They Don't Trust Him With Their Party

New York state GOP chairman Ed Cox's critics call on him to resign:

[I]t was Mr. Cox, his critics argued, whose exertions in seeking an alternative to Rick A. Lazio, rather than coalescing the party behind him, weakened Mr. Lazio in the primary for governor, opening the door for Carl P. Paladino’s Tea Party-fueled primary upset.

Nixon In Cuomo's Corner?

Not too long ago, the tea party's media boosters were saying that establishment critics of TP-approved candidates missed the point by dwelling on some of the candidates' scandalous backgrounds, questionable characters, pervasive gaffes, or glaring lack of experience or qualifications. It didn't matter if mainstream critics said they were wing nuts. Voters would know that kind of elitist hoo-ha when they saw it. All that mattered, it was confidently said, was that, once elected, they'd do the right thing on taxes and spending.

But then came New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, the TP's most bracing brew, who's mad as hell, who's going to clean up Albany with a baseball bat, and who's polling 24% compared to the 59% lead -- that's a 35-point spread -- now enjoyed by an archetypal political insider and big-government dynast, Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

Makes you wonder what might've happened if state GOP chairman Ed Cox (above) hadn't helped clear the way for Paladino by spending the first half of the year trying to deny the nomination to a more presentable conservative, Rick Lazio, by manufacturing a primary challenge from Lazio's left. Lazio beat back Cox only to be hit on his other flank by Paladino, who was advised by another Nixonite, consultant Roger Stone. Stone got his start in the dirty tricks apparatus launched in 1972 by Nixon aide Dwight Chapin.

It was just the kind of of dual enfilade that Nixon loved -- when performed on Democrats, that is. Since Paladino won the primary in September, Stone has been urging him to soften his presentation, but it's apparently too late. On the other hand, Nixon always liked Andrew's dad, former Gov. Mario Cuomo. Politics works in mysterious ways.

Coffee, Tea, And Free WiFi

In its latest on-line story about yesterday's NY GOP debacle, the New York Times juxtaposes the Nixonian players without quite closing in on the glaring Nixonian irony:

The victory [by Tea Party conservative Carl Paladino] capped a topsy-turvy race in which the Republican state chairman, Edward F. Cox, doubting [Rick] Lazio’s chances, tried to recruit a Democrat to carry the party’s banner, but then found himself outflanked by an insurgent whom he and much of the party’s leadership had denounced.

A businessman who made millions in real estate in the Buffalo area, Mr. Paladino entered the race in April and mustered only 8 percent of the party’s support at its convention in May, after reports of his e-mails drew condemnation from Republican and Democratic leaders alike.

But with Roger J. Stone Jr., the flamboyant former Nixon operative, advising him, he circumvented the party leadership, petitioned his way onto the primary ballot by collecting 30,000 signatures and quietly cobbled together a coalition of disaffected groups.

The third piece of the Nixon jigsaw is in a separate Times story:

Christopher Cox, the wealthy son of the state Republican chairman and a grandson of President Richard M. Nixon, was crushed Tuesday night in his bid for the Republican nomination to represent Suffolk County in Congress.

Mr. Cox, 31, who runs a consulting business, lost badly despite spending $1.3 million of his own money, and having the ardent support of Tea Party groups. But he ended up a distant third in a three-way contest, losing to Randy Altschuler, a self-made businessman with the backing of the Conservative Party.

With most precincts reporting, Mr. Altschuler had 45 percent. George Demos, a former prosecutor, had 31 percent, and Mr. Cox 24 percent.

Looming over the state's politics all year has been the complex Nixon political settlement. Gut-fighter Stone, Nixon's post-presidential confidante and a junior member of the Dwight Chapin-launched dirty tricks apparatus in 37's 1972 reelection campaign, and his angry man Paladino did way better reading 2010's Tea Party leaves than Nixon son-in-law and former Nader's Raider Ed Cox. Cox's move last spring was a Byzantine, failed bid to line up an ex-Democrat to challenge Lazio from the left. (As for Cox's "secret maneuvers," I know them well.) He was thinking about winning the general election against Andrew Cuomo. Stone was thinking about winning the nomination, which he did by grasping that this is not the year in the GOP for newly converted Democrats.

