A sad attempt to distance himself from Tom Gulotta

We've hopped into the Way-Back Machine and ended up in January of 2001. That was the fateful month when Pete Schmitt and his now minority party cohorts banded together in an attempt to fool the voters. You see, it was an election year. An election year where the county executive seat was up and barring some scandal, anyone with a heart-beat would beat the beleaguered Tom Gulotta who was running out of proclaimations to give. The county you see was in a mess.. a big mess. The republicans needed to get another candidate so they might have a chance of holding on to the office. Incrediblely in what can only be decribed as massive chutzpah Schmitt and the Gulotta Republicans issued a statement which attempted to absolve them of any wrong-doing. They had a list of things that Gulotta did wrong and that they seemingly had nothing to do with. Schmitt writes "Under his (Gulotta) Administration Nassau County has the lowest bond rating of any county in the State" and "Under his Administration Nassau County was on the verge of bankruptcy and needed State assistance to get the County through a fiscal meltdown" Did this happen in a vaccum? Did Tom Gulotta have secret powers where he could over-ride the votes of the super-majority 15 member republican legislature? Schmitt continues with "Under his Administration we have a broken government where the simple task of paying for a parking ticket becomes a day-long chore." Again we have to know if the republicans in the legislature were impotent to act if they saw problems. We hear from Schmitt that "Under his Administration we have departments that are barely functional." This is incredible stuff. Schmitt and his cohorts are admitting that they had no power whatsoever. They were being paid by the taxpayers but they had no over-sight of the executive branch and they were merely there to rubber-stamp whatever Gulotta wanted. The statement goes on to say "Simply put - he had his chance to lead, he has failed - it is time for him to go." That should apply to Pete and the republican legislators too. They were in the majority. They signed off on everything that led the county into the worst fiscal crisis in history. The press release is proof-positive that the republicans led by Schmitt are unable to lead or take responsibility for thier own actions. It was easy to kick Gulotta while he was down but it was dishonest to blame him for everything.

Check out the Press Release HERE.