Was National Review opinionator Christine Sisto’s razzing of Staten Island’s former Conservative-Republican Borough President James Molinaro done with “clean hands” and a dollop of unmelted butter between her tongue and palate — I DON’T THINK SO ! ! !
Whose agenda was being advanced ? Mike Long or Mike Grimm’s ? Maybe, somebody closer and more personally entangled ?
“This story is just strange, so I implore you to stick with me.”
Since I don’t want Lena Dunham on my case, let me start by saying I’m not trying to “slut-shame” anybody – male, female, tranny, castrato, whatever.
Other than the line borrowed for my sub-headline above, Ms. Sisto's piece starts with this: “Former Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro is getting blocked from being elected to the CUNY’s (City University of New York) Board of Trustees because of comments he has made in the past, including once calling Lady Gaga a “slut.” The New York Post reports that prominent state Democrats are looking to stop his appointment on the grounds that his comments are offensive to women....” ( See "The Curious Case of James Molinaro -- How the Staten Island politician played ball with Democrats, and struck out" by Christine Sisto, 6/2/14, National Review [http://www.nationalreview.com/article/379356/curious-case-james-molinaro-christine-sisto]).
So far so good, right ? Possibly an in depth discussion about overreaching feminist-leaning ideologues pounding on a crusty old It’lo-American from Staten Island ? Not at all ! Sisto was just being a cheerleader leading a cheer for Molinaro’s being deposited under the bus. Or, to put it another way, this was a hit piece against one of somebody’s political nemeses.
Here’s the pith of Sisto’s chant or hit on Molinaro: “The three-term borough president often gets definitions of relatively simple words wrong. In fact, he gets a lot of things wrong, especially endorsements. Although he is a registered Conservative and once held one of the highest positions within the party, that of Vice Chair of the State Party, he has since been ostracized from the New York Conservative Party for his wacky endorsements and political opinions, beginning with his support of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. His list of political endorsements reads much like Barack Obama’s would if he had weighed in on local New York elections: Senator Chuck Schumer, former Democratic Speaker Christine Quinn for mayor, and, of course, Governor Andrew Cuomo.”
So whose water is Sisto carrying with this piece ? Well, let’s say at the outset, there is a public list and a private list.
First, at the top of the public list is Mike Long, Chairman of the New York State Conservative Party. As any good “Godfather”- type, Long feels about Molinaro like he would about a stone in his shoe. Next is Congressman Michael Grimm – the support that Grimm has gotten from the Staten Island Conservative Party is becoming more and more grudging ( interestingly, Brooklyn's Conservative Party is far more committed to the re-election of Grimm) and Grimm needs more than the grudging support he's been getting from the Staten Islanders; more important the vexatious and volatile former Conservative SI BP needs to be marginalized as much as possible before he can do something crazy vis a vis Democrat candidate for congress Domenic Recchia. There are many subsidiary players in all this who will not be mentioned; their bailiwicks are in Brooklyn, and their names and positions should be readily recognized by regular readers of this blog.
One of my sources told me that Christine Sisto is a card carrying member of Marty Golden’s so-called “Republicans for Change”; and she was at the hotly contested 2013 GOP Kings County Convention. (There is other reporting in a February 2014 article in the Daily Eagle that says Ms. Sisto is a Conservative Party member...) However, her local political opinions and activities are more likely to be influenced by her social and close personal relations with some members of the Brooklyn Conservative Party; and in any case, her motivation to get into Staten Islander Molinaro's grill probably comes out of that rather than from the Marty G. connection, although there is plenty of overlap.
Hmmm, a Brooklyn Conservative with a keen interest in Staten Island-Southwest Brooklyn politics, especially with respect to Michael Grimm – there aren’t that many to choose from, and if you take Sisto out of the mix ( I’m playing coy about this, because two of my Baker Street Irregulars have specifically asked me to keep this person’s name out of my blog) if I had such a name available to me (wink, wink), it would be at the top of Christine Sisto’s private list. But, you might say, "This isn't news, it's been reported here in the Brooklyn Papers...." However, it wasn't disclosed to the National Review readers of "The Curious Case of James Molinaro -- How the Staten Island politician played ball with Democrats, and struck out."
Somebody who writes for National Review (especially cheerleaders) should disclose when they have a private interest in anything that they publish under that banner.
See y’all in church....
27 comments:
I read Christine's excellent article and believe she was speaking for herself.
You do realize that these modern women do that, right Gale?
P.S. Jim Molinaro still thinks it's pronounced bwowow pwesident.
Haven't I seen you on Baker Street ?
BACKFILL: THE “ON A RELATED MATTER” EDITION
IT”S FUNNY WHAT SOME “GIRLFRIENDS” HAVE TO “SHARE” TO BE IN THE LIVES OF SOME MEN....
