Delgado and Democrats play ing with f ire
Don’t t hink you can escape t he t hrills of our nationa l i mpeachment drama by t urning on, say, a footba l l game or a “rea lit y ” show about self- ob bsessed housew ives. If you watch h cable TV i n t hese par ts, you u li kely will see t he ads. They are aimed at voters i n New York ’s 19th cong ressiona l district. That ’s t he massive distr ict represented by A ntonio Delgado, t he Schenectady k id who g rew up, got elected to Cong ress as a Democrat and recently announced suppor t for t he impeachment i nquir y against President Tr ump. ( I’m simplif y i ng his li fe stor y just a bit.)
“Delgado broke his promise,” decla res t he commercia l f rom t he Republican Nationa l Committee, which, in a stunning depar t ure f rom attack- ad norms, depicts t he cong ressman entirely in g ra i ny, washed- out v ideo.
Actua l ly, you may remember t he technique f rom some of t he 2018 ads k nock i ng Delgado for his old
rap lyrics. How’ d that workout guys?
The promise Delgado supposedly broke, according to t he ad, was his pledge to focus on the problems facing the country. Your view on whether he actually broke it may depend on whether you see the president as a problem facing the country.
Other commercials soon-to-be appearing on local screens present an entirely different view. They’ re in full color, for one thing. They want to depict Delgado’ s impeachment decision as in significant, so t hey don’t directly mention it . We’re instead shown a Delgado who spends his time meeting with flannel-shirted farmers in obscure parts of the district.
“I’m here to do t he work,” Delgado says inane wad released by his campaign .“I’m here to find common ground .”
“For Antonio Delgado, serving in Congress is all about serving country and community—not fighting on Twitter or shouting on cable news,” says another new ad, t his one sponsored by a dark- money group with ties to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
This seems like a good time to mention my proposal for a law that would strip the vote f rom any fool who relies on TV ads to g aug ea politician’ s record. Ignore the ads. They are no more real than the show with the bickering housewives.
But in this case, the ads do tell us something. They tell us both sides see impeachment as a potentially defining issue in an up-for-grabs congressional district and are eager to set t he terms. It ’s even possible—God help us—that the 2020 election cycle will be about little else.
Of course, at this moment impeachment is as unpredictable asap ass from a Jets quarter back. Nobody knows where it’ ll go.
It could lead to Trump’ s removal from office—very slim odds there—or it could fail and allow the president to claim a big moral victory on the eve of his re-election. Democrats, in other words, are playing with f ire.
So Delgado’ s decision to jump onboard the impeachment train was risky, especially since Trump won the 19 th by seven points. Voters could very well see impeachment as a backhanded, elitist attempt to over turn an election that Democrats have ref used to accept — and punish Delgado for going a long.
With the next presidential election about a year away, why not let voters decide whether Tr ump should be f ired?
In the days after the start of the impeachment inquiry, I spoke to two of Delgado’s Republican challenge rs: Anthony German ,60, are tired two-star general and former adjutant general of the New York National Guard, and Ola Hawatmeh, a fashion designer/ philanthropist.
Both portrayed Delgado’ s impeachment move as a critical error. Both described impeachment as unjustified by available evidence. If former Congressman John Faso lost to Delgado because he was too cool to Tr ump — a debatable assertion—German and Hawatmeh seem unwilling to repeat the mistake.
“I’m for Trump 100 percent ,” said Hawatmeh, 42, the daughter of Catholic immigrants from Jordan .“He’s full of heart and sacrificed to make this country great again .”
German, meanwhile, said Delgado “caved to his base” and“supports removing an elected president from office who, incident ally, was selected by a majority of his constituents.”
“He has chosen grid lock and impeachment over governing and problem solving ,” German added.
Hanging over the race is the potential candidacy of Republican Marc Molinaro, recently seen getting his head handed back after Andrew Cu om ore moved it during t he governor ’s race. That result not withstanding , Molinaro would be a formidable Delgado challenger.
But we’re getting a head of ourselves. For now, it’ s enough to know that those of us without the sense to take John Prine’s advice about blowing up our TVS will suffer through ads aimed at the 19 th Congressional District from now until the fall of 2020. Cheers!