The gaffe-prone gubernatorial-wannabe Carl Paladino, who likes his bestiality videos best when they're forwarded, continued his hot streak of apologizing without apologizing yesterday. The "determined" millionaire told Talk 1300 AM in Albany that "he's absolutely in the race," and "will not pull out for any controversy." Paladino admitted he was "careless" with his emailing, but then backpedaled with the grace of a ballerina: "I would say the e-mail was racist...Was I being a racist in forwarding them? Most of them I never even read." No man is an e-mail (or responsible for what he happens to forward in the middle of the work day)!
But the true barometers for this kind of controversy are in the reactions of your friends and enemies. And things really can't be good when you disturb swinging Gov. Paterson. "The things we saw are just disturbing, offensive, racist and unacceptable," an anonymous Paterson administration source told the Daily News (ouch). Paterson staffers even had a "powwow" after learning of the emails to determine whether the state could cancel any of the 27 leases (totaling more than $85 million) it has with Paladino's real estate company, Ellicott Development Co.
Paladino's Tea Party compatriots were even more outraged: Mark Williams, chairman of the Tea Party Express, called Paladino "a total fraud if he's calling himself a Tea Party candidate...Those e-mails are absolutely the antithesis of what the Tea Party is." And Paladino's long-time political archenemy, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, took the high road, offering Paladino a hug: "Perhaps yesterday he didn't get a hug. I would hope that someone would step up and give Carl a hug. I don't know why he is so angry. But if he can't get someone else to give him a hug, my office is located at 201 City Hall...and my arms are open to him.”
