Congressional race totally fiction
Former congressman Gibson retiring from Siena College
By Ken Tingley
The 21st Congressional District race became a political thriller this week in the Jack Ryan mold.
If you are not familiar with best-selling author Tom Clancy, then you might not be aware of his his CIA analyst-turned-superhero protecting Americans form foreign threats in multiple Hollywood movies.
Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck have all played a version of Ryan.
In the our local version, it is Democratic candidate Matt Castelli playing the role, except Rep. Elise Stefanik’s campaign has cast the bearded leading man as the villain instead of the hero. Nobody said Harvard had a great film school.
The Stefanik camp accused Castelli, who was director of counterterrorism for the National Security Council during the Trump administration, of trying to launch a deep state coup against President Trump.
That’s a pretty serious treason charge.
Even by the Stefanik campaign’s “attack, attack, attack” philosophy this is a bridge too far. If she believes this - and no proof was provided - she probably still thinks the last presidential election was rigged and the riots at the Capitol on 1/6 were staged.
It’s fair to accuse the guy of being for gun control, but not of taking up arms against his country without proof. That is slander with a big dose of libel.
Stefanik must have believed she had good reason of going ruthless after Castelli sent out a video message and accused her of being a “traitor,” but she still refused to talk to a Post-Star reporter.
The one thing we have learned about the congresswoman over the years is that nobody can outhate her. That’s when we heard about Castelli’s alleged coup attempt.
Keep in mind, there is still nearly two months of this ridiculousness left.
By Halloween, Castelli will probably be accused of being on the Grassy Knoll and Stefanik of planning the Watergate burglary. It won’t matter neither was born yet.
It shows that Rep. Stefanik, despite all she has going for her, is more comfortable concocting conspiracy theories and demonizing Democrats than debating ways to make the North Country a better place to live.
Last week, she accused three North Country TV stations of “colluding” with Castelli because they invited him to a debate. They also invited Stefanik.
The collusion accusation shows an ignorance of how local media outlets work and who works there. Whether they are TV, radio or print reporters and editors, those local media professionals are made up of people who live, work and volunteer in their communities and in many cases have lived there far longer than the congresswoman. They know the people who consume their stories and run into them at the supermarket. If they can get home in time for some family time, it is a good day. They really don’t have the time to “collude” with political candidates.
That’s Stefanik’s world.
Oddly, Stefanik has previously appeared in debates on each of the three news stations she now accuses of “collusion.”
The more likely strategy here is that Stefanik is trying to reduce the number of debates or eliminate any attempt to ask her difficult questions.
Her spokesman described the local media as “biased” without examples. Unlike those in politics, media professionals are held to ethics policies and take them seriously. Covering politics is only a small part of their job.
According to Stefanik, every media outlet in the North Country happens to spew far left opinions and are out to get her. The television stations I watch don’t air opinions. They mostly cover fires and car crashes.
If you want to believe there are CIA coups involving her opponent, I suggest you ask for some documentation.
Or you might be better served by watching one of the Jack Ryan movies. The good guys always win in the end. I fear that is not the case here.
An excerpt
Just three months into my tenure as editor of The Post-Star, I joined other members of the newsroom gathered around the television set as children crawled out of school windows and were led away by police with their hands over their heads.
We had never seen anything like this in 1999, and later we would learn that one of our sportswriters had attended school at Columbine.
There are some national events that are automatically local news, too. What we found out that day in 1999 was the seeds for a mass school shooting were already planted in our own communities.
That’s where we begin in Chapter 1 of “The Last American Newspaper.”
Unfortunately, that scene in the newsroom would be repeated over and over again in the coming years.
Village vote
Voters in the village of Lake George will be deciding whether to dissolve the village in this month. There seems to be late, organized push to keep the village.
These can be emotional issues. The experts have said that taxpayers in both the town and village would save money if it was dissolved.
One local businessman wrote on social media this week of his concerns that village residents were giving away their assets and would no longer have a say in policy. I found the conclusion curious. Eliminating the village does not mean residents no longer have a say. Instead of going to the village officials, they go to town officials. The dissolution streamlines government and saves money.
Nothing is lost. Nothing is being given away.
Gibson retiring
The Times Union reported this week that Siena College President Chris Gibson would be retiring at the end of the school year.
You may remember that Gibson was our congressman after unseating Democrat Scott Murphy a decade or so ago. Gibson, a Republican, is still well thought of as someone who always tried to do the right thing and was above the politics.
Gibson was only at Siena for two years. The abrupt announcement immediately makes you wonder what his future plans might be and if politics might be in it.
In a statement provided by Siena Gibson said, “I am focused on leading Siena to provide a first-rate college experience, both in and beyond the classroom, and advancing and resourcing our strategic plan as we prepare our students to serve as leaders, inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, to help make the world become more just, peaceful, and humane.”
You rarely hear a politician quote Saint Francis of Assisi.
Correction
For those of you planning on attending this year’s Adirondack Film Festival, it is scheduled for Oct. 13-15 in Glens Falls.
After taking in the movies, you can move on to books at the Saratoga Book Festival where Will Doolittle, Mark Mahoney and myself will be appearing on a panel discussion to discuss my new book - “The Last American Newspaper” - and two decades of community journalism.
I think Elise has finally met her match with Matt Castelli. It sounds like she's very afraid..........and she should be! I think since Matt has worked in the Government, he has probably seen it all, is knowledgeable of how things are done, and has a genuine love of this country, and takes his oath seriously. He is genuine, while she is fake.
When Elise Stefanik is culling news articles from the Daily Mail to launder through the Post Star it’s not surprising that she’d also latch onto or create her own conspiracy theories. It’s ironic that someone on House Intelligence is actively spreading disinformation in this country.
It’s so unfair to her that she has to suffer the indignity of actually asking northern NYers to vote for her and appear in debates. We’ll see if spends any more effort on that than she needs to in ruby red upstate.
Karma isn’t instant as John Lennon phrased it, but I trust that time does eventually wound all heels and that everything Trump touches dies. 😉