When the going gets wierd...

...the weird turn pro, a somewhat drugged out journalist once said. And in the case of the gloves-off bout between republican incumbent John Sweeney and democrat challenger Kirsten Gillibrand, the going has definitely gotten weird. This is not to say Sweeney or Gillibrand have gone pro, so to speak. Rather, both are looking to the pros for help to win the 20th congressional district's seat in the waning hours of this bloody mud-slinging campaign.

Amid his campaign's inept bungling, Sweeney has watched his lead over Gillibrand finally evaporate in a poll released by Siena College Sunday. In and of itself, this is not surprising given the veritable procession of bad news that has followed Sweeney around like the storm cloud that often hovers over Charlie Brown on an otherwise sunny day.

First there was news of the December 2005 domestic altercation, which Sweeney and his wife vehemently denied, rather than coming clean about the incident and moving on. In an equally mind-boggling move, he appears on the stump smiling next to George Pataki, who has successfully irked both sides of the political spectrum with his brazen patronage and wastrel governorship. Then to compound everything, Camp Sweeney comes out with a statement that they won’t release any documentation about the domestic incident under the professional advice of E. Stewart Jones, one of the Capital Region’s most notorious lawyers.

But the weird doesn’t stop there. After a weekend spent out of the public view and while his former 14-point lead dipped a solid 18 points to put Gillibrand ahead in the polls, Jones fired back, blasting the Times Union, Daily News and Newsday for collaborating in a bizarre conspiracy to sink Sweeney’s ship.

Now we’re talking weird.

According to Jones, the police report given to the press last week was leaked by none other than Howard Wolfson, a top advisor to former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is widely believed to have presidential ambitions. Jones told several news agencies that he believes Wolfson promised unabashed access to the future Clinton campaign in exchange for the timed release of the deleterious document.

And Camp Sweeney’s response to this mayhem? Show up at the Milton Town Hall for no apparent reason.

As Sweeney flounders, Gillibrand is seeking the final nail to hammer into his coffin by appearing with the Clintons at a quick-stop rally at the Warren County Airport. This appearance falls just two days after the congressional candidate and senator snubbed a fundraising event for children with disabilities in the Spa City, according to a typical one-source article appearing in The Saratogian this weekend. The organizer of the event at the Excelsior Avenue VFW Post said there wasn’t going to be any opportunity to speak or wave political signs at the event, which is probably why both politicians chose not to attend.

Instead, Camp Gillibrand left behind three pictures autographed by retired Stanley Cup winning New York Rangers’ goaltender Mike Richter, who has about as much to do with the 20th Congressional District as hockey does with formulating policies in Washington. True, Richter is a Yale graduate who has dabbled in other campaigns this year, most notably the battle for the 19th Congressional District by former Orleans front man John Hall.

Just a quick recap for those suffering from attention defict disorder: John Sweeney is doing his Charlie Browniest to turn his campaign around, E. Stewart Jones is trying to ferret out the modern-day Deep Throat with less than a day of stumping to go and Kirsten Gillibrand is humming “Still the One” while watching reruns of the Rangers’ 1994 cup run with the Clintons. Yes, the going has indeed gotten weird.