[Daveeire]

Can I 'call him an a--hole?' Andrew Cuomo in tizzy after GOP foe Carl Paladino questions his manhood

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_.....adino.html

BY Kenneth Lovett
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

Tuesday, September 21st 2010, 4:00 AM

ALBANY - Stung by Carl Paladino's below-the-belt attacks, an angry Andrew Cuomo summoned his war council on Monday to figure out how to fight back against his slash-and-burn GOP rival.

"If a guy says you have no cojones, how do you punch him back, call him an a--hole?" the Democratic gubernatorial candidate fumed in a secret talk to his team, one insider said.

"We have all this stuff [on Paladino] and we're on the defensive," Cuomo groused, the insider added.

While Cuomo's adviser Ben Lawsky and his communications team of Marissa Shorenstein, Phil Singer and Josh Vlasto listened, the unhappy candidate wondered aloud what Paladino's pit bull campaign manager Michael Caputo would do with similar dirt.

The Democrat wields a 54%-to-38% lead in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll out Monday, making Team Cuomo reluctant to climb down into the mud and fight Paladino on what they say is his turf.

His staff stressed to Cuomo on Monday that they'd like to push the positive aspects of his agenda to the press, insiders revealed.

The brain trusters also mulled if they should start hitting back atPaladino, rather than leave it exclusively to campaign surrogates such as Democratic Party boss Jay Jacobs. They didn't reach a decision.

They also fretted about the pitfalls of repeatedly telling the press "no comment" to Paladino's broadsides - fearing the practice could ultimately turn the media against them.

Cuomo and his political Svengalis plotted strategy for debating Paladino, insiders said. The state attorney general pushed the possibility of just one debate, limited to Paladino and Conservative Party candidate Rick Lazio.

Cuomo believes Paladino wants to open the debate up to minor-party candidates, including former Black Panther Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn), who is a city councilman, and former madam Kristin Davis, who is linked to the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal and is being handled by Paladino adviser Roger Stone.

It was suspected Barron and Davis would take aim at the front-running Democrat in an open debate, insiders said.

Cuomo's campaign refused to comment on the private powwow.

The counterattack planning session came after Paladino issued a taunting letter that questioned Cuomo's manhood, ripped his pop's performance as governor - and taunted him to "for the first time in your life be aman."

Paladino challenged Cuomo to a debate immediately after his shocking GOP primary victory last Tuesday against party favorite Rick Lazio. Cuomo hasn't responded.

"It's difficult to understand why you, a polished veteran campaigner, scion of a political dynasty and king-designate, would fear a simple businessman from Buffalo, who candidly has never been in a debate in his life - except maybe in a bar," Paladino wrote.

"Frankly, I don't think you have the cojones to face me and the other candidates in an open debate."

'You have to earn' governorship

Several times in his letter, Paladino invoked Cuomo's father, former three-time Gov. Mario Cuomo, who he said "left our state economy in a wreck."

"So Andrew, for the first time in your life be a man," Paladino wrote. "Don't hide behind Daddy's coattails even though he pulled strings to advance your career every step of your way. Come out and debate like a man.

"Because no one inherits the New York governorship - you have to earn it."
Vlasto, Cuomo's chief spokesman, declined to discuss Paladino's latest attack.

Paladino promised yesterday that more attack ads were coming, including some strafing Cuomo's performance as Housing and Urban Development secretary as well as "some personal things to illustrate to people that this man does not have the capability" to be governor.

"He has an arrogant, egotistical attitude about him that is wrong for the people," Paladino said.

Paladino's campaign strategy is simply to "tear down the house and tear down all the people trying to fix it," countered Jacobs.

"He is definitely holding true to my sense that he is truly a wacky candidate who doesn't deserve any consideration by moderates or fair-minded individuals," Jacobs added.

Jacobs whacked Paladino for getting almost $1.5 million in tax breaks and creating just one permanent job as a Buffalo developer, as revealed in yesterday's Daily News.

Meanwhile, Cuomo surrogates gathered around the state to bash Paladino. At City Hall, Jewish leaders said the Tea Party favorite was not fit for office, citing his likening of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), an Orthodox Jew, to the Antichrist and Adolf Hitler.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) said. "Is he out of his freakin' mind?"

Paladino's talk of bringing a baseball bat to Albany or having Silver beaten up "a little bit" could entice someone to do it, Hikind said.

"There are a lot of people in this state who might take his advice and beat up on some member of the Legislature," Hikind said.

Paladino seemed to be relishing the ruckus he was creating. On one TV program, he proudly displayed an electronic image of last week's News front page proclaiming him "Crazy Carl."

The political neophyte said he has no plans to change, adding, "I'm not 'intimidate-able.'"

"I'm not politically correct," he said. "They can throw all that stuff that they want at me, I'm still coming to Albany. I'm going to take them all down."

klovett@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_.....z10DBzd8gv

[Daveeire]

McCain wanted to put Lil Andy Cuomo in charge of the SEC if elected President. No wonder he never bothered to pin the blame for the 2008 economic meltdown where it belonged - on the Democrats. Instead Obama, a braying jackass, and his pals Barney, Nancy and old helmut head Dodd, were allowed free reign to blame the free enterprise system along with George Bush.