Here is what you need to know about Brigid Farrell
If you are getting the vaccine, wear a mask while standing in line
The Front Page
Morning Update
Thursday, July 22, 2021
By Ken Tingley
Elise Stefanik’s attacks on anyone who might be a little different than her is growing tiresome.
When Brigid Farrell announced she was running to be her Democratic opponent in the 2022 election, the Stefanik camp immediately labeled her a far-left Joe Biden radical. The reaction was so swift that Farrell hadn’t even had time to give anyone her position on anything.
Apparently, anyone who who has a difference of opinion with the private-school-educated Stefanik is a “radical.” At least she didn’t call Farrell a socialist - yet.
I know a little bit about Farrell.
Right before Christmas in December 2001, I made the trip to Salt Lake City to cover the Olympic trials for short track speed skating. I always wanted to cover the Olympics and with a bunch of local athletes contending for a slot on the 2002, this was my chance.
Brigid Farrell was one of those athletes.
Going into the the last day of the trials, Farrell needed what I called at the time a “come out of nowhere day” to make the Olympic team.
Looking back at my column from December 23, 2001, she made an impression. I wrote this:
Farrell, who everyone calls Bridey, is a 19-year-old ball of fire who doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything, especially when she is skating in close quarters of short-track speed skating.
When she skates, she is pedal-to-the medal-in-the-fast-lane aggressive and if you don’t get out of her way, she is going to go right by you anyway.
Unfortunately, that aggression was her undoing during the trails. She was continually disqualified for dodging in and out of traffic. “If this was hockey, she would have been in the penalty box,” I wrote.
But on the last day, Farrell still had a chance to make the team. She won the quarterfinal heat of the last event to give her a chance. If she finished first or second in the semifinal heat and then at least third in the finals, she would be an Olympian.
Racing in the B finals, Farrell was tripped up by Allison Baver, fell to the ice, cashed into the wall, then got hit by Baver.
She limped off the ice and when they were done working on her, she had taken 20 stitches to close the wound on her rib cage.
After the race - and this may be the most important thing to remember - Farrell was not politically correct. She said the officials stink. Or words to that effect.
When the points were all added up, Farrell had finished seventh. She had failed to make the Olympic team.
Afterwards, Amy Peterson, who would eventually carry the flag for the United States at the opening ceremonies in Salt Lake City said this:
“I’ve learned a lot things about myself through speed skating over the years,” Peterson said. This is the toughest thing that Bridey has ever gone through. She’s going to be tougher because of this. She’s is going to be better for it.”
No one had any idea how tough she had been.
By 2002, Farrell had been sexually abused by a male speed skating star for four years.
In 2018, she testified before the Senate Commerce subcommittee, telling lawmakers, “The idea that we’ve just started speaking up isn’t true. We’ve been yelling for years, but no one’s been listening.”
In 2020, she filed a lawsuit, saying she was the subject to “serial grooming and sexual abuse” since she was 15.
And yet, the only thing the Stefanik camp can say about this brave young women fighting to keep kids safer is that she is a “radical.”
That speaks to Rep. Elise Stefanik’s lack of a moral code.
I don’t know if Brigid Farrell would make a good congresswoman or not. I don’t know where she stands on any of the positions. But anyone who has been through what she has been through is someone I want fighting for me.
Vaccine scene
The scene related to me this week from a local drugstore was a little hard to believe.
There was a line at the pharmacy of six or seven people. It turned out they were all there to get the vaccine. That was good news in a community where those unvaccinated continue to get illl.
But here’s the thing. Not one of the unvaccinated was wearing a mask, ensuring that if they were already infected. they were spreading it to everyone in that line.
Next week I am planning a visit to an aunt in a Connecticut nursing home. I plan on wearing a mask, not because I fear I will be infected, but I fear I may infect someone more vulnerable than me. That makes sense to me.
Earlier this week, Thomas Dimopoulos reported that the Capital District had the highest infection rate of any in the state.
Book getting closer
“The Last American Editor” should be released soon. We are shooting for July 30. To be sure you are among the first to see the book, you can preorder at:
Tweet of the Day
For Farrell to overthrow the Stefanik regime she will have to call out Stefanik for what she is, not mincing words for fear of offending people or being criticized for blatant namecalling. She's dealing with outright liars in the "Sleazfanik" camp. She must state, unequivocally, that Stefanik is a power-hungry liar toddying up to a failed fascist and has sacrificed the welfare of her constituents for her rise within a disintergrating political party. She can note all of Stefanik's many failures to support the ACA, Covid relief, Infrastructure, the Violence Against Women Act and then the affrontery of supporting a score of environmental rollbacks of the tRump adminitration. Kick ass, Brigid. Take no hostages! Mrs. Niceguy didn't work for Tedra, and the future of our democracy is in deadly jeopardy.
Agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying. Like I said in one of my Letters to the Editor, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Stefanik needs a wake up call. I hope she gets it.