With “leaders” like Jerry Kassar around, voting is not enough

Kassar, not a Republican, has spent his political life trying to whipsaw the GOP, and the people who believe-in and support the Republican Party, between winning and losing efforts   —   Why ?  To aggrandize himself and his so-called “Conservative Party” 

In addition to Kassar’s paying “day job” of being the “Chief of Staff” to the silver-haired  State Senator Martin Golden, who becomes more tarnished every day, and his real “full-time” job of being the Kings County Chairman of the Conservative Party and an executive member of the NYS Conservative Party, Jerry Kassar also writes a weekly column for the Home Reporter and related publications.

Given his recent frenzy for various candidates, I certainly thought that Jerry Kassar’s  pre-election week piece should have been full of stem-winding political prose. I was wrong. Instead, he opened with four short paragraphs about “Obamacare.”  Clearly, the material needed serious analysis and criticism from a “conservative” perspective.  What Kassar provided was something about as long as a Jay Leno or David Letterrman joke in their nightly monologues, but without the humor ( Everybody knows what happens whenever Kassar tries humor....); unfortunately, there was no recognizable analysis, and Kassar obviously hoped that his cynicism would pass for criticism (See “Common Sense: The glitch by Jerry Kassar, 10/28/13, Home Reporter/ Sunset Park News [http://www.homereporternews.com/opinion/columnists/common-sense-the-glitch/article_3baeb166-401a-11e3-b142-0019bb2963f4.html]).

After a three asterisk break, Kassar launched into what I  have to guess was his PITCH for the Republican-Conservative Candidate for Mayor, Joseph Lhota.

I’m sorry, but I think I could have done a better job pitching Kassar’s and Long’s handpicked mayoral candidate on their Conservative Party line  —  and I haven’t even decided yet whether I’m going to support the Republican-Conservative Lhota, instead of the social conservative in the race, Erick Salgado, who is  running on the School Choice line.

Maybe, Kassar is no pitchman. After all, last week I criticized him for his less than rousing support and/or endorsement for his chosen candidate for City Council from the 43rd District, John Quaglione, who also happens to be Kassar’s longtime colleague and office-mate.

Kassar started off well enough for Lhota with this: “When all is said and done Joe Lhota made essentially three important arguments for his election – crime, taxes and experience.”

So the first point is CRIME, right ?   WRONG !   Kassar’s first and strongest argument for Lhota is that “Joe’s theme has been ‘ready on day one.’  Based on his background as a former deputy mayor, city budget director and MTA head, it seems like a logical conclusion.” From there Kassar went off on a snarky diversion about deBlasio being in the Dinkin’s administration during the Crown Heights riots. It would have been better if Kassar explained why Lhota’s prior positions made him ready to be mayor on day one. After all, the NYC mayors for the last twenty years, Giuliani and Bloomberg, never held any of those positions.  —   As a matter of fact, can Kassar name anybody who has been elected mayor who had ever held any of those positions ?

Then Kassar finally got to the crime argument. “Lhota makes several points on crime, with the most vivid being that we could turn the city back to the Dinkins years when the city was far less safe.” Who remembers what that means, exactly ?  Don’t worry about it, Kassar quickly shifted into a rant against deBlasio’s “...ACLU type criminal-coddling proposals”; and with Kenneth Thompson’s being the Brooklyn DA, something that Kassar seemed to have taken for granted, and according to Kassar, “together [with deBlasio]... something very real ... we might have to worry about.” Check it out: it all makes about as much sense in the original Kassar column.

The tax argument was this: deBlasio will raise property taxes. That’s Kassar’s specialty; he’s a pencil and numbers kind of guy  —  not bad at cross-word puzzles and Sudoku, either.

But all of that was just a lead up for Kassar’s closing the sale for Joe Lhota to be our next mayor: his stentorian peroration was as follows: “...[V]oters need to have a laser focus on the issues.  Both candidates have spoken on them many times.  And there is clearly a world of difference. ***   So take the time to review their positions and make an informed decision before you walk into that polling site.  And most of all, do come out and vote.”

Sometimes, voting is not enough. After Tuesday, Republicans who care about the GOP in New York City and State need to purge themselves of people like Kassar and  the Conservative Party.  —   And  part of that will entail selective purges inside the now quite misnamed  “Conservative Party”  —   sort of doing to them what they have been doing to the GOP for years.

Kassar is not a Republican and spends altogether too much time involved in GOP politics. Occasionally, it is beneficial to the Republican Party or its candidates; as often as not, it is part of some arcane Byzantine deal with no direct benefit to most local Republicans. Sometimes, like 2013, it involves direct interference in the internal workings of the local Republican organization, sowing discord, denigrating good Republicans and advancing the interests of unworthy Republicans that have shown more loyalty to Kassar's Conservative Party.

Btw,  one  more thing needs to be said   —   Kassar’s pitch for John Quaglione was far better than the one for Lhota.