In a city where 80% of voters reelected President Obama for a second term, Joe Lhota wants to present himself as a sensible and responsible Republican.
From one hand, Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota condemned his party for the government shutdown. “The shutdown is a disgrace,” he charged, this morning in an interview with Brian Lehrer. “It should never have happened. People who go to Washington are elected to govern. What they’re doing is a complete and total absence of governance. They don’t realize how damaging it is going to be to them personally as well as to the party. People need to come to the table and they need to negotiate. This country is about compromise.”
“I cannot tell you how upsetting it is for me to see 30 extremists in Washington control the entire government. There’s something very, very wrong doing on,” he said.
One the other hand, Mr. Lhota endorsed one of the tea party representatives’ top demands: Delaying the individual health care mandate.
“It should be delayed for one year,” Mr. Lhota said. “I think there’s so much confusion about the individual mandate right now, both within the administration and outside of the administration.”
“You should not be implementing policy unless you know exactly how it is going to be implemented,” he argued.
The de Blasio campaign answered quickly saying of Lhota, “When push comes to shove he sides with the GOP fringe.”Mr. de Blasio spokesman Dan Levitan described Mr. Lhota as a loyal soldier in lockstep with “extremists who would rather shut down the government and furlough thousands of New York City workers than see hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers get access to health care.”
“Joe Lhota’s positions might help him with the Tea Party, but they are wrong for New York,” the statement further read.
Mr. de Blasio himself seized on the opportunity to paint his rival as an extremist whoso out of touch with ordinary New Yorkers. “This is another example of the fact that Joe Lhota is a true Republican who is aligning in this case with the extreme views of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives,” he charged during an appearance on WCBS 880 AM. “This is unbelievable to me that a guy who says he wants to represent New York City would be taking the Tea Party position on the question of the Affordable Care Act.”
“I find it outrageous. I find it against the interests of New York City,” he added.
(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)
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One Response
Why doesn’t someone slam DeBlasio for his stands on LOTS of things? The man is a communist, and everyone is acting like lemmings and just going along with everyone else, because everyone else is! Boggles the mind. They’re calling him the mayor already.
He’s horrible for the city of New YOrk! What’s wrong with everybody here? Do you guys want another Dinkins??!!?