No Free Ride

Tina “Kirsten Gillibrand” Rutnik has followed the lead of her advisers, some of whom worked for Hillary Clinton, in keeping the press at bay. Who can forget the bizarre scene of the press being barred from entering a room to ask Gillibrand/Rutnik follow-up question at the announcement of her candidacy to take on Congressman John Sweeney in the 20th Congressional District.

So it probably wasn’t a good idea to have Gillibrand appear on the Fred Dicker show this morning on WROW, AM 590.

Gillibrand was ready to seem all downhome and folky, dropping in stories about her husband fishing and so on. Dicker wasn’t going along for the ride. In a sharp line of questioning, he allowed Gillibrand to reveal herself as a liberal hiding behind moderate talking points.

The interview revealed Gillibrand:

• Supports gay marriage
• Supports the dredging of the Hudson River, which has been strongly opposed by communities in the 20th CD district
• Has ties to big-money lobbyists. Dicker also got Gillibrand to discuss the fact that the supposedly anti-lobbying, big money Gillibrand’s father, Doug Rutnik, is one of the biggest lobbyists in state government. Gillibrand also scheduled and then cancelled a fundraiser with one of Washington’s biggest lobbying firms.

Gillibrand was also shaky on a couple of points, saying she and her husband were “middle class” but quickly changing the subject on whether her tax returns had been released. If anything, the interview showed Gillibrand has a ways to go in effectively dealing with the press, but more than anything, showed Gillibrand is lacking the depth and grasp of issues that the 20th CD needs from their representative in Washington.

Posted May 19, 2006