In an attempt at political judo, the Brooklyn Republican Organization’s two senior members have tried to make State Senator Martin Golden appear to have done something improper when he demanded that the GOP County Leader who was described but not named in a federal corruption complaint be disclosed and made to resign
Although Golden’s demands definitely had a clear political intent, the announcements and reports of Golden’s demands were not in the nature of attacks personally directed at Brooklyn Republican Party Chairman Eaton. On the other hand, letters signed by both Eaton and Pemberton were unambiguous personal attacks on Senator Golden.
Pemberton’s letter to “all of Brooklyn’s Republican District Leaders” was the first publicized, and the following passage is illustrative of her direct and personal attack on Marty Golden: “...Sen. Golden is using this race in an attempt to oust Craig as the Chairman. What a total disgrace. To learn this is being orchestrated by Senator Martin Golden is beyond the pale! I call upon all of our State Committee members to join with me in denouncing what Senator Golden is attempting to do. It is once again a case of another Senator on a power trip. He now wants to control Kings County completely. We cannot stand by and watch our party torn apart once again.” (For a copy of the entire letter: see “Document Drop: Props For Brooklyn GOP Boss” by Celeste Katz, 4/10/13, NY Daily News/Daily Politics [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/04/document-drop-props-for-brooklyn-gop-boss-0])
Mrs. Pemberton's main pitch is that Golden is trying to usurp Eaton’s position as County Leader, because of a dispute about Eaton’s and Golden’s selections of mayoral candidates. Interestingly, Golden's earlier request for the public disclosure of the ID of "Chairman #1" in a federal corruption complaint alleging a conspiracy to rig the GOP primary is not mentioned by Pemberton .
Eaton’s letter was a joint deal with two other GOP County Leaders (whose direct authorship has been attributed to Manhattan’s Dan Isaacs). Eaton subscribes the publically released missive that says this about the State Senator who had been one of Eaton’s staunchest supporters: “It is outrageous that you [Golden] would insert yourself into the midst of an ongoing Federal investigation. As a former member of the New York City Police Department you should know better; you should allow law enforcement to do their job. *** Considering that you released your letter to the media the same day that you called a meeting of District Leaders of the Brooklyn GOP, one can only assume that this is a cynical attempt on your behalf to stage a coup in advancement of your personal political agenda. *** Perhaps you should be more judicious in your political mudslinging. We can’t imagine that you would be thrilled if a county chairman called for your resignation the next time one of your fellow legislators is charged with a nefarious deed. *** The voters of the Republican Party want elected officials who will build our party, not those who break it down through illegal deeds, ill-chosen words or Machiavellian action.” (For a copy of the entire letter: see “Document Drop: GOP Chairs V. Martin Golden” by Celeste Katz, 4/11/13, NY Daily News/Daily Politics [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/04/document-drop-gop-chairs-v-martin-golden]).
It’s clear from the above that Eaton and his allies among the Brooklyn and City-wide GOP leadership have decided that offense is the best defense to whatever Golden might have had in store for Eaton. However, by making it personal first, Eaton’s crowd probably committed a tactical blunder, especially with respect to any Brooklyn GOP Organization leaders that might have been on the fence when all this began, and are still waiting to see how things shake out.
So far Golden and his insiders have been counter-punching the individuals making the charges against the State Senator; I expect they have another shoe or two to drop on Eaton, or they wouldn’t have baited “their Republican County Chairman” this way.
Golden voted against my gun rights. I am voting for Eaton.
ReplyDeleteVoting ? What voting ? We don't need no stinkin' voting....
DeleteGolden crossed the line by having his pal Krauss (a Staten Island Democrat) personally attack Gladys Pemberton. If anything pissed off the fencesitters, that did it.
ReplyDeleteThat was a good flurry of punches and counter-punches -- both sides scored --- >>> BUT it was after Pemberton had crossed the line with her letter (notably with Testaverde's and Benton's names on the letterhead)
Delete>>> AND don't try to convince anybody that the letter from Eaton and the other County leaders had anything to do with Krauss and Pemberton
Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteI read and read and within your post I learn and I learn and sometimes what you do know, you have to keep to yourself.
Thanks again my friend if I may call you that. I will just observe for now on and leave you to your wonderful sense of writing.
Gale, you are totally incorrect here. Golden and his gang crossed the line and drew first blood against the Brooklyn GOP with his unfounded statements and claims behind the scenes. He invited 18 District Leaders to a "private meeting" this week to denounce, lible and slander Eaton - to Eaton's credit, only 6 showed up, and two walked out after Golden started to personally attack Eaton with unfounded charges.....get the facts staright.....
ReplyDeleteI think not.
DeleteRead my original post carefully and you will see that I used the clause, "Pemberton’s letter to “all of Brooklyn’s Republican District Leaders” was the first publicized, ..."
Even you had to acknowledge that Golden had spoken to a "private meeting" of six (6) Republican District leaders.... If Pemberton's letter to the "District Leaders" wasn't accompanied with a release to the press (but oddly not to all the district leaders)....
Have I got those facts straight ?
btw, thanks for all the good information -- bit by bit the real story emerges. Please respond if you want to provide any more details of that meeting between State Senator Golden and six (6) and then four (4) Republican District leaders where "Golden started to personally attack Eaton with unfounded charges ... to denounce, lible [sic] and slander Eaton"
This is just a power play - pure and simple. Golden wants to own and control the entire GOP in Brooklyn and throughout the City....remember what happened when Guy Vallela did this in the Bronx and Bob Dicarlo did it in Brooklyn? Not a good thing to have a Senator controlling everything....
