38 Comments
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Ibby's avatar

I sincerely doubt that Stefanik was ever “nice.” I bet some actually nice staff person wrote that letter and I’d be surprised if Stefanik even read it.

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Will Doolittle's avatar

I think it's possible she wrote it. It seemed to be an issue she cared about -- around the same time, she mentioned it to me when she was in our office -- during the time she was thinking for herself.

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Ibby's avatar

You may be right then. 😊

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JC Steiniger's avatar

NY-21’s “Pre-Trump” Stefanik was indeed more moderate (not necessarily “nice”, just “moderate”) and I attribute that moderation to the district’s political make up in 2010. She was, and is, first and foremost - an opportunist.

Most unfortunately, the folks reading your post, and our comments, are not the folks who require conversion (those with the “Trump ‘28” banners hanging from their porch) they be us, sitting in the choir section.

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Katherine Luaces's avatar

Wanted to recommend Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Invitation to a Beheading’ along with the Kafka.

Excellent, insightful column as always.

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Will Doolittle's avatar

I'll check that out. I love Nabokov.

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Al Bellenchia's avatar

“Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

(Bonhoeffer was killed by the Nazis)

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Janet Flinchbaugh's avatar

Oh , how far we can fall from grace!

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Diane's avatar

I have never found Stefanik to be, "nice".

Never found her to be anything, honestly.

Several call to her office were never returned

When she had a Town Hall in Plattsburgh, you had to win a lottery to attend. Never even saw her.

She came a few weeks ago to say, "goodbye" when she though she was going to be Ambassador to the UN.

I don't think she ever stopped to say hello or , "what can I do for you?"

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Ken Tingley's avatar

My early opinion of Stefanik was I didn’t know what she stood for. We know now.

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Mary Ellen Collins's avatar

Thank you Will, I'm afraid her "dye is cast", and we'll NEVER see the moderate considerate person who was originally elected to office...hopefully, she'll try to run for governor and get her a_ _ wipped.

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mike parwana's avatar

Gov Hochul is not making the winning part look like an easy road.

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Mary Ellen Collins's avatar

I stopped listening to the Round Table quite a while ago. Since Joe Donohue has taken over, his attempt at "balance" has turned into a circus. He always has some radical republican on the panel and they let whoever it is run wild. I just can't listen anymore.

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Will Doolittle's avatar

It's a tricky task. You want people to have their say and not have the discussion degenerate into a testy argument. But you don't want to let outrageous comments stand. I couldn't do it as well as he does.

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Edward Low's avatar

there is a major difference from a person who can be nice (for perhaps some selfish reason) and someone who is nice

I have had many professions where someone was nice to me, because they thought they would get better service or profit in some way.

That did not mean they were nice

And there are people are not nice, but a nice person... on a given day. As in they buried her mother.

pos_tfnkkk

ª can be nice

ª she understand what it means to 'be nice' I am sure she grovels to hmpy trmpedophile every day

ª pos_tfnKKK is not nice

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Kevin Robbins's avatar

In case Mark Grimm is a Christian, “ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’” Happy Easter!

I could continue with Martin Niemoller’s admonition, but about Elise Stefanik.

I read a piece in the Atlantic the other day about a farmer in Potsdam who was quite upset that the price of a shipment of grain for his stock had a $2200 tariff appended to it. He thought the supplier should be the one to eat that charge. 🙄

I don’t think it’ll do him much good, since she so cultishly supports the guy responsible, but he could contact his congresswoman. So could all the people whose businesses are going to be harmed from the dearth of Canadian tourists. Maybe she can get Trump to subsidize all of them like he did Midwest farmers after they were harmed by tariffs in his first debacle.

Stefanik criticized Trump pretty harshly at one time. Tariffs are hardly the backbone of an economic philosophy of free trade. I asked someone here yesterday, in a failed discussion, did Trump get a lot better or did Elise get a lot worse? It’s probably rhetorical. 😉

He is risen!

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Ellen C Dinolfo's avatar

I listen every day to The Roundtable,, and I, too, was furious by Mr. Grimm's comments. "Pretty remarkable success......distraction........WHAT??? I was making my own comments to the radio!

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James Earl Owens's avatar

Why not add your comments to the station? There's a letter and petition campaign going on demanding The Roundtable stop refusing to allow Palestinian sources on the panels.

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/demand-diversity-and-fairness-on-wamcs-the-roundtable-email-station-management

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/demand-diversity-and-fairness-on-wamcs-the-roundtable-email-station-management

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Richie Bittner's avatar

"What is the source of their nonchalance?" Racist dog whistle. The reality is that the motovation of the right wing today is by driven by hate for anything non-white, christian, and conservative by inclination. That and to piss normal people off with their bigotry. The suffering is seen as a bonus to them, a bit of a serves you right. The problem at the border is solvable, by modernizing our laws and tech, but if one party is making such hay of it, why solve it, this is what they want to see. The president attends caged fight events, and the crowd gives him a standing ovation, all you need to know.

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Richard's avatar

..."Joseph K. is a tightrope walker on a wire no one can see." / -Aren't we all, sir, (aren't we all)...

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Jack Delehanty's avatar

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Justice’s sake…RESIST.

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Mary Farrell's avatar

A little empathy and consideration for others from this administration is much needed. That's not religion based, it's just being a good human

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Maureen V's avatar

I remember, once in a galaxy far, far away, that Stefanik was not so fearful of her constituents.

She held Coffee with your Congresswoman events and actually had in-person town halls and debates. But, then, she succumbed to the darkness of Trumpism and MAGA.

I am sure that today she will "share" Easter greetings on social media, though her words and actions share nothing with the teachings and actions of Jesus Christ.

Her "anti-Semitism" crusade is hollow. Does anyone really think that her attacks on higher education institutions are genuine? She & Trump only seek power and control of who they hire, who they admit and what they teach.

Maybe, at one time, Stefanik was "nice".

But, today, she definitely is not.

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