When I first heard that Warren Redlich, a DUI lawyer up in Albany who blogged for business, was running as the Libertarian candidate for governor of the State of New York, I chuckled. Talk about an endeavor without a payoff. Of course, I had no idea at the time that the alternatives would be a zombie and the only one of Mario’s offspring who got his good looks. Suddenly, Warren doesn’t look nearly as silly.
Apparently, others are concerned about Warren as well. In order to screw with him, this appeared:
There are places no one should go, and this is one of them. Is there a word, lie, defamation, libel, that captures just how twisted this is?
The purported basis for this “attack” is a blog post of Warren’s that questions the prevalence and hypocrisy of Puritanism in America.
The story also hits on how Puritanism is still so prevalent in America. The greatest love interest in the history of romance is at least arguably Juliet from Romeo and Juliet. Juliet was 13 years old. For some reason females become fertile in their early teens and peak before the age of 18. You would think those who believe in the theory of evolution would see this as the design of the species. And in an interesting alliance with Darwin, shouldn’t religious people (and not just those in cults) believe teenage girls should be sexually active (in marriage of course), as that would appear to be the intent of the intelligent design? Instead both groups appear to be together on the opposite side.
Another take is the notion that men who find teenage girls attractive are perverts. If you look at literature like Shakespeare, and at some historical figures like Sir William Johnson (a prominent pre-revolutionary leader in New York), you get the impression that it used to be normal for men, even much older men, to be interested in teenage girls.
While this isn’t something I would have written, and I frankly find it distasteful and, well, wrong, the flier is just outrageous. Rough politics is hardly unheard of in New York, but this goes beyond the pale and hits a new low.
Warren blames the Paladino campaign for the flier.
Redlich said Paladino was responsible for the ad, without backing up this claim. Paladino spokesman Michael Caputo rejected it on Sunday.
Redlich has said his goal is to get more votes than Paladino on Tuesday, which would give the Libertarian party the second highest spot on the ballot, a big advantage in voting, just below the Democratic Party.
The Paladino campaign denies responsibility.
“That would be like Bill Clinton jabbing Pat Paulson in the 1996 New Hampshire primary,” Caputo said, referring to the joke campaign of Paulson, a comedian. “Never wrestle the comic relief _ you just get clown white smeared all over your suit.”
However, one-time Nixon and Paladino campaign strategist Robert Stone, rather than disavow the flier, argued that it was fair:
Roger Stone, a former campaign consultant to President Richard Nixon who now advises the anti-Prohibition party candidate Kristin Davis and once worked for Paladino, but no longer does, said neither he nor the Davis campaign produced the mailer. But Stone defended its content.
Stone said Redlich has “exotic views on sex with teens,” citing postings on Redlich’s blog. Stone also said Redlich is “crying crocodile tears” after calling Davis a prostitute, when the former Manhattan Madam has repeatedly said that although she ran a prostitution enterprise, she was never a prostitute.
The minor party candidates in New York have been appreciated for bringing some fun moments into an otherwise moribund campaign. Heck, anything is better than being forced to watch Paladino’s face of death on the telly, and no one will ever forget the Rent Is Too Damn High candidate, whose party name alone said all that needed to be said. But this gutter politics, outright defamation, goes way too far. Way, way too far.
Given the views of many in the criminal defense community toward sex offender registries, the gross over-reach of sex offender laws and designations, and the unreasonable prohibitions heaped on those given our modern day demonization, there aren’t many criminal defense blawgers who wouldn’t be staring down a flier just like this should they run for office against someone sleazy enough to smear a candidate in this way.
What cannot be tolerated is the inability to express oneself in the blawgosphere on these controversial issues without exposing oneself to such a wholly unjustified and flagrantly false smear campaign. To say that whoever did this is a disgrace is insufficient. The line has been crossed by a mile.
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Scott: Mind if I re-post this on my blog?
Go for it.
Thanks
I suppose I should probably never run for anything, huh? Even though on my blog everyone gets a balloon.
On the bright side, the people who read your blog are amused by their balloon for hours and hours.
I’d never have written what he did were I seeking election, but I don’t find it ‘wrong’. Just dumb. These days, a politician has to expect that anything he says that is in the least controversial is going to be be taken out of context and spun in the worst possible fashion.