ReplyDeleteGolden is part of the "Keep Power at Any Cost" Coalition with Senate Democrats. He voted to restrict our 2nd Amendment rights, and does not deserve to speak for or about the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteGolden is totally within his rights to oust Eaton and reorganize the party. As the only Republican elected entirely in Brooklyn, his stake is much larger than any of these other characters. Especially Pemberton; the woman lives in Florida and hasn't been involved on the ground in years at this point, so what on earth does she know about anything? The entire county is rotten with atrophy and yes-men, so its definitely time for a change.
ReplyDeleteAbout Galdys Pemberton and her letter, how did everybody who knows about her and her friends over the years inside the Brooklyn party miss this?
DeleteAmong all the lies in Gladys Pemberton’s letter, this bombastic bit of hypocrisy was by far the worst “There is very little in the way of patronage” The Pembertons and their ilk got the lollipops over the years and most of therest of the leaders got the stick.
UPDATE — AND A PERTINENT OR IMPERTINENT QUESTION: According to Liz Benjamin in Capital Tonight, “The NYC Republican Party is at war with itself in the wake of the Malcolm Smith corruption scandal, with Sen. Marty Golden maneuvering to take out Brooklyn Chairman Craig Eaton and activists calling for Queens Chair Phil Ragusa to resign” ( See “Here and Now” by Liz Benjamin, 4/12/13, YNN Capital Tonight
ReplyDelete[http://capitaltonightny.ynn.com/2013/04/here-and-now-747/#more-99857]). That item contains a link to a NY Post report ( See “Malcolm ignites GOP war” by Carl Campanile, 4/12/13, NY Post [http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/malcolm_ignites_gop_war_J8KEfenJGryhTKpZOo3UBN]). According to the Campanile report in the NY Post, “State Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) is maneuvering to oust Craig Eaton as the Kings County Republican chairman. *** ‘Marty is telling people he wants to take Craig out,’ a GOP official said. *** Golden, the most powerful elected Republican in Brooklyn, did not deny it. *** ‘No comment,’ he said.”
None of this is news, but it is confirmation that the events are being viewed that way by some in the city-wide and state-wide press.
BTW, why has State Senator Golden openly and forcefully called for the resignation of the unnamed GOP County Leader that specifically HAS NOT BEEN CHARGED in the federal probe and prosecution connected to Malcolm Smith’s short-circuited attempt to get a Wilson-Pakula endorsement, while Golden has not signaled that his fellow State Senator, Malcolm Smith, should resign, nor has Golden even suggested that Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran should resign; even though both Smith and Halloran specifically HAVE BEEN CHARGED in the federal complaint?
BACKFILL: WORTH QUOTING from the comments to “Document Drop: GOP Chairs V. Martin Golden” by Celeste Katz, 4/11/13, NY Daily News/Daily Politics [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/04/document-drop-gop-chairs-v-martin-golden]):
ReplyDelete“VJMACHIAVELLI ... One letter gets another letter and I guess Golden did not learn from the past wars in Brooklyn & now is engaged in a full scale "WAR" in Brooklyn. *** One needs to ask "Who Brite Idea Was It" to write the letter. *** Sometimes it is better for a Senator to be seen and not heard or write letters. *** Before there was the "Oracle of Delphi" there was Count Vampire J. Machiavelli *** VJ Machiavelli On Twitter @vjmachiavelli”
Where is the the New York COnservative party in all of this. Whenever Republicans in New York state fight to the death about something inside the party, the New York Conservative Party is never very far away from it.
ReplyDeletealso, any news where the peter cipriano's, karen fisher's, and jonathan judge's of Brooklyn are in all of this?
ReplyDeleteREPLY TO: "Anonymous...11:34PM" and "Anonymous...5:34AM"
DeleteOne of my Baker Street Irregulars with closer emotional ties to the Eatoneons mentioned some sets of suspects among the Goldini -- State Senate staff members were seen as likely culprits, because the "only Republican elected in Brooklyn" mantra is something that one often hears from them, especially in the Albany crowd -- also one of the things that Craig Eaton openly said "NO" to Golden was about putting Peter Cipriano on the Brooklyn GOP slate for State Committee member.
Jerry Kassar, Chairman of the Brooklyn Conservative Party and Vice Chair of the State Conservatives, is Marty Golden's Chief of Staff. He has personal ties to and close working relations with all those potential culprits. He also claimed to have had some insider information about who did or said what inside the Malcolm Smith Wilson-Pakula conspiracy; and connections to that mess are central to Golden's attacks on Eaton.
I was a very active Leader during the DL races a few years ago. You should know here that I believe it was Eaton who was one of the first supporters of Cipriani for Assembly and supported him well. I even remember that Cip found the office for the Broklyn GOP that it presently uses. And then Eaton offered support to Cip in the DL race, but Cip didnt want anyone having any say over his DL race operation. It was at that point that Cip and Eaton had a falling out, and when Cip was not able to get enough sigantures, Cip started attacking Eaton unfairly. Dont know why they never made up........they were so close.
ReplyDeleteMy sources say that he was close to Fred, Lucretia and Arnaldo too.
DeleteMaybe, being close to Fred, Lucretia, Arnaldo and Craig were not good places for Cipriano to be. On the other hand, maybe there's a pattern emerging...
Marty Golden, Karen Fischer and Jerry Kassar, please take note.
Also, read Shakespeare's "Othello" and focus on the "Iago" character.
Marty Golden is a fat old man - does he think he actually has power? Eaton has elected many Republican candidates in the last few years - Golden? Him and his office focuses on fixing parking meters in Brooklyn - what a wonderful use of resources!
ReplyDelete