy and give citizens hope for the future, the Republican Party must
restructure now. Rank and file (Real Republicans) need leaders to
disengage the Republican In Name Only (RINO) old guard and re-define the
Party's values to engage the Party as a viable participant in the 2014
statewide and Legislative elections. If not, Republicans will lose those
races and if that is the future, the Conservative Party should move up to line
2 and become the opposition.
Real Republicans, disillusioned and unable to identify with
their Party, believe their vote is meaningless. Many no longer vote nor
do they encourage the registration of their families and friends. They
can't define what it means to be a Republican, or for what the Party stands
when Republican legislative leaders give democrats the votes to pass their
entire liberal agenda.
Ed Cox, Republican State Chair, with little or no help from
Republican legislative or county leaders, is all alone advocating Republican
values and the removal of Sheldon Silver. Showing little respect for the
Party, only five legislators and five County Chairs attended the State
Committee annual dinner this year.
RINO legislators publicly promote a defensive, conciliatory
posture against the ruling liberal movement, cloaking their complicity in
Albany's corrupt feeding frenzy and protecting the status quo and lack of
adversity saying it is what it is and they can't change it. As poster
children for term limits, they are products of conditioning over time and an
electorate devoid of self esteem which sets a very low bar.
RINO legislative leaders like Dean Skelos, Tom Libous and George
Maziarz, the Senate Republican leadership, and Assembly minority leader Brian
Kolb represent everything that is wrong in Albany. They fail in their
primary responsibility to lead an opposition. On their watch, the
Republican-controlled Senate has disappeared.
In 2011-12 Skelos had one of the three votes it took to do
anything in Albany. Instead of using that power to effectively advance
Republican values, his hallmark was spineless appeasement. He made
England's Chamberlain look like a choirboy saying he had no cards to play and
if he didn't follow Cuomo's lead, Republicans would lose the Senate. He
not only lost the Senate majority but did nothing to build the party or promote
a platform. He gave Cuomo every opportunity to pound his chest and
declare himself the "most progressive governor "in the most
progressive State" in America.
Skelos, Libous and Maziarz kept deniability and voted against
the gay marriage bill but promised payoffs to four Republican Senators,
including Mark (always for sale) Grisanti, to vote for it. They also let
Cuomo tell the public he solved a non--existent $10 billion budget
deficit; pass pension reform which reformed nothing (he could have converted
exempt, non-union State employee pensions to defined contribution); have a $2.5
billion tax increase which they called tax reform; and pass the SAFE Act, which
Cuomo now says he didn't read because it was drafted by Bloomberg people.
Skelos could have required a referendum but instead allowed a Message of
Necessity (on Cuomo's farcical plea for urgency), denying legislators and the
public an opportunity to read and comment on the bill.
If Skelos had provided a real opposition government in 2011 and
advanced Real Republican values using his Senate trump card as Warren Anderson
and Joe Bruno did so effectively, vital issues would have been aired, the
upstate economy would have a pulse, Republicans would have increased
their majority in 2012, and Jeff Klein and Company would be irrelevant.
Upstate RINO Senators who voted against the SAFE Act only did
what they were supposed to do. If they weren't brain dead and had
courage, they would have denied Skelos another term. They take turns at
who takes the heat and who walks on the issue of the day, happy so long as
their favorite lobbyists and lawyers get the big retainers. It's called
the Albany 2 Step. Why do we need RINOs if they vote like democrats
anyway?
Sen. Martins promised loyalty to Conservative Society for Action
members who secured his election, but later changed his tune when Skelos
promised him money from the Senate Republican Campaign Committee to get
re-elected.
When their ranks thin to the point that they become
inconsequential and the money is gone, the parasitic RINOs will drift off,
leaving a decimated Republican Party and New York as a one party state.
We allowed them to become who they are and unfortunately they define our party
today. Eight of nine Republican Senators from Long Island actually followed
Skelos over the cliff to vote for the SAFE Act.
RINO County Chairs like Jay LaValle (the self- absorbed Suffolk
County opportunist), Vince Reda (the Rockland County shoplifter), Bill DeProspo
(Orange County's Pistol-cam man,) Jay Saville (the indicted Bronx County Chair
who doesn't even live there), Gordon Brown (Wyoming County's windmill
boy), Joseph Mondello, (Dean Skelos' muscle) must also be replaced.
At the behest of the treacherous lobbyist Al D'Amato, tied at
the hip to Kirsten Gillibrand, the RINOs at last year's convention not only
denied Wendy Long a second vote opportunity to win the party's endorsement
forcing a primary, but, after she won the primary handily, they abandoned her
in her effort to show America that New York also has competent people to
represent them in the Senate. They will do it again if we allow them.
