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Levy and the Lunatic Fringe

Posted August 11, 2009 by Patrick Young, Esq.

County Comedian Steve Levy notoriously denounced critics of his immigration policies back in 2005 as the “lunatic fringe”. When pressed by the media on whether everyone who opposed his anti-immigrant tack was a “lunatic”, he walked his words back and said no, just Reverend. Allan Ramirez and Patrick Young.
I found out that I was short-listed by Levy when I got a call at my wife’s hospital bed from Newsday asking me to respond.
To being called a lunatic.
At the time, Levy was taking immigration advice from a group in Farmingville that claimed that a conspiracy by the Catholic Church and the Ford Foundation was about to detach the American Southwest and return it to Mexico by means of undocumented landscapers.
Levy was looking for immigration expertise to a national organization that rejects the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and believes in a halt to most legal immigration.
And he was about to be endorsed by the head of the Minuteman Project, a group now entangled in the murder of two Latinos by one of its allied organizations.
Later, Levy’s aides reportedly called upon the local anti-immigrant militia to help out in passing anti-immigrant bills.
And let’s look at more recent Levy liasons.
Steve Levy gained quite a bit of notoriety in the spring when he was the only prominent Democratic office holder in New York to join the tea-baggers at their anti-tax rallies. Of course, his connection to Lou Dobbs, the voice of the birthers, is well-known. Levy’s press conferences often look like audition tapes for a slot on Lou Dobbs Tonight.
And, part of his strategy for reaching out to Latinos statewide is to insult the Latinos preparing his meal.
Mom liked to say; “It takes one to know one.”
So I guess I am a lunatic.