Diana Durand is looking to resolve charges of operating as a straw donor for embattled Congressman Michael Grimm, prosecutors said last Wednesday during a hearing.(See “Former girlfriend of indicted Staten Island Congressman Michael Grimm in plea talks with federal prosecutors...” by John Marzulli, 6/25/14, NY Daily News [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ex-girlfriend-indicted-rep-michael-grimm-plea-talks-federal-prosecutors-article-1.1843405]).
Marzulli’s article went on to say, “Indicted Staten Island Congressman Michael Grimm’s former girlfriend is in plea talks with the feds to resolve her own criminal charges of violating campaign finance laws. *** A federal prosecutor revealed Wednesday [6/25/14] that Diana Durand’s case may be resolved with a guilty plea during a hearing in Brooklyn Federal Court, in which Durand was also apprised that her defense lawyers Stuart Kaplan and Joseph Sconzo may have a conflict of interest because they were FBI colleagues of Grimm... Grimm is charged in an unrelated indictment with mail and wire fraud, perjury, filing false tax returns and hiring undocumented immigrants at a Manhattan eatery. He remains under investigation for campaign finance violations.”
Christine says Grimm was her “boss” before she started working at National Review. During college in D.C. she was an intern in Grimm’s office down there. Later on, she worked on his re-election campaign. Rumor has it that Christine Sisto spends a lot of time with a Grimm staff person. It all sounds like “The Village of the Damned” or “Children of the Corn” or something very >>>> yucky <<<<.
Grimm's supporters include at least one of his recent political adversaries, named "Zahn" who has organized a rump group of Tea Party insurgents and rejects to do overpass demonstrations for Congressman Grimm. The small group is pathetic and it all looks contrived. Even worst, to be
giving statements defending Grimm's threats to the newsman only makes them all look insane. Are they really trying to HELP Grimm?
MORE/BETTER BACKFILL: THE “DID DIANA DURAND REALLY GET IT ?” EDITION
IT WAS DIANA DURAND’S ATTORNEYS’ PRIOR RELATIONSHIP WITH GRIMM THAT WAS THE ISSUE OF THE FEDERAL PROSECUTOR’S LETTER TO THE COURT — NOT DURAND’S PRIOR INTERACTIONS WITH THE CONGRESSMAN !
In the Comment above “Galewyn Massey ... BACKFILL: THE ‘ON A RELATED MATTER’ EDITION... June 30, 2014 at 2:01 PM” I gave a precis on what appeared in the following report carried by the Daily News, “Former girlfriend of indicted Staten Island Congressman Michael Grimm in plea talks with federal prosecutors...” by John Marzulli, 6/25/14, NY Daily News [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ex-girlfriend-indicted-rep-michael-grimm-plea-talks-federal-prosecutors-article-1.1843405].
In my earlier comment I didn’t include these quotes by Diana Durand that did appear in Mr. Marzulli’s article. When asked about her position on the conflict of interest involving her attorneys, she is reported by Marzulli to have said, “‘I understand there is a conflict of interest with my lawyers and Mr. Grimm but I will waive seeking other legal counsel,’ Durand told Federal Judge Sterling Johnson. ‘I feel 100% that I’m in their best interest.’ ” Based on those two statements, it appears that Ms. Durand might not have clearly understood the nature of the conflict, or that she had no obligation to demonstrate or explain her interest or her bona fides to her attorneys or the court.
Federal prosecutors in the case brought against Diana Durand for making illegal donations to Congressman Grimm and another GOP congressman had sent a letter to the Federal Judge hearing the case claiming that Ms. Durand’s attorneys might have had a conflict of interest in representing Durand.
Before releasing a copy of that letter to the public, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District redacted "potentially embarrassing facts" that they say Ms. Durand could disclose about Grimm. The letter says the redacted information would likely receive national media attention. That could lead to a conflict of interest because attorneys with ties to Grimm, like Kaplan and Sconzo, might advise a defendant like Diana Durand to plead guilty in order to prevent those potentially embarrassing facts from coming to light.... (See “Feds Say Grimm's Girlfriend's Lawyer Has Conflict, by Dan Friedman, 6/25/14, Daily News [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/feds-grimm-girlfriend-lawyer-conflict-blog-entry-1.1]; see also “Update: Feds say that attorney for woman in Rep. Michael Grimm fundraising case may have conflict of interest, according to report” by Tom Wrobleski, 6/25/14, SI Advance/ silive.com [http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/06/report_feds_say_that_attorneys.html]).
Wrobleski’s article in the the Staten Island Advance contained the following addtional information: “Kaplan told the Advance that it was ‘no secret’ that he and Grimm worked together at the FBI ‘and at times socialized.’ *** He said that any inference of a conflict of interest when it came to Ms. Durand ‘needed to be addressed and dispelled as far as any effect it may have on my representation of her.’ *** He said it was his suggestion, with the agreement of the United States Attorney's office, that it would be brought to the attention of the court and allow for a hearing to take place ‘to satisfy that no issues were present that would put my client [Durand] in a disadvantage[d] position with my continued representation.’ *** ‘The record was made more than clear today that my loyalty is undivided and 100 percent focused on Durand,’ Kaplan said.”
