Kanjorski caught in another ‘gotcha’ moment with video

BY BORYS KRAWCZENIUK
The Times-Tribune
Jun. 12, 2008

U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski is getting a first-hand lesson in the hazards of the digital age.

For the second time in a month, a clip on the wildly popular video-posting Web site, YouTube, is earning him election-year attention he’d probably rather avoid.

The clip shows him apparently pushing down on the video camera of a man trying to question him about the Iraq war.

The man’s identity, known on YouTube as truthaboutkanjo, remains unknown. An attempt to reach him Wednesday via YouTube’s message system proved unsuccessful.

“I may have overreacted when this person stuck a camera in my face. But I feel like it was one of those ‘gotcha’ moments in politics, and my comments were misrepresented,” Mr. Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, said in a statement.

Ed Mitchell, Mr. Kanjorski’s campaign media consultant, said the exchange happened a couple of weeks ago in Exeter after a meeting with borough officials to discuss flood control funding. The meeting took place May 27, according to Times-Tribune records.

A spokesman for Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, Mr. Kanjorski’s Republican opponent in the 11th Congressional District race, denied the campaign had anything to do with the clip.

“No, we didn’t put it up there. I have no idea who put it up there,” spokesman Shawn Kelly said.

“Paul Kanjorski’s actions speak for themselves. We’re as shocked and appalled by it as anyone else.”

The man was trying to question Mr. Kanjorski about his remarks that Democrats had overpromised during the 2006 congressional elections by implying they could end the war if they controlled Congress.

“Now, anybody who is a good student of government would know that wasn’t true,” Mr. Kanjorski said at an Ashley town hall meeting in August. “But you know the temptation to want to win back Congress — we sort of stretched the facts, and people ate it up.”

A video clip of those comments was posted anonymously on YouTube.

Mr. Barletta’s campaign denied posting that clip, too.

The latest clip, more than two minutes long, begins with Mr. Kanjorski saying he wouldn’t let the man “put words in my mouth.”

As the man began to recount the town hall statement, Mr. Kanjorski says, “No, no, that’s not what I said,” just before part of his town hall remarks is edited into the clip.

“No, I didn’t. You don’t have the correct words,” Mr. Kanjorski continues.

“Do you regret your words as to the troops?” the man asks.

“I don’t apologize, I don’t apologize to anyone for a misstatement that you make to me,” Mr. Kanjorski said.

Someone covers the lens with a hand, then Mr. Kanjorski puts up his hand.

The video loses focus and suddenly the camera is pointing at the floor with Mr. Kanjorski saying he never gave permission to be recorded.

The man then promises to put the video “on the record” and, in superimposed words, says he was “physically accosted by our congressman.”