Tell us what you really think, Carl.
Carl Paladino, the 2010 Republican nominee for governor, forwarded to friends and supporters a rather over-the-top email he sent to Al D’Amato, the last Republican to serve in the U.S. Senate and one of the gray eminences of the GOP.
Writes Mr. Paladino:
Al, keep your nose out of WNY politics or I will expose your underbelly. You are a spineless fraud and you’re going down with Skelos. Did you have fun at Andrews $50k party? You are such a low life parasite. It’s all about money and you could care less about the people and republican principals. What are you going to do when I tell the people that you were the prime mover of Andrew’s gay marriage bill so he could pound his chest as the most powerful governor the state has ever known and you could have access as a lobby for the big buck clients you extort.
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, apparently the dispute comes from the fact that Mr. Paladino is backing primary challengers to GOP State Senators Mark Grisanti and George Maziarz, as is Erie County Conservative Party chairman Ralph Lorigo. Mr. Maziarz has been trying to remove Mr. Lorigo from his post, as is Joel Giambra, the former executive of Erie County.
According to our source, Mr. Lorigo asked Mr. D’Amato to intervene, particularly since Mr. Giambra works with Mr. D’Amato’s high-profile lobbying firm, Park Strategies. Mr. D’Amato did try to bring peace to the warring factions, which is apparently what set Mr. Paladino off.
It is true that while Mr. D’Amato remains well-regarded in some circles of the party, he has been more bi-partisan than some Republicans would like in recent years as his lobbying business has grown, and he did support Mr. Cuomo over Mr. Paladino in 2010, but so did many, many others.