Hmmm ! Would that specifically include the "potentially embarrassing facts" for Grimm that “would likely receive national media attention” not if a redacted prosecutor’s letter were to be published, but if Diana Durand’s case were to proceed to trial ?
Let’s see what happens next in this case.
Her boyfriend is one of Grimms staff members
"BOYFRIEND"
IT'S FUNNY that you used the term “boyfriend” in connection with Christine Sisto. I didn’t know that’s what she called the person on Grimm’s staff with whom she has a close personal relationship. I looked her up on my search engine and then plugged in “boyfriend”; this is what I came up with: the first was a little interesting – “...When I showed the pictures of the short suit to my boyfriend, he said, ‘What would you think if I bought this? It would probably look pretty good on me,’ gesturing towards the toned legs that he developed running track in high school and college....” (See “Who Wears Short Shorts ? – Nobody we hope” by Christine Sisto, 6/16/14, National Review/ NRO
[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/380499/who-wears-short-shorts-christine-sisto]). However, I’m not so certain that the “boyfriend” described by Ms Sisto in this article would fit the objective description of anybody on Congressman Grimm’s staff. There also was an article about some “boyfriend” getting his head shaved by Congressman Grimm; but the visual was repulsive in so many ways, I had to shut that one down ASAP.
In any case, a far more interesting cite came up several screens deeper in the results that popped up on my search. Who would have guessed that Christine Sisto is a thespian (See “Christine Sisto – an Unauthorized and Not-very well-fact-checked biography” by Ubiquitous Anonymous Author, 2013 [http//wwwchristinesisto.anunauthorizedandnotverywellfactcheckedbiography]). Here’s something from that site:
“....just one line from Christine Sisto’s breathtaking performance in the St Saviour’s H.S. student production of “Young Frankenstein” (playing Frau Blucher):
“... Frau Blücher: YES. YES. Say it. He vas my... BOYFRIEND.”
She replayed the very same role in the GWU Follies; and yes, the line that brought down the house was (you guessed it!):
“...Frau Blücher: YES. YES. Say it. He vas my... BOYFRIEND.”
I’ve made some calls; and I can report without fear of contradiction that there were no rumors or reports that could be confirmed that Christine was overheard in the last week practicing her “Young Frankenstein” lines in the Washington, D.C., offices of National Review — I did especially ask about this one: “YES. YES. Say it. He vas my... BOYFRIEND....”; however, I couldn’t verify that she didn’t say “YES. YES. Say it. He vas my... BOYFRIEND....” at that location during that same time period, either. I think I might continue my investigations to see if there are any amateur theatrical companies casting for or otherwise mounting the “Young Frankenstein” show in the District or surrounding communities in Maryland or Virginia. If there is, I’m sure CS will show up — I’m told that she loves the role and she loves the line.
Btw, Christine how could you do a piece entitled “Who Wears Short Shorts?...” and not mention Bob Gaudio, who wrote the song at age 15 back in the 50s.
....For your penance go to see “Jersey Boys” and sin no more.... Now, make a good Act of Contrition.
Marty Golden uses a hack named Glen Nocera in Brooklyn to promote Grimm, and Grimm uses a sleaze named Bobby Zahn to do HIS dirty work on Staten Island. Meanwhile, Stuart Kaplan, Diana Durand's lawyer, is a buddy of Grimm's clearly working for HIS best interests. Sisto's bf is a Grimm staffer, Liam McCabe. They all have their tawdry agendas. The fact that Grimm is a fraud, crooked, and the most liberal RINO in the House does not bother them. Grimm can do an absurd "Obama is out to get me" speech at a Golden event (that was supposed to be for Rob Astorino) and not be laughed off the stage, Grimm someone so liberal he makes Eric Cantor look conservative. The pandering Grimm in 2010 ran as a conservative; funny how his lies do not bother the local political hacks. Sad too.
Thank you Z...
It all comes full circle.
Whatever Republican and Conservative insiders in Brooklyn might be about is corrupted by their association(s) with Grimm and/or Golden.
One of my most reliable Baker Street Irregulars thinks that Christine Sisto is "a rising star"... She also remains an "insider" for Grimm and a useful associate to Golden....
Whatever star-power she might have going for her, it will be tarnished by her association(s) with Grimm and Golden, and her flacking for either one of them during her day job.
Instead, she should be exposing Grimm and Golden for their self-serving betrayal(s) of the values and principles of conservatism, wherever, whenever and however it occurs.
Please don't let this blog become the He-Man Woman Haters Club.
