Throwing Reporters Off Balconies To Outshine The President

Usually, the day after the President delivers his State of the Union Address all the newsies and pundits and such yak about the speech, whether it was effective, whether he's a bozo, yada, yada, yada.

Congrats to Michael Grimm, R-NY for outshining
Obama with his manly toughness.  

So congratulations go out this morning to Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y. for outshining President Obama after Tuesday evening's State of the Union Address.

Yeah, I'd never heard of Grimm either, but last night, he threatened to throw a reporter off a U.S. Capitol balcony. Live! on TV! It was quite a moment.

The problem was, Grimm only wanted to discuss his reaction to Obama's speech, but NY1 reporter Michael Sotto decided to thrown in a question about allegations that Grimm might have broken some campaign finance rules.

As a former reporter, I know that sources don't like it when you ask questions that they don't want to discuss, and the sources get angry, but that's part of the job. Reporters know that. I know that. Sotto knows that.

This was kind of over the top, though. Not exactly good PR, though my guess Sotto was trying to telegraph to constituents how tough he allegedly is.

Sotto had this to say, according to Talking Points Memo: 

"I was taken aback. I have never --- you know I'm used to people giving me pushback for questions but I was not used to something like that. "

Grimm told Sotto during the confrontation: "No, no you're not man enough, you're not man enough. I'll break you in half. Like a boy."

OK, that's a little confusing.  Man enough for what? And break him in half like a boy? Grimm breaks boys in half? Isn't that extreme?

So far, Grimm is not backing down, according to NPR: 

"'I was extremely annoyed because I was doing NY1 a favor by rushing to do their interview first in lieu of several other requests. He also accused the reporter of 'taking a disrespectful and cheap shot at the end of the interview.'"

The part Grimm is referring to is when Sotto accurate reported that Grimm would not comment on the campaign finance question.  God, don't you HATE reporters when they're accurate?

Anyway, Kudos to Michael Grimm for being the tough guy who outshone President Obama, who, during the State of the Union Address,  failed to even once threaten to beat somebody up.

Maybe Grimm can go home now to his constituents and take a cue from the other tough guy, Chris Christie, and maybe close down a heavily traveled bridge.

Here's the video of Grimm's tough guy antics:

< >