Skelos, Baldwin trade barbs

State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and “30 Rock” star Alec Baldwin traded barbs last week after Skelos called out the liberal actor when talk turned to the state’s “millionaire tax” during an appearance by Skelos on an upstate radio show on Oct. 25.

Skelos started the war of words by criticizing Baldwin for his support of the Occupy Wall Street protesters at the same time he is purchasing an $11.7 million condominium in Greenwich Village.

“We can’t be sidetracked. We can’t be influenced by the Alec Baldwins of the world that are just buying a $17 million condo… and he’s going to tell us that we should tax everybody else… we have to stay the course that’s been established by the governor — [and] not raise taxes,” said Skelos.

Baldwin took to his Twitter account and said, “Dean Skelos says I want your taxes to go up and not my own,” Baldwin wrote. “Only a Nassau County Republican tool like Dean Skelos could drag my name into a debate on state income tax… I pay more in income taxes in one year than Skelos pays in 20. So what’s his point?... His partisanship doesn’t bother me. It’s that he’s so dumb.”

Baldwin followed up by creating Twitter hashtags “#noonedistortsthefactslikedeanskelos” and “#noonelieslikedeanskelos” and challenged Skelos to provide his tax returns and personal itinerary for the past 10 years in a “Citizen’s Responsibilities Contest.”

The war of words continued the next day, with Skelos reportedly calling Baldwin “a hypocrite” for supporting the protesters and “raging” against corporate profits while doing commercials for Capital One credit cards.

Political pundits were at odds over whether the rant benefitted Republicans, giving them a perfect foil to use for fundraising — a liberal Hollywood actor who wants to raise taxes, or whether Baldwin was tapping into New Yorkers’ support for the so-called “millionaire tax” (a recent Sienna poll found 72 percent in favor of it). Some also wondered if turning a state issue into a personal spat was a good idea.