It's not exactly Watergate, but this hot scoop by the Daily Freeman is a must-read.
It seems Jeremy Blaber, former Kingston parking enforcement officer (and erstwhile Ulster County politics blogger) brought a tape recorder to a meeting with Kingston mayor Shayne Gallo and lawyer Andrew Zweben, in which Gallo tapped into his inner Mel Gibson:
“You call my mother a f---ing liar, because that guy will have to pull me off of you,” Gallo bellows. “You call my mother a liar! You call my mother a liar! You calling her a liar! No problem. We’re done.” “You are out of this building and you are out of my f---ing life,” Gallo says.
Gallo then accuses Blaber of stealing candy from a convenience store “with a f---ing city jacket on!!!”
Blaber denies he stole anything.
At issue between the two: Blaber's admitted prescription drug abuse while employed by the city, for which he spent a stint in rehab earlier this year, and a disagreement over whether he had relapsed in recent months. (No word on whether Blaber ticketing the mayor's car last year -- and making news headlines for it -- played any role in the dustup.)
Let's be honest: Nobody comes off looking good in this story. But the release of the recording has emboldened longtime Gallo critics, many of whom are flocking to the Freeman's comment section.
While Gallo's obscene outburst may have been embarrassing for the mayor, it's unclear whether it will do any lasting damage to his political career -- especially given that Blaber clearly has his own issues. And this is upstate New York, after all, where a town supervisor can be caught on tape calling Martin Luther King Day "N***** Day" and get re-elected.
