One morning, in a prior life, I was dispatched to work on a campaign in Queens. Another “volunteer”, similarly dispatched from my office, had been sent out to buy bagels, and had returned with two dozen, all plain.  

“25^th AD (Queens): Evidence would seem to indicate that both Morshed Alam and Rory Lancman are insufferable egomaniacs. But, the evidence also indicates that only one of them is an insufferable egomaniac who sucks up to Republicans. Frank Padavan is almost a case study of what is wrong with Albany. Morshed Alam is Frank’s padawan Therefore, three cheers for Lancman." ---Gatemouth’s Voter’s Guide (9/7/06) 

Full disclosure demands that I admit the following: I have been a friendly, but not familiar acquaintance of Councilman Michael McMahon’s younger brother, Tom, for about 25 years. Despite this, Councilman McMahon was not my preferred candidate in his 2001 race for City Council (that would have been John Del Giorno). However, in late 2002, my family moved to an apartment on Tom McMahon’s block and during one winter snowstorm, the younger Mr. McMahon leant me his snow shovel so I could dig out my car. Therefore, I am not without personal bias concerning the McMahon clan, including the Councilman, who’ve I’ve met twice, once in 2003 and once recently, for a combined period of about ten minutes.

"[Congressional candidate Steve] Harrison also questions [City Councilman Michael] McMahon's position on the Iraq war: Was McMahon for it before he was against it?

Harrison was irked in particular by a line in the city delegation's endorsement of McMahon [for Congress in the 13^th CD] last week that said McMahon "will play an important role in bringing our troops home from Iraq."
 
‘I will not let that statement stand,’ Harrison told us. ‘Mike clearly endorsed the war.’

As evidence, Harrison points to the fact that McMahon was one of 17 Council members who voted against a 2003 resolution, which passed the Council, opposing any U.S. attack on Iraq until all diplomatic avenues were exhausted.
 
‘To me, this is somebody who is pandering,’ Harrison said. ‘The question is where he really stands. We won't know until he gets to Washington.’

Michael Goodwin’s Op-Ed in today’s Daily News “Keep Albany a two-party town”, presents a perfect way to end the legislative session with some mindless summer fun. Yes, the session must truly be over, and things must be slowing down, for only two parties makes for a very slow night indeed in that Babylon north of the Bear Mountain Bridge.

“The excitement underpinning Senator Barack Obama’s campaign rests considerably on his evocative vows to depart from self-interested politics. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama has come up short of that standard with his decision to reject public spending limitations and opt instead for unlimited private financing in the general election.”
-New York Times Editorial 6/20/08

WRONG!

Michael Kinsley’s famous rule that “the scandal isn’t what’s illegal, it’s what’s legal“, now has “Gatemouth’s converse“: “the ideal imperfectly replicated in a reform may be preferable to the status quo (or status quo ante), but it is not to be mistaken for the ideal itself.”