“Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’”– Literary lioness Mary McCarthy commenting on the highly overrated Lillian Hellman
I’m taking the day off, so I decided to compile a partial list of the lies spread by State Senate candidate Dan Squadron. I apologize that the list is incomplete, but a day has only 24 hours.
As has been previously documented, State Senate Candidate Dan Squadron has lied, amongst other things about:
1) His opponent, State Senator Marty Connor’s position on Congestion Pricing (http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/decongestant.html)
2) His own position on Congestion Pricing (See Above)
3) Connor’s position on Mayoral Control of the schools (http://www.r8ny.com/blog/hack_n_sack/a_referendum_on_mayoral_control_of_the_school.html)
4) and his own (See Above)
5) Connor’s ability to bring home funds for Brooklyn Bridge Park (http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/miserable_dirty_lying_sack_of_excrement_a_description_not_a_value_judgment.html)
6) What Squadron and/or his agents has said to members of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and the Brooklyn Heights Association about his position in private meetings (see above)
7) Connor’s environmental record (http://www.r8ny.com/blog/hack_n_sack/danny_s_environmental_untruth_squadron_organic_fertilizer_or_toxic_waste.html)
8) The reasons why the Senate Democrats stayed off the floor one day (http://www.r8ny.com/blog/hack_n_sack/why_didn_t_the_senate_vote_on_congestion_pricing.html). Actually, here he wasn’t so much lying, as swearing for the lies of his patron Mike Bloomberg’s pet cause, the Senate Republicans. 9) Connor’s position on Civil Rights (
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/hack_n_sack/gross_neglia_gence_marty_connor_is_a_muslim_and_his_wife_burned_the_flag_untruth_squadron_s_untruth_squadron.ht)10) Squadron’s willingness to release his own tax returns (http://www.r8ny.com/blog/hack_n_sack/buzz_lightyear_and_fievel_mousekewitz.html). The Village Voice has since reported: “Squadron is the son of a top attorney whose clients included Rupert Murdoch. The 2007 tax returns he shared with reporters (Connor released the last five years; Squadron said one was enough) show that he earned $200,000 in dividends and capital gains from a trust fund held in his mother's name. State laws mandate that candidates and office holders answer questions about their holdings so that the public can get some notion of personal interest or bias. These questions are always stickiest for those who have real dough. On the question about stock holdings, Squadron skated, providing only the name of the brokerage firm holding the trust fund. State instructions on answering this question seem pretty clear: ‘You also need to list securities held for your benefit by a brokerage firm or nominee.’ Asked if there was some kind of wiggle room here, a state official said: ‘Obviously, we stand by what we say.’” It should also be noted that Squadron’s tax returns pull a similar trick, but since he paid the taxes on the money, the Feds will probably accept an amended return after the primary, when no one will ever be able to conduct such an inspection again.
11) Who Connor backed for Governor in 2002. (Squadron says Connor worked against Democratic nominee Carl McCall, when in actuality he supported McCall; McCall has endorsed Connor in this race).
12) Connor’s position on housing (http://www.r8ny.com/blog/hack_n_sack/gross_neglia_gence_marty_connor_is_a_muslim_and_his_wife_burned_the_flag_untruth_squadron_s_untruth_squadron.ht). This last one is especially distressing.
Despite being corrected again and again, sometimes angrily (Dan Jacoby blames this issue for Squadron’s unexpected loss at DFNYC), Squadron keeps saying that Marty Connor sold out to the landlords to allow the passage of vacancy decontrol and luxury decontrol.
The truth is entirely the opposite, and Mr. Squadron’s insistence on distorting it (In public as recently as last Wednesday) should alone disqualify him from consideration, even if one has qualms about rent controls.
In 1997, the law which created the City’s system of Rent Control and Rent Stabilization was set to expire. Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and Governor Pataki had both announced their intent to let it do so. The Assembly had passed an extension, and the Senate Democrats were set to bring a discharge motion to bring the bill to the Senate floor.
There was no doubt that if the bill came to the floor it would pass. In the past, Republicans had excused themselves from refusing to support discharging bills they supposed supported by calling discharge votes “procedural” and “matter of party discipline”, even though they were usually the only votes the bills would get. In the usual Albany manner, the press bought this sorry argument lock, stock and barrel.
But this vote was different. Senate Republicans from the City, and a few other jurisdictions where the law applied, knew that a vote against this discharge motion was a vote to end their careers.
And Joe Bruno knew that once he lost his first discharge vote, the excuse that such vote were only “procedural”, and “matters of party discipline” would never be available again.
Marty Connor gathered the votes, member by member, persuading not a couple one recalcitrant Democrat (I won’t mention his name, because his primary opponent is even worse), but several Republicans. He had the votes.
This was revolutionary.
So, Joe Bruno refused to call the Senate into session. And the deadline kept approaching.
Finally, at the last minute, Bruno brought a bill to the floor extending rent control and rent stabilization, but providing for luxury decontrol and vacancy decontrol.
“Take it or leave it” was his message.
And given the fact that this bill could only pass if the Democrats voted for it, they had to decide whether to take it; a protest vote was not an option.
The Senate Democrat’s Housing Counsel was John Allen, one of the father’s of the Loft Law, and one of the most recognized housing law experts in the State.
Allen told the conference that if some bill was not passed by midnight, it would not hurt Rent Stabilized tenants until their leases expired.
However, those tenants still living under the old system of Rent Control, usually the oldest and most economically vulnerable, had no leases. At the crack of midnight, their rents could rise immediately and astronomically.
Allen also said that once midnight hit, there was no rectifying the situation—any law passed after that could not be applied ex post facto.
So, the Senate Dems swallowed hard and passed the only bill they were offered.
In response to the truth, Dan Squadron usually whines his usual whine when confronted with the facts, that Connor always has an excuse for some sleazy Albany event, and that that’s not good enough.
So there you have it. The truth is never good enough for Dan Squadron.