COMMON SENSE: Week of December 15

A TIME FOR GIVING

The Christmas season is a time for giving and sharing. As wemove through happy but hectic days of holiday parties and shopping,the support of charities should be on the top of everyone’slist.

The ongoing bad economy has made it difficult for many groups thatdo important work all year round to meet their goals. Ironically,this comes at a time when the same economy makes their work evenmore important.

So please give to your favorite charities this Christmas season.And do support the timely food, clothing and toy drives that arebeing conducted by so many groups in our community. There is greatneed out there. And who better to fill the need than neighborshelping neighbors.

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Nicole Malliotakis, the Republican-Conservative Assemblymember whorepresents much of Bay Ridge in Albany, was invited to be a guestspeaker at the prestigious Monday Night Group recently.

This organization is comprised of leading conservatives, many withstrong concerns about business issues from around the tri-statearea. They hear once a month from important national figures aswell as perceived future conservative leaders on a variety ofissues.

That night they had U.S. Congressmember Hanna, a candidate for U.S.Senate from Indiana, the treasurer of the South Carolina RepublicanParty, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and NicoleMalliotakis.

Gingrich followed the assemblymember who spoke to the over-capacitycrowd of 350 about her background, election, first year in officeand thoughts about the direction of the state. She receivednumerous ovations and the obvious attention of Gingrich and hiswife Callista when she mentioned that she was the only femaleelected Republican in the city of New York.

And considering that Malliotakis beat a two-term incumbent by 10points, there was no one in the crowd that did not appreciate herhard work in getting elected.

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You really have to question President Obama’s handlers who signedoff on him holding a Manhattan fundraiser the same night theRockefeller Center Christmas Tree was being lit. Frankly hiscampaign was very inconsiderate. The security around his presenceturned a normal gridlock alert day, as a result of the treelighting, into a traffic nightmare of near-catastrophic proportionsfor a good six hours.

Some presidents do show concern for their impact on others whenthey travel. President Reagan is quoted as ordering his staff toavoid such situations. President Clinton, a frequent visitor to thecity as president, tried to stay away from creating this level oftraffic havoc whenever possible.

The Obama re-election effort did not need to hold its multimilliondollar fundraiser that night. He would have raised the same amountand had the same people any night. What they did accomplish inaddition to raising millions was the serious inconveniencing ofmany, many New Yorkers. And you do not need to be a high paidpolitical consultant to know that annoying people is a bad campaignstrategy.

Jerry Kassar is the chairperson of the Kings CountyConservative Party. He is a longtime community activist who hasserved as an officer of member of many organizations. He works forthe state of New York.