Kassar Column Confirms: Support For Cuomo – Attacks on Christie – Conservative Party Shakedown of GOP

Kassar’s column in local papers, this week entitled “Common Sense: The Conservative Party,” touched on certain items and themes  —   The Conservative Party’s annual ulterior purposes conference, CPPAC  – The strange source of praise and muted criticism of Governor Cuomo’s State of the State message  –  And the broad-front attack on Chris Christie for “his” GW Bridge situation

“Common Sense: The Conservative Party”  —   Now, there’s Irony for You 

Jerry Kassar’s column opened with an infomercial for/about CPPAC that, either intentionally or otherwise, demonstrated exactly the kind of shakedown of Republicans that whole exercise is (See “Common Sense: The Conservative Party” by Jerry Kassar, 1/14/14, Home Reporter/ Sunset News [http://www.homereporternews.com/news/government/common-sense-the-conservative-party/article_9576bdac-7d5e-11e3-86a6-001a4bcf887a.html]). You don’t even need to squint to see it, Kassar seemed to be doing it as some sort of primal primate chest thump: “The conference .... concludes with the [Conservative Party] releasing its 2014 legislative agenda at a dinner attended by the party’s conservative endorsed legislators which is [sic] roughly 31 state senators and 45 assemblymembers from around the state. ***  This being a statewide election year with the offices of governor, attorney general and comptroller up for election as well as the entire legislature, many candidates are expected to attend in order to interact with the party leadership and media who are heavily in attendance.”

One might be a bit surprised because a statement like  “... candidates are expected to attend...” apparently lacked any subtlety; but what the heck, how much subtlety might anybody expect in a mugging !

Actually things like the part of Kassar’s column about CPPAC, Ross Brady’s blog, Conservative Party mailings and followup phone calls are not unlike the summoning of the Eloi by the Morlocks in H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine.” However, although illustrative, this is only one example of Conservative Party cannibalism at the expense of the GOP. Variations on that theme were presented in my January 7, 2014 post below “In 2014 Republicans need to just pass up any Conservative Party events where the Mike Long, the Conservative Party Chairman, “will kick things off” [http://galewynmassey.blogspot.com/2014/01/in-2014-republicans-need-to-just-pass.html ].

Kassar then moved onto an oddly complimentary “report” on the State of the State Address by Governor Cuomo that largely tracked earlier remarks by Kassar’s boss on his “day job” —  State Senator Martin Golden.  Kassar started his State of the State segment with this: “Governor Cuomo received high marks in his fourth State of the State address.... All in all, the State of the State was a relatively non-controversial opening speech for a re-election year. Some political commentators even called it a stump speech for his re-election because the first parts were a rehashing of the administration’s accomplishments.”  What is especially odd about this particular instance of praise for the Governor is that it came from a Conservative Party County Chairman and NYS CP Executive. The general hymn of praise for Governor Cuomo’s message and agenda coming from strange sources like Al D’Amato, Golden and Kassar will be covered in a future post on this blog; it should be ready and come out sometime in the next few days.

Jerry Kassar’s column closed with quite a calculated swipe at New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie. What is notable, though not really unsurprising, in this particular instance is how closely  Kassar’s observations track with Christie’s strongest critics of late in the main stream media; and that they are also completely consistent with the scenario that  Kassar’s boss in the Conservative Party, NYS Chairman Mike Long, is part of an ulterior group acting behind the scenes to undo Christie’s run for the 2016 GOP nomination for President of the United States. That was all brought up on this blog on Saturday, January 11, 2014 in another post below (See “WAIT A MINUTE ! ! ! Is New York Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long in the weeds pulling strings to screw NJ Governor Chris Christie ?” by YKW, 1/11/14 [http://galewynmassey.blogspot.com/2014/01/wait-minute-is-new-york-conservative.html])..