I know some expect me to talk about the State of the Union this morning, but as much as I enjoyed the speech (and agreed with almost all of it), I would rather talk about things which might actually impact public policy.
At any rate, by the afternoon, I suspect it will be a distant memory in NYS and we’ll all be talking exclusively about reapportionment.
I vote to increase Romney's taxes. The Election Will Determine Romney's Tax Rate andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com
Chait is funnier here than Bill Maher:
"Rick Santorum finally failed to complain about his lack of camera time, perhaps in the understanding that it doesn’t matter if you get camera time when your plan is to be the cockroach who crawls out into the light after everybody else has destroyed each other. He also invoked “theocracy,” but meant it pejoratively, because the context was Iran"
"Ron Paul seems to have graduated from merely too-big sport coats to the comically oversize suits favored by David Byrne in “Stop Making Sense.”
"[Romney] again cited having forced Ted Kennedy to take out a mortgage on his home as the metric of success for his failed 1994 Senate campaign. Was this ever an important conservative goal?"
"When asked what he had done to advance conservatism, Romney cited three things. The first two were start a family and work in the private sector. My God, I’m advancing conservatism, too! Can I have the nomination?"
"[Romney] again cited having forced Ted Kennedy to take out a mortgage on his home as the metric of success for his failed 1994 Senate campaign. Was this ever an important conservative goal?"
"When asked what he had done to advance conservatism, Romney cited three things. The first two were start a family and work in the private sector. My God, I’m advancing conservatism, too! Can I have the nomination?" Newt Evades and Mitt Quits Making Sense nymag.com
Saint Jermaine Endeley changes his mind about running (Part 96)
It's deja vu all over again. After Vacillating, Candidate [Again?] Drops Primary Bid Against Diane Savino www.politickerny.com
GOP State Senate candidate Storobin files for an independent line in an attempt to add to the two lines he already has, confusing the right to ballot access with the right to free advertising space on the ballot itself.
The petition requires 2,387 valid signatures. Rumor is that one need not check a single signature on this petition for validity, because there are only about 1,700 of them.
That’s what happens when one trusts a fringoid wachadoodle like former Park Slope School Board member Gary “Rupert” Popkin.
Not that Storobin would ever have anything to do with wackadoodle fringoid elements.
Says Kalman Yeger: "How sad that Mr. Storobin is so uncomfortable with being associated with Albany Republicans that he would try to fraudulently manipulate the ballot with a manufactured ballot line. Brooklyn voters know that Councilman Fidler stands with them, and are again wondering exactly who David Storobin is. Will Mr. Storobin’s next move be to scrub . his Republican enrollment as he has done with his erratic internet rants?” David Storobin’s Independent Line Bid Likely to Fail www.politickerny.com
Another story today calls to mind another former school board member from the Sunset Park/Park Slope area, Bea DeSapio.
A niece of the old Manhattan Democratic boss, Carmine, she was practically the only real Regular among the inner circle of the old 51st AD Regular Democratic Club.
At the time, CBID’s rivals, the reform oriented Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) were emblematic of the old Irish Labor Left of Mike Quill and Paul O’Dwyer. There were angry and spirited debates between those who wanted to remake the US as a social democracy (too British for some), and those who preferred the model of the People’s Democratic Republic. Social issues generally took a back seat to economics and foreign policy (the preferred blend was Berrigan Brothers lite).
In 1975, State Senators Carol Bellamy and Karen Burstein got the bright idea to amend the State Constitution to include a gender based Equal Rights Amendment. The Federal Amendment was two states away from ratification, and this was to symbolically help push it over the top. Instead the New York Amendment, and one in New Jersey, failed at the ballot box. Federal Ratification stopped dead, and actually went into reverse. Guess they reckoned that if cosmopolitan New Yorkers couldn't handle such new fangled notions, how were they going to do it down on the farm?
Back in Brooklyn, CBID voted in favor of urging a “No’ vote on the ERA. Feminism was a bourgeoise conceit designed to divert the true revolutionary spirit from the struggle of the workers. Coincidentally, this was also the position of the Communist Party USA. Meanwhile, the old regulars in the same AD, having been infiltrated by a bunch of pragmatic, socially liberal non-Irish CBID exiles tired of singing “The Internationale”, endorsed Equal Rights.
The young liberals included such bright lights as District Leader Louise Finney, future State Senator (and Rye Playland Czar) Joe Montalto and reapportionment guru Todd Breitbart.
CBID’s Assemblyman, Joe Ferris, was a courageous and fiery presence, voting against re-electing Stanley Steingut as Speaker. Yet, on the matter of a woman’s right to chose, the flame barely burned, as courage turned to cowardice. When it came time to vote on funding for Medicaid abortions, Ferris regularly absented himself from the floor.
