Rabbi Pulls Support for Paladino

The Orthodox rabbi who set up the meeting where Carl Paladino made controversial anti-gay remarks says the candidate has lost his support. Paladino, who issued an apology for his remarks, "folded like a cheap camera," Yehuda Levin complains. "Which part of the speech that you gave in Brooklyn to the Orthodox Jewish community are you apologizing for?” the rabbi asked. “Will we see you next year with your daughter at that gay pride march?”

The rabbi says he wants to see the return of the "old Carl" who spoke his mind, and complains that he wasn't even warned that Paladino was distancing himself from the remarks. "I was in the middle of eating a kosher pastrami sandwich,” the rabbi tells the New York Times. "While I was eating it, they come running and they say, ‘Paladino became gay!’ I said, ‘What?’ And then they showed me the statement. I almost choked on the kosher salami.” (More Carl Paladino stories.)