Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino joined his fellow GOP hopeful, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, in slamming Gov. David Paterson today, albeit on a different topic altogether.

While Levy smacked Paterson for daring to suggest that the governor of New York doesn’t have sufficient power to really effect change in Albany, Paladino teed off on the governor for expressing his opposition to Arizona’s new law targeting illegal immigrants.

Paladino called Paterson “gutless” and accused him of “playing ethnic politics instead of enforcing immigration law.”

“Instead of seizing his Constitutional powers as Governor to solve New York’s growing immigration problem, David Paterson is playing ethnic politics at its worst,” Paladino said in a press release.

“He’s trying to appeal to the millions of illegals in this country the Obama administration hopes to
make citizens, voters and Democrats in time for the next election.”

Paladino, whose candidacy was dealt a significant blow following the revelation that he had forwarded racist and sexually explicit e-mails to friends, stressed that he is the child of an immigrant and supports legal immigration.

However, he is “completely opposed to any form of amnesty or other solution aimed to absorb illegal immigrants into the fabric of America for political purposes.”

I’m not sure what touched off this spate of GOP criticism of Paterson, who isn’t running this fall.

Perhaps the Republicans simply grew weary of attacking one another and, casting about for a Democratic target, weren’t able to find one who has actually made his political intentions known?

Share|