Eric Massa gets dinged for crashing Kuhl's press conference. Randy Kuhl's groan is for misleading voters about drilling, and for failing to acknowledge that his press conference was a campaign event.

Evan Dawson at the 13WHAM blog compares the situation to Harold Ford's in Tennessee and wonders if it will hurt Massa. Exile at Rochesterturning thinks it's not a big deal.

Update: Syracuse News 10 also has a story.

Massa began the press conference by noting that he had just returned from a press event at a closed Toshiba plant in Horseheads, which he said closed because of "unfair trade policies." Massa said that the area lost 900 "living-wage jobs" when the plant closed in 2004, and that the plant closure highlights the affect of trade politics that "cut across both sides of the aisle". Massa added that "NAFTA has cost us over 1 million living-wage jobs", and added that, between 2000 and 2005, Elmira lost 31% of its manufacturing jobs.

I stand for fair trade. Free trade has failed us. Fair trade means [first and foremost] that we require our trading partners to live by the trade agreements that have been signed.

Massa cited the refusal of the Chinese to follow World Trade Organization guidelines and trade their currency on the international market as one example of many. "Our trade deficit with China is $201 billion."

As a Freshman Member of Congress, I'll make this one of the absolute cornerstones of any legislation I sponsor, cosponsor [or support]. American politicians must take care of America. There's nothing wrong with serving the interests of those paying the salaries of Members of Congress. If you keep taking [...] thousands of dollars from overseas interests, it's not going to serve the needs of other constituents.

I asked Massa what else was in his trade plan other than making countries live up to the trade agreements.

He said that it was a "huge first step", but he also advocates moving to a fair trade system of partner nations. New agreements must respect intellectual property, the environment, and child labor laws.

We must also put into these relationships the fundamental respect of human beings. Child labor is rampant in many of our trading partner's countries.

Massa also cited workplace safety and retirement benefits for the elderly as items that need to be part of the trade solution.

Massa began the call by pointing to Louise Slaughter's op-ed in
today's Democrat and Chronicle, which he believed made a good case
that drilling isn't the only answer to high gas prices.

The campaign season is heating up. We are 83 days and 11
hours from the election, and already in his first time out of the box,
Randy Kuhl is simply not telling the truth. He is running radio ads
in which he makes the statement that Randy Kuhl is the only candidate
who supports drilling for our energy needs now. That is simply
untrue.

In our first media buy, I made the decision to run a
positive campaign. In Randy Kuhl's first buy, he made the decision to
not tell the truth. In virtually every newspaper in the district,
I've been talking about responsible drilling.

Massa listed off 11 articles where his energy policy has been
discussed, and noted that his energy plan has been posted publicly on
his web site. "Every news organization in this Congressional District
knows the truth. I call for today for Randy Kuhl to take down his
dishonest and untrue radio ad."

Massa said that Kuhl has refused to debate him on substantive issues,
and called his DC appearance "grandstanding and gaming instead of
looking for solutions." Noting that today's Corning Leader carried an
government report estimating that offshore drilling will increase
production by 1% by 2030, he added "It's a great disservice to voters
of this district to knowingly tell them things that are not true."

I asked Massa if he felt that Kuhl's strategy was to get him to react,
to knock him back on his heels.

I don't feel like I'm on my heels. Their strategy
illustrates the reason that there will be a landslide in this
country. Americans are tired of the same Washington politics as
usual.

Massa called Kuhl's current strategy an Orwellian "big lie": Create
a big lie, propagate it as much as possible, and enough people will
believe you so you can squeak by at the polls.

Massa believes this strategy will backfire: "Nothing is clearer than
in 27 days in a row, the price of gas has gone down, and the value of
the dollar has increased." The issue is Bush's failed economic
policies, not drilling, he said.

The Leader also publishes their policy on letters to the Editor [pdf] today, in anticipation of a flood of letters by partisans on both sides.

Update: Today's Messenger-Post also covers the energy back-and-forth.