Tea-Party backed candidates spur party switches

By Reuters

For lifelong Republican Joe Errigo, deciding to cross party lines and support a liberal Democrat for New York governor wasn't nearly as difficult as one might expect.

Republican candidate Carl Paladino -- backed by the conservative Tea Party movement -- raised such political hackles he spawned a "Republicans for Cuomo" movement supporting Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

Similar groups can be found in heated races elsewhere nationwide, often those featuring Tea Party-endorsed candidates, attacked by Democrats and some moderate Republicans as extreme.

"When I saw his website, I said nobody could be that dumb," said Errigo, an upstate New York Assemblyman, of Paladino, a Buffalo developer and political newcomer.

"He has alienated every group that I could think of," said Errigo. "He should write a book on how to lose an election."

In Delaware, where Christine O'Donnell has Tea Party support, Republicans backing Democrat Chris Coons include a former state judge and former U.S. Congressman. A "Republicans for Coons" Facebook site reads: "Because we just can't support Christine O'Donnell."

In Arizona, "Republicans for Giffords" are backing Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords over conservative Iraq War veteran Jesse Kelly.

In Nevada, incumbent Democrat Sen. Harry Reid, who faces Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle, counts among his Republican supporters an array of influential gaming and casino executives.

"Mainstream Republicans are refusing to support the latest crop of insurgent candidates in the Republican Party because of their extremist beliefs," said Deirdre Murphy, spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington.

"A TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY FOR REPUBLICANS"

In New York, Paladino has riled fellow Republicans, from his view that average Americans cannot understand adjustable mortgages, his spat with a reporter that went viral on the Web, to his plan to "take a baseball bat" to the state capital.

"This was a tremendous opportunity for the Republicans this year," said Onandaga County, New York, Executive Joanie Mahoney, a Republican whose support for Cuomo marks the first time she has supported a Democrat.

"But we can't just have fighting and rhetoric," she said. "I just didn't have the sense, knowing what I know about state government, that sending somebody there with a baseball bat was going to move the ball forward."

Other names in "Republicans for Cuomo" are former state party chairman J. Patrick Barrett and hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci, who handled finances for Republican Rick Lazio, who was defeated by Paladino in the primary.

Plenty of Republicans are supporting Cuomo but keeping quiet, said Mahoney.

"I have had people tell me things privately that I don't think they're willing to say publicly," she said.

The latest poll, released on Wednesday, showed Cuomo with a 20-point lead over Paladino, with 7 percent undecided.

Mahoney earned criticism from state Republican Chairman Ed Cox, who called her endorsement of Cuomo a "shallow act" that showed "poor judgment."

"It was a very difficult decision personally," she said. "I knew I would take some heat from my party which I have."

What came as more of a surprise, she said, was the number of Republicans who got in touch to say: "We know why you did it, and we're with you."

Coulter shocks O’Reilly by defending Paladino’s anti-gay remarks

By David Edwards

Despite a long history of anti-gay slurs, controversial pundit Ann Coulter has never really suffered any damage to her career. So it really shouldn't come as a surprise that she doesn't think homophobia is much of a big deal. Even if Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly treated it as such.

New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino was forced to explain Monday after he told Orthodox Jewish leaders that children shouldn't be "brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality" is acceptable.

The Associated Press reported:

"That's not how God created us," Paladino said of being gay, "and that's not the example that we should be showing our children."

He added that children who later in life choose to marry people of the opposite sex and raise families would be "much better off and much more successful

"I don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option," he said.

Paladino made appearances on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News the following morning but didn't apologize.

"I'm not a homophobic," he told ABC's George Stephanopolous.

"I have no reservations whatsoever about gays, only except for marriage," he said.

The candidate said that he disagreed with his opponent, Andrew Cuomo, who took his children to a gay pride parade.

"I was at one in Toronto one time. We stumbled on it, my wife and I. It wasn't pretty. It was a bunch of very extreme type people in bikini-type outfits grinding at each other and doing these gyrations and I certainly wouldn't let my young children see that," Paladino explained.

When pressed by Stephanopoulos, Paladino said that he wasn't sure if homosexuality was a choice.

"I've had difficulty with that," he said. "I believe that young people should not necessarily be exposed to that."

"You want to stick up for Paladino, do you?" Fox News' Bill O'Reilly asked Coulter Monday.

"I think someone on this network should [defend] this great warrior," Coulter said.

The conservative columnist noted that Paladino's audience was conservative Jewish leaders. "It's like being in Chicago. You say 'Go Cubs!'" she said.

"Did that help him [get votes]?" asked a shocked O'Reilly.

"Yeah, I think so," replied Coulter.

In the end, O'Reilly didn't buy Coulter's argument that Paladino's remarks were going to bolster his standing with voters.

