As I’ve reported previously, Jimmy McMillan, the Mayoral. candidate and sole proprietor of the “Rent is Too Damn High Party (now DBA as the “Rent is Too High Party”) is a certifiable, frothing at the mouth, anti-Semitic lunatic who blames the Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism for the tragedy of 9/11.
Yet, in spite of this fact, McMillan is enjoying an unprecedented run of free and largely favorable publicity, much of which portrays him as a feisty but lovable eccentric.
The first of these articles I saw ran on the Times’ City Room blog. In response, I tried three Times to post a comment to join the largely pro-McMillan ones already occupying space on the thread. Three times a pop-up appeared telling me “Your comment will appears once it has been approved.”
My comments have yet to appear.
Today, in a coincidence I’ve noted earlier, the Times’ City Room has joined with other local pro-Bloomberg media in a sudden and virtually unprecedented interest in the minor party candidates for Mayor, providing a little profile of each.
Does anyone believe that a voter who so concerned about high rents that he casts a protest vote for Mr. McMillan was ever a possible vote to re-elect Bloomie?
Annoyed at the continuing good publicity for McMillan appearing in our Paper of Record, without even an opportunity for the truth to seep in, I attempted to post on the new Times thread another description of Mr. McMillan’s lunacy, together with a link to my latest McMillan piece, which contain documented evidence of the same.
Then, as a control, I used another name and email and posted this:
“Jimmy McMillan is a big lovable Teddy Bear–I want him to babysit my children.”
Can’t wait to see which comment is approved.
Those following this department already know that, during the summer, I attacked both
Eugene Myrick a Democratic hopeful for Brooklyn Borough President and David Casavis, the Republican nominee for Manhattan Beep, for agreeing to run on the “Rent is Too Damn High” (as it was then) line. I also took the trouble of endorsing the incumbents in each race, even though I could barely contain my disdain for them. As a result of my articles, both men abandoned their efforts to run for those offices as McMillan’s running mate.
Both times, I was criticized by the likes of Mole333 on the left and Barry Popik on the right, for being too hard on political amateurs with good intentions who did not know any better. It was my contention that even such unintentional stupidity was enough to disqualify them for office.
It was in that spirit that my last article attacked Salim Ejaz, a poor schmuck running for Comptroller. Last summer, Mr. Ejaz filed petitions to run in the Democratic primary. Normally, a no-name like Mr. Ejaz would have been left alone, unless they’d committed a facial error the Board of Elections noticed on its own, sua sponte.
Unfortunately for Mr. Ejaz, who was born in Pakistan, his name was noticeably of Asian derivation, and the serious Asian candidate in his race thought his presence an nuisance; as a result, Mr. Ejaz became the only citywide candidate whose petitions were challenged by an opponent in this year’s Democratic primary.
Mr. Ejaz was knocked off the ballot by John Liu, who subsequently won the primary.
Mr. Ejaz’s bad luck didn’t end there, as while awaiting his hearing at the Board of Elections, he ran into Mr. McMillan, who persuaded Mr. Ejaz to become his running mate.
Mr. Ejaz then went on to raise enough money to become the only opponent of Mr. Liu’s to qualify for the debate sponsored by the City’s Campaign Finance Board.
Unfortunately, this was followed by the concomitant bad luck of getting noticed by Gatemouth, who publicly posed the question of whether Mr. Ejaz agreed with McMillan about which religious denomination’s hands contained the blood of 9/11.
Previously I’ve noted that, if better wired into local politics, a man of Mr. Ejaz’s talent for raising moderately impressive amounts of money could find more useful allies than McMillan. However, since filing his petitions, Mr. Ejaz has apparently climbed a steep learning curb; most impressively, he apparently has made the acquaintance of people who read Room 8.
Two days after Mr. Ejaz was mentioned in my latest McMillan piece, the Daily News' Brawl for the Hall blog reported:
“In a shocking turn of events in the general election for city controller, Rent Is Too Damn High party founder Jimmy McMillan says he will not be endorsing the Rent Is Too Damn High candidate for city controller
“He is not worth being there,” McMillan said of his party’s candidate, Salim Ejaz. “Our job as the Rent Is Too Damn High team is we are making sure the people get the best candidate that can take this city to the next level and Salim Ejaz is not that person. We made a mistake and we apologize to the public for it….We came into existence because of politicians and the phoniness they brought with them and Salim is just like that,”
Conflict apparently arose between the two this morning when Ejaz called McMillan to ask to be removed from the party’s website.
According to McMillan, Ejaz objected to a report McMillan posted about housing discrimination in Williamsburg. Ejaz suggested the report was anti-Semitic and didn’t want to be associated with it. …
…UPDATE: We just received this statement from the Liu campaign: "The endorsement came as a pleasant surprise for our campaign… John, too, believes the Rent Is Too Damn High!"
A few comments are in order.
1) The reporter apparently feels this story is a bombshell. Sadly, in the context of this year’s general election for Comptroller, it is.
2) McMillan’s continual reference to himself in the plural is appropriate, because he is undoubtedly a schizophrenic.
3) Calling the blood-libel McMillan posted a "report about hosuing discrimination in Williamsburg" is like calling "Mein Kampf" a boyhood memoir.
4) While criticisms of my harshness to amateurs like Myrick, Casavis and Ejaz may indeed have some merit, the same cannot be said for John Liu.
Does John Liu really consider being endorsed by a raving hate monger to be a “pleasant surprise?” Does Mr. Liu agree with Mr. McMillan that the reason the Rent is too Damn High is because of the Jew landlords?
If his statement is the sort of stupidity Mr. Liu is capable of ascribing his name to, one cannot in good conscience trust him to monitor the PTA Milk and Cookie Fund, let alone the City’s Pension System.
He is just TOO DAMN STUPID.
In the race for Comptroller of the City of New York, Gatemouth endorses Salim Ejaz.
UPDATE:
EJAZ'S STATEMENT: “As far as Jimmy is concerned, I have nothing but respect for him as a fighter for the cause of the oppressed and the working class but we have a difference of opinions and he expressed them to me so that’s where we are. Other than that, I would not wish to say anything more.”
GATEMOUTH'S RESPONSE: I think I'm gonna write-in Alan Hevesi.