Leave Christine alone.
Come out of the closet Gale.
Dont just call yourself a woman.
BTW. Do you also dress like a girl?
This is the dirty underbelly of the Republican War Against Women, keeping their own women in line.
Sometimes woman have opinions.
You should know
Sisto is Ann Coulter, with a figure, a brain, and a publication that respects her opinions.
Sistos piece on breasts was a little more stimulating than Grimm and Long
Everybody take a deep breath.
Before all the kibitzing, I asked a simple question -- on whose dime was Sisto working when she hammered Jim Molinaro; and I suggested a few people. That made some people very defensive -- that's how it goes when you strike a raw nerve.
OK, maybe she did it on her own toot as part of her brief for National Review. I really doubt that. If NR is now in the business of slamming James Molinaro, then that fine old glossy (along with NRO) is circling the drain.
In any case, the Molinaro hit piece is not an article of which Christine Sisto should be proud. Furthermore, her association(s) with Grimm and Golden will not burnish her credentials as a serious political writer.
With that, I'm done with this... However, kibitzers keep kibitzing if you want to; my blog can use the hits.
So now writers have to submit there tax returns before publishing an article?
Did you mean "three" tax returns or "their" tax returns? I can't find the one for 2010... But I'll keep looking, because I have something important I want to say.
Aw heck! I'll say it anyway...
"BUTT-CHIN" ... "BUTT-CHIN"... "BUTT-CHIN"...
Christine Sisto will be the Editor in Chief of the Wall Street Journal by Labor Day.
For Anonymous said... July 4, 2014 at 8:26 PM
"BUTT-HEAD" ... "BUTT-HEAD" ... "BUTT-HEAD" ...
A little known detail is that originally Astorino asked Sisto to run for Lt Governor.
? ? ? ? ?
I'm still on Baker Street
IT'S FUNNY that you used the term “boyfriend” in connection with Christine Sisto. I didn’t know that’s what she called the person on Grimm’s staff with whom she has a close personal relationship. I looked her up on my search engine and then plugged in “boyfriend”; this is what I came up with: the first was a little interesting – “...When I showed the pictures of the short suit to my boyfriend, he said, ‘What would you think if I bought this? It would probably look pretty good on me,’ gesturing towards the toned legs that he developed running track in high school and college....” (See “Who Wears Short Shorts ? – Nobody we hope” by Christine Sisto, 6/16/14, National Review/ NRO
[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/380499/who-wears-short-shorts-christine-sisto]). However, I’m not so certain that the “boyfriend” described by Ms Sisto in this article would fit the objective description of anybody on Congressman Grimm’s staff. There also was an article about some “boyfriend” getting his head shaved by Congressman Grimm; but the visual was repulsive in so many ways, I had to shut that one down ASAP.
In any case, a far more interesting cite came up several screens deeper in the results that popped up on my search. Who would have guessed that Christine Sisto is a thespian (See “Christine Sisto – an Unauthorized and Not-very well-fact-checked biography” by Ubiquitous Anonymous Author, 2013 [http//wwwchristinesisto.anunauthorizedandnotverywellfactcheckedbiography]). Here’s something from that site:
“....just one line from Christine Sisto’s breathtaking performance in the St Saviour’s H.S. student production of “Young Frankenstein” (playing Frau Blucher):
“... Frau Blücher: YES. YES. Say it. He vas my... BOYFRIEND.”
She replayed the very same role in the GWU Follies; and yes, the line that brought down the house was (you guessed it!):
“...Frau Blücher: YES. YES. Say it. He vas my... BOYFRIEND.”
I’ve made some calls; and I can report without fear of contradiction that there were no rumors or reports that could be confirmed that Christine was overheard in the last week practicing her “Young Frankenstein” lines in the Washington, D.C., offices of National Review — I did especially ask about this one: “YES. YES. Say it. He vas my... BOYFRIEND....”; however, I couldn’t verify that she didn’t say “YES. YES. Say it. He vas my... BOYFRIEND....” at that location during that same time period, either. I think I might continue my investigations to see if there are any amateur theatrical companies casting for or otherwise mounting the “Young Frankenstein” show in the District or surrounding communities in Maryland or Virginia. If there is, I’m sure CS will show up — I’m told that she loves the role and she loves the line.
Btw, Christine how could you do a piece entitled “Who Wears Short Shorts?...” and not mention Bob Gaudio, who wrote the song at age 15 back in the 50s.
What the hell is this rant even about? I have no idea what Young Frankenstein thing you're even talking about as I never did theater ever and I'm pretty sure SSHS never did Young Frankenstein, unless there's someone else that goes there/went there with the same name as me. And the boyfriend mentioned in both articles is the same person. And as to your accusation that I'm pushing some agenda by this article, my editor told me to write this particular piece, so you can put your mind at ease.
This is what I get for googling myself.
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