The New York State Assembly’s top Republican has apologized after being arrested for driving while intoxicated and crashing his car on New Year’s Eve, the Washington Examiner reported.
Brian Kolb crashed his 2018 GMC Acadia around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday “on County Road 41 in the town of Victor, New York,” according to the Examiner. No one was hurt in the incident, but police arrested Kolb for having a blood alcohol content above the legal limit of 0.08% and for “making an unsafe turn.”
“I want to offer sincere apologies to my family, friends, colleagues, and the people of the 131st Assembly District,” Kolb said in a statement on New Year’s Day, according to The Hill. “I fully recognize the severity of the situation and I am profoundly sorry. There is no excuse and no justification for what occurred Tuesday evening. I made the wrong decision, and it is one I deeply regret.”
No date has yet been set for Kolb to appear in court on the charges.
One bad decision away from tragedy
Kolb wrote an op-ed for the Daily Messenger on Dec. 24 urging people not to drink and drive. He also tweeted a similar message, Business Insider reported, but he has since deleted the tweet.
In the op-ed, Kolb said there was “no excuse” for driving impaired and encouraged readers to use taxis or rideshare services like Uber or Lyft if they had been drinking.
“Tragedy can be only one bad decision away,” he wrote, according to Business Insider.
But it appears that he failed to take his own advice.
A press full of hypocrisy
The press is making hay out of Kolb’s obvious hypocrisy, and it’s certainly their right to do so — some would even say it’s their responsibility. Of course, they’re happy to ignore that responsibility when it’s a Democrat being hypocritical.
In so many cases, it is easier to tell others what they should do than to do it yourself. For Republicans, this might show up in a case of increasing deficit spending while preaching fiscal responsibility or breaking a promise not to raise taxes.
For Democrats, it shows up as having armed guards while preaching the evils of guns or impeaching a president over a quid pro quo and constitutional peril, then refusing to follow the Constitution and demanding a quid pro quo from the Senate.
Where the press goes wrong is by making much of the hypocrisy of one side while attempting to ignore that of the other side. At least in this case, Kolb is being held accountable for his reckless decision.
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