Real Republicans expect responsible leadership, vetting and
endorsing based on merit, track record, character and ability. Career
legislators, clueless of the responsibility of public service and seeking only
job preservation, mail fluffy, political newsletters bragging about the few
breadcrumbs that their leaders let them take home to pacify the masses.
They tell us that Sheldon Silver will retaliate if they get out of line, which
only defines their lack of spine and inability to command respect. With
benchmarks and performance reviews, County committees must cut the charlatans
loose and/or primary them. Janet Duprey is a Republican who consistently
votes and acts like a democrat, but gets endorsed.
To amend a bill, Kolb requires the unanimous consent of his 43
member caucus. How further up Silver's skirt can he get? He never
uses his bully pulpit to advance or advocate a Republican agenda, or for that
matter, any opposition. He tried to keep the Republican Assembly in a
committee meeting while the 2nd Amendment rally, the largest in Albany's
history, was taking place outside. When Silver was on the ropes for
misuse of public funds and there were calls for his resignation, Kolb
instructed his caucus to say nothing bad about Silver and if asked by the
press, just say that you didn't vote for him.
Kolb is complicit with Silver because Kolb made a personal
mistake and is too ashamed to own up to it. His caucus knows he is
conflicted. Last year he let Silver redistrict to destroy the RINO Assemblyman
Dan Burling who had dared to make an advance to Silver's girlfriend. In
return, Silver signed off for Kolb to redistrict Claudia Tenney, who was too
Republican for Kolb who financed her opposition. Unfortunately for them,
Burling was replaced by a Real Republican (David DiPietro) and Tenney won
handily. Kolb is still the minority leader because most Assembly
Republicans are weak and pathetic losers.
Kolb and Skelos don't respect public service, seek no legacy and
feel no sense of responsibility to the Real Republicans who elect them.
They refuse to create a cohesive and viable plan to help rebuild and restore
the Party's identity and values nor do they advocate legislation to upset the
status quo and be competitive in 2014.
Without Republican opposition, Albany's carefree culture breeds
criminality in the likes of democrats Sheldon Silver, Pedro Espada, John
Sampson, Karl Kreuger, Vito Lopez, Malcom Smith, Eric Stevenson and Nelson
Castro.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, "How many more pending
bills were born of bribery and worse how many past bills were born of
bribery?" and "Political corruption in New York is indeed rampant and
the show me the money culture in Albany is alive and well. . .When it is more
likely for a New York State legislator to be arrested. . .than to be defeated
at the polls, they (the people) should be angry." Eric Stevenson
even boasted "lots of other Albany politicians are on the take."
Legislators are not public servants, but rather politicians who
have little or nothing to say about what happens in Albany. They are too
intimidated to speak up or demand transparency, don't tell the secret back
stories and games that Silver and Skelos play nor do they connect the dots for
the public to raise awareness and demand that prosecutors prosecute the likes
of Silver for using a taxpayer slush fund to pay to cover up sex abuse by a
member of his Assembly caucus.
A good public servant would put his or her political career on
the line every day to do the right thing. Our legislators allow Messages
of Necessity and don't read bills that they vote on, nor would many of them
comprehend what they are reading anyway. They just do what the
"three men in a room" tell them to do and we keep electing them to
give us more of nothing.
At least Cuomo and Silver wear their stripes on their
sleeves. We know the slithery methods, spin, illusion and theater
they use to deny transparency and access to further the Albany establishment's
ability to eat at the public trough. They do it because their accepting,
uninformed and complacent legislators allow it. The days when certain
vital issues would rise above politics are gone.
Silver, wrote the book on Albany's bribery, extortion and misuse
of taxpayer funds. He uses spin effectively, like his proposal to invite
illegal immigrants to New York to let our taxpayers pay for their education.
Other states found ways to regulate and safely allow fracking
which would energize the deplorable economy of upstate New York and reverse the
loss of residents and businesses. Without viable legislative argument
this critical economic issue is actually being held hostage solely by the
vanity, arrogance, fantasy and ego of an out of control tyrant who wants to get
re-elected in 2014 and be President in 2016. Nine million people in
upstate New York are made to accept and suffer economic paralyses at the whim
of one man.
It's as much about what our legislators don't do as it is about
what they do badly. They avoid vital issues. They will act
out huge concern for a particular issue but then give us the same lame excuse
that Silver or Skelos (taking turns being the bad guy) won't let the bill go
because it needs more work (meaning they were paid handsomely by lobbyists to
hold it up.)
The press, conditioned to the Albany 2 Step is dumbed down,
immature and terribly inexperienced in their assignment, incapable of exposing
the Albany 2 Step or effectively exciting the public to revolt against
the status quo. They were educated and conditioned by liberals to think
that the status quo is what government in New York is supposed to look
like. When they catch office holders lying, stealing and cheating, it's a
one day story. They go right back and publish the next scheming press
release of the perpetrator as fact. They believe that this is as good as
it gets and that the only source of news is what the tyrants publish to
them. Liberal and lazy publishers and editors enjoy the status quo which
allows them access. If a reporter says something negative about Cuomo or
Silver, who loath criticism and transparency, he or she will be punished.