New York political insiders will have to explain why the Tea Party endorsement that powered Paladino to a massive victory did absolutely nothing for young Christopher in Suffolk County. It's a good day for me to be headed to Washington for some good political and musical talk with an wise old friend over dinner before attending an Episcopal schools board meeting in Alexandria.

They Got Stoned

Yellow legal pad on his lap and his stocking feet crossed on an ottoman-shaped cloud, flipping from channel to channel, Richard Nixon would find tonight's New York primary results bittersweet.

Grandson Christopher, companion in his Saddle River study as they watched the Mets on TV and listened to the Yankees on the radio (or vice versa), was soundly beaten in his bid for the GOP nomination to run for the House from Long Island's Suffolk County. "He's young," Nixon would say.

His son-in-law Ed, Christopher's father, has had a rocky year as state Republican chairman. In June, he failed by backing a moderate (indeed a newly-converted former Democrat) as an alternative to presumptive gubernatorial nominee Rick Lazio. Tonight Lazio, having battled back after Cox's challenge from the left, was finished off from the right by a boiling loose tea kettle of an insurgent, Carl Paladino. Cox, who was backing Lazio by this time and praising him for having "gone through the fire" that Cox himself ignited in his caboose, is now especially battle hardened.

At least Lazio won't have a Nixon to kick him around anymore.

While it wouldn't take much of the sting out of his family's defeats, at least Nixon's post-presidential confidante Roger Stone, Paladino's key adviser, is a winner. Stone got his start doing dirty tricks as part of the operation Dwight Chapin launched in the 1972 Nixon campaign. In the 1980s, some of Nixon's White House-era aides told me how much they resented Stone's access to 37. Some of them are probably fuming. Nixon would be calling his secretary and saying, "Get Roger."

All The President's Remaining Men

Rick Lazio probably wishes he didn't have Nixon to kick him around anymore.

The conservative ex-congressman (shown at right), who had the unenviable job of running against Hillary Clinton for U.S. Senate in 2000, wants to be this year's GOP nominee for governor of New York. He fought Nixon War I in the late spring against the state party chairman, Nixon son-in-law Ed Cox, who had backed a more moderate candidate, Steve Levy, after going to the trouble of helping persuade him to convert from Democratism. Cox (below) has also been accused of trying to set the stage for a Senate run by his and Tricia's son, Christopher, who's aiming for the altar and the House this year.

At the June GOP convention, Lazio handily beat back the Cox-Levy challenge. But now he has to contend with yet another Nixonite, Roger Stone, who pops up in the paper today as the key strategist for an insurgent with Tea Party bona fides, real estate tycoon Carl Paladino. The primary's Sept. 14, and while Lazio's still ahead, according to the New York Times, Paladino is picking up strength.

Stone (that's he, with his idol) was one of Nixon's closest political friends when Kathy and I were working for the ex-president in New York and New Jersey in the 1980s. He'd done dirty tricks in the 1972 Nixon campaign and was a key Reagan strategist in 1984.  Nixon and Stone spent countless hours talking politics, and some of Nixon's White House-era aides resented it. During one of Roger's not-infrequent brushes with notoriety, one of the president's older men, who had already complained that Roger used Nixon's name too freely around Washington (which is precisely what Nixon wanted him to do), told me, "I knew he was no good. It couldn't happen to a better guy."

Be that as it may have been, he's back, yet again, as implacably resilient as the president himself. Meanwhile, assuming Lazio can beat back his second Nixon challenge in one year and make it all the way to November, we can assume he won't be playing 37 in the Lotto.