The hype's been about the recently resigned Lee, whose name we can now toss onto our growing heap of debauched, deranged or just generally embarrassing political figures. There he'll find company with Massa, Paladino, Spitzer, Foley, Haggart etc…
That being said, his posting pictures of himself flexing on Craig's List seems pretty benign compared to Mark Foley's text to one of his teenage pages to "Get a ruler and measure it for me." It appears our problem is not so much that our congressmen are disgusting, but that we are too often forced to choose between the lesser of two creeps. And if they're not creeps they're celebrities, like our recent visitor, who tends not to be judged by his capabilities or actions but by his celebrity status. So why then, do we have such disappointing options?
Christopher Hitchens explores this problem, and poses another question in a recent Slate article. "What normal person would put up with the inane indignities of the electoral process? Hitchens' answer is that the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
It's understandable that no sane person would be willing to subject themselves to the rigorous invasions of privacy that result from running for office. This explains why we find people like Linda McMahon, previous CEO of the WWE and wife of Vince McMahon running for a seat in Connecticut's senate. People like Linda and Arnold are used to subjecting themselves to the magnifying glass of popular intrigue, so naturally they find themselves comfortable in our Entertainment Weekly democracy.
Another contributor to our predicament is the media itself. Unfortunately and self evidently, political news coverage is more interested in entertainment. It's far more exciting, and ultimately easier to make small talk about the senator from NY who took an idiotic picture with his shirt off than about the honest hard working politicians who are devoted to their constituents (yes, they exist).
It's apparent that this is a nationwide problem, but NY-State in particular has made quite the contribution to the tabloid headlines, leading one op-ed columnist of the New York Times to ask if we've disturbed a sacred cemetery of a clan of cranky witches in upstate NY. Perhaps we have, if we consider the most recent political escapades involving Carl Paladino and Andrew Cuomo, who both ran for New York's ‘Governatorship.' Cuomo's father, Mario, was NY's Governor for three terms and raised his son Andrew in the business of politics. It's been Cuomo's lifelong goal to finally become NY's Governor. Although ambition is an admirable quality, we don't need to be establishing any more political dynasties. There are plenty of more desirable citizens for the task anyway.
Paladino on the other hand, takes the award for creepiest politician to run for anything in New York State in recent times. Our local loco friend Carl spent most of his campaign apologizing for sending pornographic and racist emails to his friends, for hiding from his first wife a family that he had started after their marriage and for countless insensitive and ugly remarks by which he offended practically everyone other than geriatric Italians.
It should be no surprise to us that this crusty old man, whose signs this past fall festively read in orange and black, "I'M MAD TOO CARL!" would move our already immature, and recently acknowledged dangerous rhetoric to new, lower levels with phrases like, "I'm taking a baseball bat to Albany." If you're interested in how insane he is you can also watch an entertaining video on Youtube of Paladino threatening a New York Post editor, yelling, "I'll take you out!"
All of this and much more leads me to think it would be best if Paladino were put in a room with a VHS loop playing the Godfather Trilogy. It might be all we can do to divert and sedate him. We'd have to buy a new copy though, because his is likely worn out. Don't worry about that happening though, it's looking like he's going to run for Representative Lee's vacant seat.
- Jake DiVeronica
Letters to the Editor are not edited by The Spectrum.
