61° F | Schenectady, NY
Waging Peace
Peace and Tedisco – Not!
I'm back! I have not posted anything for about two weeks. It's not that there have been no peace issues to write about. I've been “off line” for about two weeks due to surgery on my left wrist.
It is very difficult to type with your hand in a splint and I was trying to keep up with my “day job."
I am relieved to be back to writing about waging peace.
Lots of interesting things going on. Here's one in particular:
Did you notice the story on “Women for Tedisco”? Apparently there is a bevy of females that are supporting Jim Tedisco for Congress and they've organized themselves into a legitimate group. A rival paper had a story and a big photo of Jim and the women who support him. Everybody was all smiles.
Two things make this interesting:
[1] This is the same Jim Tedisco who gleefully put himself into the national spotlight (both on television and in print media) when Gov. Sptizer was caught in a prostitution ring by telling the country he was ready to start impeachment proceedings against the governor if he would not resign post-haste, but was eerily silent when it came out that Congressman John Sweeney was abusing his wife, thus sending the message that it's not OK to cheat on your spouse but it is OK to slap them around.
No problem. I'm not a real big fan of the now Senator Gillibrand, but at least she had the moral coherency and class during Spitzer's crisis to say that if the allegations were true, her fellow Democrat should resign. So it looks to me like you have a group of women supporting a candidate who is not opposed to violence against women by virtue of his silence on the matter when he had a great opportunity to very publicly speak out against it and really be non-partisan in the process. (Before I get some irate rebuttal about how Tedisco has supported legislation against domestic violence, etc. -- let me remind you that Spitzer did the same thing on the prostitution issue.)
[2] The second is the whole notion of “Women for Tedisco.” What? I thought this kind of thing went out in the 60's. Can you imagine if there had been a group of supporters for Gillibrand calling them selves “Men for Gillibrand.” Next time you want a real good yuk from a group, tell them you want to start a “men's auxiliary” for some organization.
Number one above leads me to speculate that you can sometimes tell more about a candidate by what they do not say, than by the words the emanate from their mouths.
Come to think of it, I rarely hear or see the word “peace” in any of Tedisco's communications, verbal or written.
print
email
twitter
facebook
reddit
12:10 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Yawn...more granola cruncher nonsense trying to link Tedisco with Sweeney.
Tedisco has been a big supporter of women's health and helped to save Bellevue Hospital.
5:42 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Few people doubt that Assy. Tedisco is the greatest fear-monger to ever inhabit Capital District politics. For instance, the "illegal aliens might get drivers licenses" issue. According to "his all-knowingness," it would be infinitely better to have a thousand untrained, untested, unlicensed drivers on New York's highways than to have "one of them" stain the hallowed corridors of DMV.
It appears that we may have turned a corner in the refusal to vote on the basis "fear politics" in last year's presidential election. I hope that remains true in the 20th Congressional District this year.
10:02 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
OK "weapon_x" - let's try this again. This time I'll leave out Sweeney's name.
When Gov. Spitzer was caught committing a crime, Tedisco could not scream in disgust and call for sanctions loud enough or long enough across the whole country.
When someone in his OWN political party was caught committing a crime (maybe this is the part you're missing - domestic violence is a crime) Tedisco was dead silent.
Now do you get it?
8:42 a.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Another Truth Squad item - Bellevue Hospital closed despite the Tedisco pettifogging (that's blowing smoke to red meat gnawers like "weapon_x"). It is now the Bellevue Woman’s Care Center of Ellis Hospital as it would have been with or without all the Tedisco press releases.
10:21 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
2 things that are wrong with this post:
1. Tedisco called for Spitzer's resignation because he had committed a FEDERAL crime, not because he cheated on his wife. Sweeney's October surprise happened so fast that he lost the election before anyone could tell him to resign.
2. Most politicians have a "Women for" caucus. Including President Obama and John McCain. If you don't believe me check it out: http://women.barackobama.com/page/conten...
