Though the gubernatorial election has long since passed, opponents of Buffalo developer (and attorney) Carl Paladino aren't ready to put down their collective sticks and stop whacking away at the Paladino pinata.

In fairness, Paladino brings on many of these attacks with his own words, including the scathing letters he regularly pens attacking those who he thinks are doing wrong by this once great city. In spite of that, and putting politics aside (I know that can be difficult for a lot of people) not only is Paladino good for Buffalo, Buffalo needs him.

Buffalo has long had a reputation as a dying rust-belt city buried in snow 13 months out of the year and is viewed by many as about as desirable a place to live as a hornet's nest. Paladino is, at the core of the issue, a passionate voice fighting to overcome those challenges and return Buffalo to the powerful city it once was.

Is he outrageous at times? Absolutely. Does he speak off the cuff and on occasion toss the politically correct handbook aside? Without a doubt. But Paladino has never apologized for who he is, and that is refreshing.

Part of what makes our country great is that we have the ability to speak our mind without persecution or prosecution. Paladino personifies that and though we may not always agree with him, I respect not only his right to say what many other people are thinking, but his willingness to do so.

Over the last year, I've been privy to countless conversations between people bent on crushing Carl Paladino. Those conversations, as of late, have centered around a series of letters the former Republican gubernatorial nominee has written, then mass-emailed to seemingly everyone on earth. For those of you not on his email list, he fired off a caustic letter last week to Buffalo News Publisher Stan Lipsey where, among other things, he called Lipsey "spineless" and predicted the longtime publisher would soon resign.

He followed that letter with one aimed at Brendan Kelleher, the attorney for the Buffalo Board of Education. The letter was directed to the Erie County Bar Association Grievance Committee and, in a nutshell, called for Mr. Kelleher to be disbarred based on his conduct in various school board related issues.

I've never met Lipsey, so I can't speak to his character, but I certainly believe that having people willing to question the press and call them out when they cross the line is critical (the News used Wikipedia as a source in questioning Paladino's military service).

I've also never met Kelleher and I have no idea if Paladino's charges are true, but in a state known for crooked politicians and public figures who put their own interests above those of John Q. Public, I think Paladino keeps people honest. If he crosses the line with any of his rants, those in his cross hairs can fight back through legal channels. But if he doesn't, then he is someone using his pulpit to turn over the rocks, look in the corners and make sure the I's are being dotted and the T's are being crossed.

As for that pulpit, I also find it curious how quickly Paladino's detractors are willing to overlook what he has done for this region. It seems as though "creating jobs" is the big national buzz phrase and Paladino has made a career in his development business of creating jobs.

Going back to the Paladino bashers I've listened to over the last 12 months, those engaged in the mud-slinging have never created a single job among them, nor have they ever built anything. Yet their wrath is finely honed in on, among other things, the fact that he had the "arrogance" to put a billboard on one of his buildings overlooking the I-190 attacking the aforementioned Buffalo News.

Knowing the folks on the other side of the argument, I chalk it up to pure jealousy. Who among us wouldn't love to have the financial resources to put up a giant billboard overlooking a highly-traveled road attacking our foes? I only wish I had Paladino's resources; the biggest problem I would have is deciding who I would choose to call out if given only a single billboard. I'd probably have to convert it to one of those fancy digital billboards.

At the end of the day, his detractors won't be deterred, and they can say what they will about his style, but Carl Paladino invests in the community, creates jobs, appears to love Western New York and isn't afraid to take a stand.

While a growing faction of angry malcontents continue to bash Paladino, I wish we had more people like him. Buffalo could use more people with that kind of a commitment to a community so desperately in need of people willing to stand up and fight for it.