What he wrote is, essentially, factual. Young teen girls are indeed sexy and that sexiness has been acknowledges and sought over much of the course of history. His statement has the weakness, however, of not recognizing that feelings sometimes take precedent over facts, that beliefs and practices change over time.
Factual accuracy doesn’t change the fact that it treads way too close to an apologia for sexual activity between teenage girls and older (“even much older”) men. Sorry, but that’s not what I see as “normal” or appropriate. This ain’t the middle ages and you (and I) aren’t Romeo.
“Libertine” candidate for governor. Hah.
So, I take it that you’re not a fan of John Derek? Look up Ursula Andress, Linda Evans, and Bo Derek if you aren’t familiar with Mr. Derek.
First of all, girls were often married by the age of 14 (around menarche) in the 1700s, hardly the Middle Ages. Shakespeare as well Cleland were not Middle Age writers, and they both wrote about the earlier age of marriage, romance, and sexual attraction. You may find it distasteful, as do I, but it is historically accurate. The Industrial Age, as well the Information Age, has forced norms that didn’t exist for most of human history.
Secondly, Redlich is simply pointing out that the hysteria of today was not the accepted only 200 years ago,you know, the Founding Fathers time, and society didn’t collapse into libertine anarchy.
The majority of States have the age of consent at 16, granted with some age proximity rules, but still 16.
I do understand lawyers are challenged both by numbers and history, but really, this took me only about 10 minutes of research (I was only confirming what I already knew).
As Shaw pointed out, Britannius thought the laws of his little island were the laws of the universe, and how silly he was therefore.
John Derek? You’ve got to be kidding. Warren was doing better before your monumentally underwhelming help.
And that is an argument against his facts how? You still haven’t proven that your side of the argument is correct. Raymond is trying to tell you that Redlich is simply pointing out irony, or a (slightly) humorous theoretical contradiction. There was no mention of whether he believed it was right.
Raymond has no argument. Resort to Shakespeare and John Derek is not proof of the normalcy of older men engaging in sex with underage women.
If either you or Raymond think you’re harping on sex with little girls as normal is going to help Warren, you’re totally nuts. If you’re arguing it because you happen to like little girls and seize the opportunity argue the point, then you’re out of here. This is not going to turn into an opportunity to promote pedophilia.
Wow, post something that has anything to do with young women and the nutjobs immediately show up. Do they have any idea that this is exactly what the Paladino people are trying to do to Redlich, and they’re arguing the point just makes Redlick look like the sex offender they’re trying to make him out to be. Unreal.
Raymond has tried to comment further, explaining that I don’t get it (like Norm Pattis does, as Raymond explains to me) about how it’s perfectly normal for older men to desire younger women. I’ve tossed him. This is not going to be a forum for nutjobs to rant about their sexual desires. Let them hang out somewhere else, where they’re appreciated.
I get the sense that some who profess to be libertarian are nothing more than self-serving libertines.
Your sense is, IMHO and experience, entirely correct. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a self-serving libertine; there’s a lot wrong with being nothing more than that.
Up unitl the 1970’s. a thirteen year old girl could marry in many Southern states. I graduated from 8th grade in 1958 (from a Catholic school) and two girls from my class of 20 were married at that age. They did not marry thirteen year old boys. The age of consent may have been raised since then but in many Southern states it is nmot that much higher for marriage. Wonder what they talk about? Hegelian philosophy in Bratz dolls?
Guess the old men had to do something before they invented internet porn.
Romeo was a kid. I admire May December romances when they are sweet, genuine, true and LEGAL.
Anyway, Romeo was referred to as a youth in contrast to other characters described as ‘men’ in the play.
From Romeo and Juliet:
“Young Romeo is it?”
*******
“Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-govern’d youth I would not for the wealth of all the town here in my house do him disparagement”
********
“Young son, …”
********
“So soon forsaken? young men’s love then lies …”
“But come, young waverer, come, go with me,…”
**********
Nurse
By my troth, it is well said; ‘for himself to mar,’
quoth a’? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I
may find the young Romeo?
ROMEO
I can tell you; but young Romeo will be older when
you have found him than he was when you sought him:
I am the youngest of that name, for fault of a worse.
**********
“There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,”