In Battle of Columns in the Home Reporter – Spectator Between the Special Ks, the Fire-Breathing Conservative, Jerry Kassar, is Losing the Battle of Ideas to the Routine Democrat, Brian Kieran

Brian Kieran came away the winner, this week in the weekly “battle of ideas” presented by the Spectator News. Since this was the ultimate contest of commentaries in 2012 between Mr. Kieran, a rather routine Democrat, and Mr. Kassar, State Senator Martin Golden’s proudly self-proclaimed “Chief of Staff” and supposedly a fire-breathing true believing “conservative” in his own right, the year ends on a downer for Conservatives and conservative-minded Republicans, who might be lined-up with Kassar. 

Kassar’s bit entitled "Changing Times" was real “small ball” gotcha stuff about what Kassar calls “a one seat majority” in the state senate; mixed in with some very usual praise for the great work being done by State Senator Martin Golden or some member of the Golden staff, in this case “a true hero” John Quaglione.
http://www.homereporternews.com/opinion/columnists/common-sense-week-of-december/article_7a35bfa0-4fc1-11e2-9c07-0019bb2963f4.html

On the other hand Brian Kieran did address the big issues of the week head on and clearly won the day by doing so.  http://www.homereporternews.com/opinion/we-the-people-week-of-december/article_5c530aaa-4fc2-11e2-ac07-0019bb2963f4.html

Don’t get me wrong, although Brian is a nice fellow and we generally talk the same language on a lot of the nuts and bolts of politics; but when it comes to many issues, like in this instance -- gun control -- we just don’t see eye-to-eye, at all. Nonetheless, he was all over the gun control thing and the NRA lobbying, and all the rest. He not only correctly identified  it all as part of the issue of the day, he gave out the routine Democrat talking points with both moral certainty and a righteous indignation appropriate for the aftermath of the Newtown-Sandy Hook School massacre of innocents by a madman with guns. Unfortunately, there was nobody like Kassar around to slam lobs like this back over the net right at Brian’s ... : “If someone lobbied hard for the right of children to be protected from mentally ill mass murderers, then the Newtown shooter might not have had the Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle that facilitated the carnage in the school.”  BUT  —  since I’m here to praise Brian and not bury him, I’ll let it go at this: Brian Keiran scored with a bunch of aces because there was nobody there willing and able to return service.

The man who needs burying with very faint praise is Kassar. Instead of calling out Governor Cuomo for wanting to confiscate legally purchased and owned guns, Kassar chose to lambaste John Sampson, who the Democrats voted out as the head of their caucus. Speaking with all the sensibility of an over-used carpet bag, the Kings County Conservative leader largely wrote about the process of electoral sausage making; and how statewide, Conservative Party operators like himself were the butchers necessary for grinding the offal into the winning mix of the "Republican" majority. He detailed things like one-vote majorities, being careful to count Democrat Simcha Felder as part of the "republican" majority, and pointing out that the Conservatives had been necessary for the margin of victory for six of the thirty-one “Republican” seats. Although Jerry K mentioned "the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference (IDC)" in connection with John Sampson, he made no mention of that groups power-sharing deal with the Republicans or how it might function in "leading" the New York State Senate.

In any case, Kassar's pitch for the last week of the year was real small ball, inside pool that hardly lived up to its title, "Changing Times."  And  —  with so many bigger issues to talk about, like so-called fiscal cliffs, threats to Second Amendment rights nationally, statewide and locally, and the aftermath of an election where delusional Democrats are suffering from mandate madness, Kassar’s column about margins of victory in New York State Senate races or the beatification in life of his junior Marty Golden staffer was just unseemly and feckless.

Kassar had better up his game, or simply knock off this futile exercise before he does more damage to the Conservative-Republican brand in Brooklyn long-term.

[COMING SOON: a critical look at the Kings County Conservative Party's blog --- with lot's of love for  GOP-turned-Conservative operative Ross Brady]