Man, New York newspapers and New York politicians are just not getting along today. As we wrote earlier, Fred Dicker of the Post, with the help of hilarious visual aids, is calling Governor Paterson an outright liar. Meanwhile, Representative Peter King is basically giving Newsday the same treatment. On Sunday, the paper’s Reid Epstein and Patrick White quote King calling Paterson’s selection of Kirsten Gillibrand a “fraud,” a “payoff,” and a “backroom” deal, which seemed pretty harsh considering there’s no evidence of any of those things. But today, King is telling the National Review that Newsday made them up:
King is adamant that he did not say the things about Gillibrand’s appointment that Newsday attributed to him. “I didn’t say that, and that bothered me. I did not say that. When I’m asked if I think there’s any illegality, I say no. And fraud would be an illegality.”
Obviously, we don’t know who’s lying, but this Senate appointment process has seemed to make everyone pretty cranky (with King, even more so than usual). Maybe a nap is in order? Storytime?
Challenging Gillibrand [National Review]