For the Albany press, access is more important than truth.
Without opposition or transparency, Cuomo operates with absolute
impunity, dictating, taxing, regulating and smothering the every day lives and
futures of New Yorkers and their descendants. The public feels defeated
and powerless. The only option, for those who can, is to flee to a freer
society. It shouldn't be that way. Government should be of, by and
for the people. Strong and benevolent private sector leadership could
have prevented the hijacking of State government over the years.
This year's tax and spend budget was deliberated with absolutely
no transparency, public input or discussion. When it did pass, the press
couldn't tell anyone what was in it but instead told us that we should be very
proud that it was on time. That's all we heard for a week. The
budget was on time. Wonderful.
Last year, at the end of the legislative session, Cuomo, Silver
and Skelos just proclaimed that everything there was to do was done and they
went home. This year, they gave us a distraction to get the Legislature
to the end of the session without addressing vital issues. They
advanced a "red herring" bill, to try to restore Skelos' credibility,
proposing to sanction late term and partial birth abortions (sticking an ice
pick in the skull of a late term baby.) It
was all playacting, theater and spin.
Proposing highly charged, against the grain, legislation diverts
attention from the issues vital to New Yorkers. Tort, malpractice, and
scaffold law reform would save New Yorkers billions in insurance premiums. Rescission
of the Wick's Law would allow taxpayers to stop suffering 50% premiums over
private sector costs for construction. Stopping the treatment of public
employees as "special" citizens by making the Taylor Law and
Triborough Amendment applicable to only public safety employees would save
billions. Making pensions for exempt public employees "defined
contribution" rather than "defined benefit" would permit
dramatic tax cuts.
Senate and Assembly Campaign Finance accounts receive massive
funding from the 4,000 plus registered lobbyists like D'Amato and Pat Lynch to
ensure that certain vital issues never reach the floor for a vote. The
money in turn protects the incumbency of legislators who dance the Albany 2
step.
Albany skates on corruption because political and lazy Federal
and State prosecutors in Albany look the other way and are not disposed to
prosecute. Preet Bharara is the exception-- relentlessly pursuing the
self-absorbed, greed-driven political power brokers who have hijacked New York
State government.
With the SAFE Act, the delusional tyrant Cuomo exposed Albany's
underbelly, awoke the masses and ended his political career. He tried to
use the emotional trauma of the Connecticut tragedy to advance his career
and satisfy his insatiable appetite for power. Cuomo was always the
most liberal governor in America fooling only the press and the uninformed who
seek only free cellphones and ice cream.
It's never been about guns, infringement or the 2nd Amendment.
It is about the power of one man who now hears the thunder of the grass roots
electorate coming to take him down. The press is abandoning him and
Silver has his own problems and can't defend the flanks. He will become
more desperate and make more mistakes as time goes on.
In an attempt to spin away from his SAFE Act debacle and prepare
for his re-election, Cuomo made two horrendous deals with the Indians that he
tried to characterize as "wins" for the taxpayers when in fact they
were giveaways of taxpayer monies.
A month after the Onieda's threw a huge party to honor his
father Mario, Cuomo settled with the Onieda's. He had allowed them to
operate their casino, raking in billions, for over ten years after it had been
declared illegal by the Court of Appeals. He intimidated and threatened
the legislatures of Onieda and Madison counties to approve the deal.
Then, contrary to the advise of his own attorneys, he gave the Senecas $200
million of taxpayer money to settle their illicit claims.
The "Producers," paralyzed and unable to deal with the
broken promises of the Albany establishment, upon which they stayed and built
their dreams, demand honest leadership with committed values and an end of the
political era of tyranny, hypocrisy, illusion and deception. They no
longer want to apologize for downstate wealthy limousine liberal elitists who
want the taxpayers to assuage their guilt, By making New York State a welfare
nightmare.
The Republican Party at every level is in chaotic disarray
without direction or identity. It will be incapable of effectively
challenging the liberals until its values are first re-defined and it is
re-structured as the party of all working taxpayers, including the trade
unions, with real values, real families and real lives -- people who want their
children and future generations to have the opportunity to achieve and prosper
in New York.
The reorganization of the Republican Party must begin now to
prepare for the 2014 elections.
Legislative leadership must be replaced by Real Republicans and
the Republican Convention in September must adopt a platform of practical and
moderate 21st century values along with necessary rule changes, including one
giving the State Party Chair the right to remove RINO county chairs.
Please forward this on to your friends and family.
