The Curious case of Christine Sisto

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....