John McCormack is a reporter working for The Weekly Standard. Dede Scozzafava is the extremely liberal New York Assemblywoman running as a Republican to succeed Rep. John McHugh from the Empire State’s 23rd congressional district in the upcoming special election.
Scozzafava was speaking at a GOP dinner Monday evening. McCormack was reporting on Scozzafava’s campaign, including her recent pledge to the AFL-CIO to support Big Labor’s top legislative objective, the Card Check proposal – currently stalled in Congress – to abolish the secret ballot in workplace representation elections.
Scozzafava apparently didn’t appreciate being asked about her support of Card Check because after she left and McCormack went to his laptop to file a report on the evening’s event, the police showed up. What happened next is …. well, here’s McCormack’s description:
“Minutes later a police car drove into the parking lot with its lights flashing. Officer Grolman informed me that she was called because ‘there was a little bit of an uncomfortable situation’ and then took down my name, date of birth, and address.
“‘Maybe we do things a little differently here, but you know, persistence in that area, you scared the candidate a little bit,’ Officer Grolman told me. ‘[Scozzafava] got startled, that’s all,’ Officer Grolman added. ‘It’s not like you’re in any trouble.'”
In thug politics, this is what they call “delivering a little message.” You’re not in trouble, this time. Go here for the rest of McCormack’s report on an evening that says everything about why Scozzafava epitomizes the worst symptoms of Republican Disease.
UPDATE: Scozzafava flak responds
Matt Burns, a spokesman for Scozzafava, tells Politico that McCormack wasn’t very nice when he asked his boss all those mean-spirited questions and actually demanded answers:
“This self-described reporter repeatedly screamed questions (in-your-face-style) while our candidate was doing what she is supposed to be doing: speaking with voters (remember, those who will decide this election?). And then he followed the candidate to her car, continuing to carry on in a manner that would make the National Enquirer blush. I have no doubt he intended to follow her home, too. His actions were reprehensible. Those are the facts.”
Uh, welcome to the bigs, buster.
UPDATE II: Kristol stands by his man
No surprise here. Bill Kristol reiterates what everybody who has ever met John McCormack knows:
“Now the Scozzafava campaign accuses John of ‘a complete lack of decency’ and of behaving in a ‘reprehensible’ way. This is ludicrous. Needless to say, the police found nothing amiss. Moreover, the fact is that John didn’t interrupt a conversation between Ms. Scozzafava and voters — she wasn’t talking to voters when John approached her. Nor did John ‘scream,’ nor did he get ‘in the face’ of the candidate — he was at least 10 feet away from her in the parking lot, partly because a Scozzafava staffer interposed himself as John tried to ask substantive public policy questions of Ms. Scozzafava. The notion that John intended to ‘follow her home’ is of course risible.
“Let me emphasize: I have full confidence in the truth of John’s account. And I won’t allow a desperate campaign to try to tarnish the fine reputation John has built as a fair and accurate reporter — and, for that matter, a very decent and mild-mannered young man.”
Don’t miss the rest of Bill’s post, which includes an interesting vignette concerning a previous encounter with Scozzafava’s spokesman.