In 1980, “regular” Louise Finney (despite her name, Jewish), an ardent feminist, ran against Ferris from the left (at least on social issues) and came close to beating him. DeSapio also came close to beating him once, and Finney actually won the primary to succeed Ferris in 1984, but only by four votes, and lost it in the Court ordered rerun.
Finney probably would have won the initial primary outright had she not been forced by Borough President Howie Golden, then engaged in a fight for the County Democratic Leadership with Tony Genovesi, to stand for District Leader as well. Finney won the District Leadership outright, delivering the County to Golden, and then watched as Tony got his revenge, sending in Carl Kruger and Joni Yoswein to guide Brennan to victory (Yoswein later went to the Assembly for 15 minutes, only to be reapportioned into the same seat as Brennan, who beat her).
The local struggles were as much about culture as politics. CBID was the Irish club, the "regulars" were Italian, (Jews were split between the clubs).
For years, as Sunset Park turned more and more Latino and Asian, DeSapio, the area’s Community Board Chair, insisted on serving Italian food at the Board’s Christmas party; many of the Board’s Latinos took offense, until I told them told them not to take it personally, Bea was still trying to show the Irish who was in charge.
The old regular club died in 1988, but through the miracle of Bea DeSapio and Louise Finney’s iron wills, managed to stay in control of the School Board and two Community Boards for years thereafter.
Bea eventually managed to outsmart herself right off the School Board she
Chaired, by knocking a popular Monsignor off the ballot (for blatant petition fraud personally committed by the candidate), who then got elected as a write-in, and running a rabbit (a sure loser who would, under the proportional system, transfer their votes to you) who won, when she was not supposed to.
But Bea kept on controlling Community Board Seven until around the turn of the century.
By that time, the only politician she really cared about was Billy Thompson, and she was really only concerned with ensuring the Community Board was run competently.
There was the matter of the District Managership. After Montalto became an Assistant Commissioner in the late 70s, Nick Sciarra became the DM. He was one tough mother.
Assigned by the Dinkins administration to tell the Board it would be evicted from its building and put into trailers while the old Sunset Park Courthouse was renovated to mostly house various Police units, I arrived at the Board meeting with a platoon of Police brass.
Nick looked at me, and said “this will happen over my dad dead body.” He then took a bite of his Italian hero sandwich, had a heart attack and dropped dead.
Nick’s assistant took over, but lasted little over a year.
Eschewing politics, Bea installed an outstanding, totally non-political public servant named Gene Moore as the Board’s DM.
She then asked me to give Gene, who was a Cobble Hill neighbor of mine, a primer in local politics. I introduced him to the Waterfront Alehouse and we soon became drinking buddies.
Gene Moore was a perfectly competent DM until Councilman Angel Rodriguez (later a convicted felon) finally took control of the Board, and using the Board Members he controlled, installed his own Chair (Sara Gonzalez).
It is one thing for a Councilmember to take out a Board Chair, which is an unpaid position, It is quite another to take out a District Manager; major political changes had not necessarily yield such a result elsewhere, and Gene hoped to stay in his position.
But Gene was perhaps too non-political to grok the bullshit.
Gonzalez, instructed him to send back all mail if it was addressed to DeSapio as Board Chair instead of her. Like any non-psychotic, he refused (I know the story is true, because I eventually had mail returned to my office when the secretary accidentally used some old mailing labels). Gonzalez took this as a personal affront to her dignity.
Soon, Angel Rodriguez went after Gene. As the Feds have shown, Angel was not averse to twisting a few arms, legs and other body parts to achieve his goals.
I tried to help, at the request of both Bea and Gene, but a staffer I’d hired as an underling at Bea’s request (his sister worked at the Board), only to have him promoted over me, told me “hands off.”
Gene, seeing he was beat, eventually agreed to resign, to be replaced (surprise, surprise) by Angel's Chief of Staff, Jeremy Laufer.
I am reminded of this today because of the calls for Councilman Lew Fidler to intervene and force the removal of Carl Kruger housemate Dorothy Turano as DM of CB #18.
Although I think Dot Turano would be doing everyone a favor if she retired, I have to say that having watched Councilmembers try to dictate the hiring and firing of District Managers, I find it to be a thugly practice, and the definition of “undue influence.”
So, while I would be glad to see Dotty go, I would be very unhappy to see witness another Councilmember trying to impose his views on the internal workings of a Community Board.
So I'm glad Lew Fidler is taking a hands-off attitude on Board 18’s decision. Those who advocate otherwise should remember that hard cases make for bad precedents. Fidler Staying Out Of Fight Over Kruger Companion [UPDATED] | City and State www.cityandstateny.com