Lee Zeldin under (physical) attack

Well, Representative Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.-1st) must be doing something right. His opponents have gone past the ignoring and laughing stage, two of the Four Stages of Gandhi. Last night someone tried to implement the attack stage – literal and physical. We don’t see that often in American politics, even New York politics. That we’ve just seen it now, shows that the American political left gets more desperate all the time.

What happened to Lee Zeldin

Reportage on the incident comes from The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, WROC-TV (Channel 8, Rochester, N.Y.), WHEC-TV (Channel 10, also in Rochester), CNBC, Politico.com, and The Associated Press, through NPR. The tone of the reportage is equal parts shock, disbelief – and relief that the attacker didn’t actually hurt anyone.

This much we know, and it isn’t much, even after fourteen hours. Lee Zeldin was speaking at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Fairport, New York. At about 8:00 p.m. ET, one David G. Jakubonis, 43, a local man, somehow got onto the stage. He’d been stumbling through the crowd, and witnesses said he was drunk. So he probably wasn’t in shape to hurt anyone. Nevertheless he got close enough to take a swing at Zeldin with some kind of improvised knife.

Lee Zeldin, by his own account, grabbed the man’s wrist before others on the stage could subdue him. They had him thoroughly restrained by the time Monroe County sheriff’s deputies arrived to take him to jail. One witness, AMVETS National Director Joe Chenelly, expressed compassion for the man, who said he served in Iraq. Mr. Chenelly used the occasion to illustrate the mental-health issues so many veterans have. (Mr. Zeldin is a veteran himself, a light colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. His experiences is in Military Intelligence and the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.)

These tweets contain video of the incident and statements about it:

WHEC-TV also has video.

Controversy about Acting Governor Hochul’s statement

Acting Governor Hochul, rather sensibly, made no attempt to excuse Jakubonis’ behavior.

I condemn this violent behavior in the strongest terms possible – it has no place in New York.

Her problem is that, several hours earlier, her campaign team had put out a parody of Zeldin’s campaign schedule.

On Thursday, July 21, 2022, “Big Lie” Lee and his entourage of extremists kick off the statewide “MAGA Republican” Bus Tour, which will make stops across the state peddling dangerous lies, misinformation, and his far-right agenda. At stops during the tour, Zeldin will be joined by top anti-abortion advocates, NRA enthusiasts, and a cast of extremist groups.

With a statement like that on her record, Governor Hochul has laid herself open to a charge of provocation.

The Lee Zeldin agenda

To know what the Lee Zeldin agenda really is, one must visit his campaign website. He addresses street crime, tax and regulatory costs, personal freedom, education, government reform, and veterans’ issues. Lee Zeldin did praise the Supreme Court’s decisions in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. He has also made an issue of election reform, calling for voter ID, a thing New York does not have.

In addressing the Dobbs and Bruen decisions, Zeldin shows that if anyone is “extreme” on these issues, New York is. In New York, the Carhart Technique remains legal – and some of Kermit Gosnell’s practices might also be legal. More to the point, Zeldin can speak directly to the “viability” standard as few men can. His twin daughters were born at about twenty-five-and-a-half weeks’ gestation. They still survive. Let advocates for “reproductive freedom” chew on that for awhile.

On the day the Bruen decision came down, Lee Zeldin warned Kathy Hochul to comply with the ruling. Instead she has clearly violated it, in spirit if not in letter.

All of which to say that Lee Zeldin seeks to roll New York back from extremism, not foster it. In physically attacking him, David Jakubonis called attention to him – attention Kathy Hochul cannot afford to have anyone pay him. When people do pay proper attention, they can see that he is a consistent advocate for life, liberty and property.