On Question of Terror Trials, Carl Paladino Drops An F-Bomb

Oct. 12, 2010— -- No stranger to bold, brash and sometimes offensive comments, Tea Party candidate Carl Paladino was caught on tape using a four-letter word to describe an Obama administration decision on where to try terror suspects.

Still facing a firestorm over recent comments some interpreted as anti-gay, Paladino, the New York Republican gubernatorial candidate, finds himself again having to defend or apologize for his famously impulsive and outlandish comments.

Asked in March for his reaction to a since-shelved plan by Attorney General Eric Holder to hold trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, like 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, in downtown Manhattan, Paladino gruffly replied: "F**k him. F**k him."

The video, though seven-months old, was recently posted on YouTube and the National Journal website.

Calls and e-mail to Paladino's office for comment were not immediately returned.

This latest flap comes in the wake of a seris of controversial comments, gaffes and dustups.

Last month Paladino scuffled with Fredric Dicke of the New York Post, who asked the candidate to prove his accusation that Democratic challenger Andrew Cuomo cheated on his ex-wife while the couple were still married.

"What evidence do you have for something most people would consider a smear?" Dicker asked.

Rather than respond to the question, Paladino accused Dicker of sending a "goon" to photograph his young daughter, who was born to a mistress and kept secret from his wife for a decade.

"You send another goon to my daughter's house and I'll take you out, buddy!" Paladino told Dicker.

Pushed again for proof of the accusation against Cuomo, Paladino told the Post, "At the appropriate time you will hear it."

On Wednesday, Paladino accused Cuomo of cheating on then wife Kerry Kennedy and challenged the media to find dirt on the Democrat instead of him.

"Has anybody asked Andrew Cuomo about his paramours?" Paladino asked Politico.com in an interview.

Cuomo has never previously been publicly accused of infidelity.

"We believe this conduct puts Carl Paladino's daughter in harm's way, susceptible to kidnapping or sexual predators. This behavior by The New York Post and their senior political editor Fred Dicker is unacceptable. Endangering the safety of a 10-year-old child is repugnant," read a Paladino statement.

Paladino's Blustery Style Getting Him Plenty of Attention

The allegations against Cuomo and the argument with Dicker are the most recent in a series of scandal-making flare-ups for Paladino that includes inappropriate emails, offensive comments, and details about his personal life.

"In a short amount of time, he's developed a reputation for being fast and loose with the facts," said Stu Rothenberg, editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report.

"He's one of these candidates who anything he says or does is an attempt to mix it up. In short, he's a loose cannon," he said.

In a state where Republican candidates are typically moderate, Paladino promised to "take a baseball bat to Albany." His tough talking style gave him an easy victory in the Republican primary over former congressman Rick Lazio.

Paladino's reputation for ignoring political correctness, sometimes at the risk of being offensive, earned him the backing of the Tea Party movement.

When Paladino announced his candidacy a series of emails he wrote or forwarded came to light, which included pornographic images including bestiality and profane and racist language.

One email shows a group of black men running in front of an airplane with the caption: "run n---ers run." Another email includes a doctored image of President Obama and Michelle Obama dressed like a pimp and a prostitute. Still another published email contains a photograph depicting a woman engaged in a sex act with a horse.

It was not until early this month that Paladino apologized for sending the emails to those who "found them offensive" and said they were only intended for his friends.

"The real obscenity is Albany," Paladino told CNN when asked about the emails.

Paladino also described state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who is Jewish, as an "Antichrist or Hitler."

The existence of the emails came out early in the primary but did not keep Paladino from winning the nomination, nor did news that the real estate mogul had carried on an extramarital affair and had a love child.

Paladino has been married for 40 years, but has a 10-year-old daughter with a former employee. Paladino told his children, but did not reveal the daughter to his wife until last year, when his youngest son Patrick died in a car accident.

"No matter what, he's getting a lot of print," said Scott Levenson, president of New York political consulting firm the Advance Group. "Someone with no recognition is getting tons of recognition. In this environment where people are tired of politics as usual, he's anything but politics as usual."

In a Marist College poll released today, Cuomo receives the support of 53 percent of likely voters in New York State to Republican opponent Carl Paladino's 38 percent.