It is always a little bit mournful to see an up-and-comer disintegrate before your very eyes. A lot of political muckety-mucks saw Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi as a potential power player in New York Democratic politics. Few doubted that Suozzi's political ambitions lay well beyond the office of Nassau County Executive.
Perhaps a run at New York's 3rd CD, held by the pugnacious Peter King (he of "thank God every night for George W. Bush" fame). Perhaps a run at the US Senate when either Clinton or Schumer moved on. Perhaps Attorney General.
Instead, Suozzi took the quixotic step of running for governor of New York. Standing in his way, of course, was the state's most popular Democratic politician: Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Quixotic has become disastrous, especially with yesterday's news...featured on the other side of the jump.
Suozzi, already circling the drain in polls against Spitzer, got nailed for what could charitably be described as creative editing of a New York Magazine profile of him (which was then used in a piece of Suozzi lit that was circulating).
Apparently, the July 24 article hailed Suozzi as "the perfect candidate for governor in any other year than this one."
For his advertising, Suozzi claimed that New York magazine proclaimed him "The perfect candidate for governor."
Needless to say, New York magazine is not pleased:
"We are upset by the way this quote was deliberately taken out of context to mean something very different," said New York magazine spokeswoman Serena Torrey, a former spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party.
Not surprisingly, it did not take long for the Spitzer campaign to pile on.
"It's troubling that Mr. Suozzi would knowingly deceive voters with false advertising," said Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson.
The Suozzi campaign attempted to spin their way out of it, but sounded pretty unconvincing in the process.
"The Suozzi campaign is proud of our candidate's life and work," said Campaign Manager Paul Rivera. "And we believe that Tom Suozzi is the perfect candidate for governor, in this or any other year."
So, my question now for our Empire State Kossacks...what is the story with this guy? It seemed a bit strange when he jumped into the race (especially since Spitzer has been running since...well...forever). This latest controversy was a bit sloppy...it sounds like something they do to attempt to promote really bad movies (when the critic says "The producer deserves a hit with a brick" and the ad says simply "A hit!").
SO....what gives?