Monday, October 08, 2007

Guilderland: Personal attacks in politics

Here they go again. The Mike Ricard and Dave Bosworth team have attacked me personally, along with my running mate Mark Grimm. The latest salvo is in the August 4 edition of the Altamont Enterprise. These are letters to the editor, and do not appear in the online edition. Attributed to Ken Runion, who is running uncontested, and Don Csaposs, who is not an elected official, they are of course really doing this on behalf of Ricard and Bosworth.

Runion has been accusing us of engaging in personal attacks. Wikipedia defines personal attack as follows: Generally, a personal attack is committed when a person substitutes abusive remarks for evidence when examining another person's claims or comments.

I can't deny that we have criticized our opponents, but our criticisms have been focused on relevant issues and supported by evidence. We are not engaging in name-calling or attacking anyone's character.

In sharp contrast, Csaposs refers to us as "the twin peaks of mindless self-promotion," and our views as "the Grimm/Redlich Kool-Aid." Runion calls us "attack dogs," and "very negative individuals."

Gentlemen please ... flattery will get you nowhere. :-)

You can't run for local office without somehow criticizing the incumbents. Maybe at the federal or state level you can run on an issue, like abortion or gun rights. Local politics is mainly about how the local government is managed. If it's run well, you pretty much can't win. It so happens that a number of things are wrong with Guilderland government. They need to be fixed and that's why we're running. Find out more on the Guilderland NY page.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does Mr. Redlich really think that anyone in Guilderland is taking his wild diatribes and rhetoric seriously? I am a long time resident of Guilderland and am frankly offended by the fact that Mr. Redlich is asking me to buy the line that he is simply doing a service to the public by making these silly accusations about Mr. Bosworth's and Mr. Ricard's conduct. Call a spade a spade, it is dirty pool, mudslinging or however else you wish to refer to it. It is a tactic used by someone who clearly has no real issues or ideas and is simply sating a post-adolescent, inflated ego by getting his name on the internet. It is clear that Mr. Redlich is fashioning himself as the poor-man's Karl Rove and is using every cheap trick in the arsenal of a hack, wannabe politician. I mean what is next? Will you find a disabled Vet and denigrate his military service?

Mr. Bosworth, as I understand it, runs an agency that provides services for disadvantaged and underprivileged youth and families in the area. How an ambulance chasing buffoon who does no service to the community what-so-ever other than to waste our time with his incessant drivel in print and on the internet can question the behavior of Mr. Bosworth is beyond me.

A man, who in all seriousness, went before town hall and recited some sort of bizarre poem expects to be elected to political office? This is simply surreal. I think Mr. Redlich should spend less time authoring his own wikipedia entry or playing on MySpace or whatever else he is doing on the internet this week and more time considering the damage being done to his reputation by his outlandish behavior. Does he want to be remembered by the members of the community he lives in as a silly man? a buffoon?

Simply stated, stop wasting the good people of Guilderland's time. Run a race free of mudslinging and wild accusations. Stop making a mockery of the political process that members of the United States Military are dying to protect in conflicts around the world as we speak.

Leave government to true public servants with genuine interest in the public good. You and your buddy Grimm should stay home and perhaps argue about what brand of hair gel you will be using in your next internet glamor shots on your awfully designed website.

Thank you for your time.

Unknown said...

I encourage readers to read the post and compare with the comment from "anonymous," whose writing style is remarkably similar to the Don Csaposs letters written to the Altamont Enterprise.

- I am not hiding behind anonymity.
- I said nothing about my criticisms being "a service to the public."
- My accusations are not "silly" and have yet to be disputed with any facts.
- Anonymous fills his comment with name-calling and lacks any evidence to back up any claims.
- I'm not afraid to publish comments like this on my blog.

Most amusing was the claim that I'm trying to inflate my ego by getting my name on the internet through this campaign.

This campaign is a drop in the bucket of my web presence. In 2007 so far:

Redlichlaw.com has been visited by nearly 60,000 different people
This blog over 12,000 different people
My Stop Wasting Money blog: over 6,000
and
Town-court.com -- over 200,000

Meanwhile, the guilderland-ny.com site has had less than 500 unique visitors. I am not in this campaign to increase my web presence.

The writer suggests that I should: "Leave government to true public servants with genuine interest in the public good."

Ricard abuses his position to get breaks on his assessment and his zoning. Bosworth abuses his positions to bring home $200K. I think I'll stay in the race, thanks.

I do appreciate the Karl Rove comment though. We're not using any tricks, but hopefully we'll have the same success.

And I don't use hair gel. My naturally curly hair is departing my head at the same graceful pace it did for my grandfather and as it continues to do for my identical twin cousin - he's the handsome one.