Why is upstate New York still enthralled with Carl Paladino? 

I have no idea, that's why I'm asking you. 

Case in point, check out this gaggle of rationalization from upstate assemblyman Pete Lopez when asked why he was hanging out with Carl Paladino:

“I have seven counties and there are a number of Tea Party groups there,” Lopez, R-Schoharie, said. “What’s interesting about the movement is these folks are community people. They’re not political people. They’re engaged, which is critical for our future. People were becoming disengaged, even jaundiced.”

“He’s basically a response to that grass-roots,” Lopez continued. “My sense of the candidate is he’s clearly not polished…I can’t speak for all of his words, or be accountable for them, but for me the movement is the important thing, and in New York he’s at the head of the movement.”

Paladino's "clearly not polished," huh?  Get a grip, please, Pete.  Paladino is a clinically insane, racially obsessed, sexually deranged misanthrope who supports gulags for the indigent-class.

Then there's upstater Patty Richie who's running for the 48th Senate District and who actually went to court to remain on Carl Paladino's ballot line.

Going to court to bed down with Paladino. Wow.

Here's three simple, easily understood questions that somebody should ask Patty Ritchie:

--Now that you've won the court case to remain on Carl Paladino's "Taxpayers Party" ballot line, do you still support him? And if not, will you relinquish the Taxpayers line in November?

--Since Fort Drum is within the 48th Senate District--and given Carl Paladino's characterization of African-Americans as savages and racial epithet fodder--how will you explain your support for Paladino to the decorated black soldiers returning to Fort Drum from combat in Afghanistan?

--Given Carl Paladino's demonstrated affection for internet pornography, how would you tell your granddaughter that you supported a man who habitually traffics in sexual imagery that includes somebody else's granddaughter engaged in sex acts with a horse?

These are three questions that people like Patty Richie cannot or will not ever, ever answer.  But they should be politically compelled to.