The Orange-Headed WASP* Tanking in New York

Our erstwhile governor, William Weld, has re-invented himself as a trendy New Yorker (dumped the Harvard professor wife [which makes him Catholic but divorced - get a cardinal to denounce him from the pulpit, stat!], got a trophy girlfriend, works on Wall Street, still shooting innocent critters in the Adirondacks with an elephant gun). And for a lark -- just like he did here, for a lark -- he's running for governor of New York.

He's having a little trouble with the truthiness thing, though. From the New York Times, via Americablog:

Aides Re-edited News Articles on Candidate's Web Site

As William F. Weld runs for governor of New York this year, his campaign has put a new spin on the old political rule of having a positive message.

Campaign aides have significantly altered two newspaper articles on his Web site about his bid for governor, removing all negative phrases about him, like "mini-slump" and "dogged by an investigation," and passages about his political problems.

Also removed were references to a federal investigation of Decker College, a Kentucky trade school that Mr. Weld led until he left to run for governor last fall; the college collapsed into bankruptcy weeks later amid allegations of financial aid fraud. And criticism of Mr. Weld by a former New York Republican senator, Alfonse D'Amato, was removed.

The Weld campaign placed the sanitized articles, still under the reporters' bylines, on its Web site, weldfornewyork.org , under the heading "news." Nothing told readers about the changes.

The Orange-Headed WASP is, of course, the nickname given Weld by our other crazy gubernatorial candidate in 1990, John Silber, former head of Boston University. Silber was generally believed to have the race in the bag until the final weekend, when he melted down on locally beloved TV anchor Natalie Jacobsen during an interview, and called Weld the orange-headed WASP. Weld beat Silber in a squeaker.