"The bottom line on this is, I think everybody but you in the world agrees this isn't going to help the guy. He wants to win the election. He needs independents to come over," said O'Reilly.

"I just want everyone to know that we're fair and balanced and Coulter thinks that Carl Paladino was helped by that exposition. Everyone in the world thinks he wasn't."

Despite her past of making anti-gay remarks, Coulter was chosen to attend GOProud's Homocon 2010, a conference for conservative gays. But it cost her because World Net Daily dropped her from their "Taking Back America" conference.

In the spring of 2007, the Associated Press and other media outlets speculated that controversial conservative pundit Ann Coulter might get "blacklisted" after calling Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot."

"Following her use of a gay slur about Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards this month during remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference, some on TV are wondering whether her shelf life is expiring," AP Television Writer David Bauder wrote in a column titled "Has Ann Coulter reached her tipping point?"

Jump ahead three years later and rather than being banned, Coulter is now being hailed as the "Judy Garland of the right" by a gay Republican group, and getting crucified by some of the same folks who once lionized her for calling liberals "godless."

Mediaite's Frances Martel speculated about Coulter's motivation in defending Paladino:

Coulter doesn’t exactly have a clean record with gay slurs herself, and defending Paladino would make her quite the unique (read: attractive to the camera) commodity on cable news these days, so it isn’t completely shocking that she would take Paladino’s declaration that he wasn’t a homophobe at face value, if only to play devil’s advocate.

This video is from Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, broadcast Oct. 11, 2010.

NY Tea Party gov. candidate sent videos of bestiality, pics of Obama as pimp

By Daniel Tencer

The Tea Party-backed Republican candidate for governor of New York State sent dozens of sexually explicit and racially insensitive mass emails as a matter of course in recent years, including one featuring bestiality and another that was made popular by a neo-Nazi organization.

An online news source in western New York has uncovered dozens of emails from Carl Paladino, a Buffalo-area land developer who threw his hat into the ring for governor last week.

Among the emails Paladino forwarded to numerous people was one of a photo of President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama dressed in pimp and prostitute outfits. The email subject line read "White House Ball."

Another email featured an embedded clip of a hard-core bestiality video featuring a woman and a horse; yet another email was entitled "Miss France 2008 f**king."

According to WNYMedia, in December 2008 Paladino sent around a YouTube video under the title "Obama Inauguration Rehearsal." The video features African tribesmen dancing in a village square. WNYMedia noted that the video had been posted to the Web site of Stormfront, a neo-Nazi organization The "inauguration" video elicited at least one angry response from Paladino's recipients.

"You really degrade yourself when you forward this s**t, Geep," the unidentified emailer stated.

Paladino wrote back: "I apologize to you and everyone if that is offensive. To me it's just humor. I'm not a racist and have never related Obama's color to my political distaste for him." He added that "the oversensitivity to black/white is wrong and in itself demeaning."

Paladino announced his campaign for governor last week with what the New York Times described as a "Palinesque populist message."

“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Paladino told a crowd in downtown Buffalo. That also appears to be the motto of his campaign Web site.

He is the third Republican to join an increasingly contentious race for the Republican nomination. While Paladino appears to have the backing of many Tea Party organizations, the Times notes that "securing the Republican nomination will not be easy for Mr. Paladino. He has decided to forgo the traditional route of seeking a spot on the ballot at the state’s Republican convention in June. Instead, he will use the petition process, which requires him to collect 15,000 signatures from registered voters in at least 15 of the state’s Congressional districts."

And even before his campaign was officially launched, Paladino found himself the subject of controversy. One day ahead of his announcement, the New York Daily News reported that Paladino had had a love child during an extramarital affair with a former staffer at one his real estate development business.

Paldino has described himself as "the only Republican in the race who agrees 100 percent with conservative values." Of his political beliefs, the Times reports:

He calls his campaign — his first run for public office — a “crusade.” He has excoriated state political leaders as “a parasitical ruling class” and pledged to send corrupt legislators to the state prison at Attica. He has railed against the health care legislation passed last month by Congress as an affront to personal liberty...

Mr. Paladino used his outspokenness as a selling point on Monday, telling his supporters: “I have a tendency to speak my mind — and in many cases, your mind. I can be blunt, maybe sometimes too blunt. But you’ll always know where I stand.”

On Monday, Paladino spokesman Michael Caputo told TalkingPointsMemo's Zachary Roth that Democrats are trying "to change the subject from substantive issues to 'having sex with horses.'"

He said Paladino had "forwarded close friends hundreds of email messages he received. Many of these emails he received were off color, some were politically incorrect, few represented his own opinion, and almost none of them were worth remembering. ... We're not surprised the political establishment feels threatened by Carl's drive the take Albany back for taxpayers. Our campaign won't be wading through the details of what is just another liberal Democrat blog smear."

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