While candidates were more than likely hitting the streets this week with Election Day just over a month away, headlines were rather slim in the local political arena, as the first presidential debate between President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney dominated the news.
In the race for New York's First Congressional District, sides continued to square off in the race between Tim Bishop and Randy Altschuler.
The two faced off in a debate in Smithtown on Monday night, though before the two met, Bishop's campaign reacted to recent news that House Speaker John Boehner is coming to the district for a Republican fundraiser.
“For all of Altschuler’s ‘outsider’ rhetoric, he certainly has powerful friends in Washington,” Bishop's Campaign Communications Director Robert Pierce said. "It seems that Altschuler has no problem criticizing the Republican Congress at night and cashing their checks by day.”
Meanwhile Republicans continued to paint Bishop as corrupt, seizing on a story picked up in August centered around a Bishop staffer asking a constituent for funds after the Congressman helped him gain fireworks permits. The National Republican Campaign Committee released a statement Thursday, calling Bishop "this week's most corrupt Democrat."
Pierce told the New York Daily News: "The NRCC is in a tough spot. They can't cut an ad praising Altschuler's business experience, because his business is outsourcing American jobs."
The plays from out-of-state groups are nothing new to the race and will likely continue over the next month.
Altschuler defended himself in a blog post on Patch this week, saying, "Bishop’s campaign is predictably getting more and more desperate with their personal attacks against me. In short, he’s just going to make things up and hope to fool you."
Which doesn't change the fact that the Republicans were willing to send the government into default despite being warned by every economist who draws breath that they were reckless beyond description.
ONLY the Republicans REFUSED to authorize raising the national debt, a process which has been non-partisan and automatic in EVERY congress in history since refusal is insane (unless one is a committed, right- wing, ideological extremist.) 13 cent/hour jobs in India would be $10 hr./jobs here. There is no job done by Americans, including yours, that cannot be done as well and cheaper by foreigners, if we enable them (as I said long ago.) (You are mistaken, again, in you belief that I suggested the 13 cent an hour figure.) Extremist Republicans are willing to throw any of their countrymen under the bus as long as it isn't themselves, as Randy has shown.
I have FINALLY figured out the Democrat tactic. It's like a cheating spouse who accuses their spouse of cheating. All you Left Leaning Pinkos "PROJECT" the notion that we're lying, Republicans are lying, the press all lie (when Barry was eviscerated), everybody lies, but you. Amazing. No, I'm not a cheating spouse and all you Dems are the ones who are lying. Obama cannot speak when his teleprompter goes out, because he cannot speak the truth, he cannot make off-the-cuff remarks - because he needs his bullshit typed nicely for him to read up on his Rev. Wright pulpit. We ALL cite the facts, and you and that dopey NT cannot reply to the truth when it smacks you in your fat faces.
Only the Republicans - - not the Democrats - - the Republicans - - were willing to throw the federal government into default by refusing to raise the national debt limit for the first time in history. Their willingness to use this "Doomsday Device" as a bargaining chip exemplifies their mindless obedience to the extremist Republican canon. The effect of default would have been economic catastrophe. That's the reason why no legislators of either party in the history of the country have ever threatened it before the fanatical Republicans of the Congress of 2011. The collapse of the grand bargain is trivial compared to the mad zealotry that drove the Republicans - - not President Obama - - not the Democrats - - to threaten to destroy the American economy, AGAIN. Randy has already annihilated 10,000 American jobs as a private citizen by outsourcing. Does anyone think that, as a congressman, he would quail before destruction on a national scale if so ordered?
As for Randy - NO AMERICAN JOB WAS LOST - NOT ONE. No American would take a job that paid .13 cents an hour - NO ONE. Ergo, No american jobs lost. Check Mate again. As for Tim "shyte for brains" Bishop - run ONE ad touting ANY accomplishment !! Bishop has CRUSHED Long Island - demolishing 40,000 families here, and outsourcing AMerican Jobs to China and Finland and Mexico with OUR tax dollars. Wrong again hat.
To reiterate, ONLY the REPUBLICANS were prepared to force the federal government to default on its debt. They used this insane ultimatum to compel concessions from Democrats that they could not have obtained by rational means. The "bargain" arrived at was that the Democrats agreed to recovery-killing funding cuts and the Republicans refrained from pushing the button on their Doomsday Device. Had the Democrats been as demented as the Republicans, they would have stood fast, allowed the Republicans to drive the country into economic chaos, and then reaped the political benefits when the citizenry road the Republicans from office on a rail. The effect of this deal with the devil will be felt in January when the massive Republican funding cuts are initiated and plunge us back into recession. The same clerical jobs that pay $$10/hr. here pay 13 cents/hr. (your figure) in India. That is THE REASON that Randy shipped them over there. What prevents you from comprehending this simple fact? Most recently, Congressman Bishop obtained funding for the dredging of the Shinnecock Inlet. The rest of your final paragraph is oft-refuted rubbish which you continue to post nonetheless.