Anyone who writes anything to the public about politics should be a little more knowledgeable before criticizing things that are common place in campaigns.
9:09 a.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Dear Linda,
I do understand what you mean when you claim it sounds bad and that Gillibrand didn't have a men for Tedisco (even though it was discussed)! But, I respectfully disagree with you because the reality of sexism not only exists BUT it prevails still in politics. So, here you have a situation where a woman leaves her office in Congress (women are already dramatically underrepresented in Congress), and the question is who do we get to replace her - a man? The Dems would have chosen differently if the Rep.'s would have chosen Betty Little - guaranteed!
I applaud the Rep.s for choosing someone they feel is the best person for the job under these circumstances and not falling victim to the pressure to replace a woman with a woman. It pains me to say that, but it is true. So now we have a situation where we have a bunch of women (including myself) who are sad to see Congress have one less woman. How does Tedisco reach out to them? This was his answer.
He needed an avenue to let us know that even though he is not a woman, women should still feel that they will have an advocate in Washington fighting for issues historically fought for by women. He wanted to let women know all he has done so far regarding fighting for needs of the family. AND, he has 1 month to do this! So, I do understand how Women for Tedisco might sound 1970's - but I also hope you understand that all we want is to bring awareness to folks regarding Jim's record of advocacy for needs of women and families.
9:17 a.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Also, John Sweeney is a proven misoginistic, women-hating pig! But please try to remember how things really happened. When the news was released about Sweeney hitting his wife, not everyone believed it because of the timing of the release, many thought it was campaign rhetoric. Sweeney denied it and his wife even went on TV, on record denying it. (EVEN STILL, PLEASE NOTE THAT JIM - FROM THAT POINT FORWARD - NEVER STOOD NEXT TO SWEENEY FOR ENDORSEMENTS, RALLIES, ETC. AGAIN!)
The gov. admitted everything right away. So, please be fair and think things through a bit more before wrongly accusing people. TY
12:55 a.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Well "Really" I understand and appreciate your explanation of why why Tedisco has a "Women for..." - you've certainly broadened my horizons (no pun intended).
I stand by my observations of Tedisco's (non) response to the Sweeney affair. And this is for June Bug too - does it have to rise to the level of FEDERAL crime for Tedisco to call for a resignation? A misdemeanor isn't good enough?
Go back and look at the press reports for the timing on both events involving Spitzer and Sweeney. Gillibrand came out right away BEFORE the Gov. admitted anything and said that IF the reports were true he should resign.
In the Sweeney case - Tedisco kept silent - he could have used the same IF clause as Gilibrand did whether he believed the reports or not. And despite the short turn around time - he still had plenty of time to take a moral stand. (And by the way - it was an open secret about Sweeney and his treatment of women, and was tolerated by a group that claims moral high ground for "family values".)
On supporting women's issues: I spoke with Mr. Tedisco years ago at a cocktail party sponsored by the AMA and raised a women's issue - that of requiring hospitals to make readily available their statics on birthing procedures and he excused himself so fast I thought the carpet was going to catch fire!
As for the qualifications of Mr. Tedisco and the issue of choosing "the best person for the job under these circumstances" and not falling pressure to pick a woman - Betty Little would have been a better choice. John Fasso would have been a better choice (I voted for him for Governor). I was sorely disappointed that neither of them was chosen.
The Republican Party certainly didn't fall to pressure to pick a woman and mores the pity - if they had we'd have had a better candidate. A well connected Republican tells me that Tedisco was picked because the party thought he could WIN - not because they thought he was the best person for the job. Among the Republicans I know he has a dismal reputation as someone who does nothing of any real substance - well earned as far as I can see. So they just fell to a different pressure.
To be fair and even handed here - the Democrats chose their candidate based on how much money he could raise, etc.
I'm not sure that we got a slate of the two best qualified candidates from which to make a choice. In fact I know we didn't.