Notes from Corning
Reader KP from Corning writes in with what sounds like a very interesting Kuhl political event:
Just got back from an event at City Council Chambers where Kuhl did a phony “discussion session” with Corning City leaders about the effect of gas prices on local services. News crews were there from all the local tv stations, but mostly asked pretty fluffy questions about gas prices. Two members of the public tried to ask questions, but Kuhl’s campaign manager wouldn’t let them, claiming it was not a “political event” (despite his own presence as campaign manger there). Used the same excuse not to answer one of the reporter’s questions. Randy got a little testy with the second questioner as well as with a member of the City Council who grilled him on drilling. Massa was there too and there was a bit of a confrontation at the end between him and Kuhl. Didn’t catch it all but it seemed to be about debates.
Update: There should be footage of this soon, both on Elmira stations and possibly from a tracker.
Another update: Here’s (some of) the Massa press release on this.
After the press conference dissipated, Massa hand delivered a letter to Rep. Kuhl, again requesting that he agree to debate at Corning Community College within the next 2 weeks:
Kuhl stated: “We will debate … we have said publicly, we will continue to say publicly, when we can arrange our schedule we will meet for these.”
[....]
“Once again, Randy Kuhl says one thing and does another,” said retired Navy Commander Eric Massa. “He says he will debate, but won’t commit to a time or location. We have both received invitations, but Randy Kuhl has not responded. His pro Big Oil votes are hurting our families and I think it’s time for Randy Kuhl to take responsibility for his voting record.”
“This morning, the Corning Leader reported that oil companies have just signed leases for 1.8 million acres of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico,” said retired Navy Commander Eric Massa. “This information was released today in one of our district’s prominent newspapers; yet, Randy Kuhl ignored this crucial news…
Final Update: F29th has the video of the confrontation (the embed code doesn’t work here — sorry).
Post facto Update: btp here. Got it working.
Related posts:
Sounds like Eric is getting desperate - does he think he is losing?
Why desperate? I support debates in general, regardless of who’s proposing them.
And of course I could counter that it sounds like Kuhl is scared — does he think he is losing?
Usually the underdog is the one begging for debates.
It’s almost always the nonincumbent who wants debates, I agree.
But Randy did call himself the underdog in the race.
I believe the incumbent should always be considered the favorite, except in extreme cases like Ted Stevens.
Randy Kuhl should be ashamed of himself for making an unwarranted, personal attack on Eric Massa’s parents —
“That’s not the way I was raised,” said Kuhl of Massa’s behavior. “Unfortunately, there are people who didn’t have the luxury of having wonderful parents like I did who taught about parental respect.”
http://www.wetmtv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=47297438-2bdc-49ec-ac12-410f6e5f37ea
Video’s up. They’re using the least flattering frame from the whole thing to illustrate it. Plus Kuhl talks some smack.
http://www.wetmtv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=47297438-2bdc-49ec-ac12-410f6e5f37ea
Picture Rick Lazio doing this to Hillary Clinton - everybody on this blog would be screaming about unfair tactics and invading peoples private space.
Come on, Elmer, you know the situation isn’t comparable. Lazio walked towards a member of the First Family in an aggressive way without giving prior notification to Secret Service. He’s lucky he wasn’t shot. You’re really not supposed to do what Lazio did.
Boy that’s a stretch. Lazio would have been searched for weapons long before he took the stage. Sounds like a double standard to me.
The Lazio / Clinton comparison doesn’t quite work because it was at a debate between the two. This incident brought the Ford / Corker incident to mind for me. Shameless plug with video:
http://www.13wham.com/content/news/political/story.aspx?content_id=2faf1751-1588-40c0-aa2f-4ae8ec1216c2
Although I don’t often agree with you Elmer, I’m leaning your way on this one. I was wondering how this plays with the public. Guerilla theater, as we used to call it, may play well with certain audiences when done by activists, but I’m not sure that this is the image that Massa’s looking to convey, particularly in light of his recent ad. It almost sounds like he’s whining, and trying to grab publicity because he can’t get it legitimately. This one didn’t work for me. And the audiences that appreciate guerilla theater are probably already voting for Massa. So it might be that he’s just alienating those he’s hoping to convert.
As with Chuck Norris, Rick Lazio’s hands are registered weapons. I guess you didn’t read his press releases, my friend.
Seriously, though, I don’t see the similarities so much here because Lazio was asking Hillary to sign something on the spot, whereas Massa was just delivering a letter, and it was a debate not a regular pubic meeting, and most of all…I never criticized Lazio for doing it. Plus, all kidding aside, the stunt did give the Secret Service a start (I’ll try to find a link for this).
Well we now know how classy Randy “Lack of” Kuhl is. Demeaning someone’s parents…what a jackass.
The “parents” comment was a faux pas, I agree.
[...] at the Channel 13 blogs, Evan Dawson has a thought-provoking post about today’s confrontation between Randy Kuhl and Eric Massa. Dawson compares the incident to a seemingly similar one that [...]
I think it was gutsy of Eric and brilliant. He issued an invitation… how is that an attack? If Randy “Losing My” Kuhl responded with a simple “Thanks, I’ll get this to my scheduler” rather than defensiveness, the whole situation might have been avoided. Awesome that you have the video, just wish it had the preceeding few moments.
[...] to weigh in here. Exile has this wrapped up either in posts or comments. In all the swirl of the story - let’s not forget [...]