“One way or another, Alan Hevesi is toast. The smart move for New York voters is to vote for him, so that on his reelection, he can be replaced by a first-rate candidate, such as City Comptroller Bill Thompson, former State Comptroller candidate Bill Mulrow, Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell or Assemblyman Richard Brodsky.”
Ed Koch before the Election
“Now, unfairly, some politicians want to stampede me out of office. But it’s your choice, not theirs.…If you give me the chance to keep serving you in the job I love, I’ll owe you everything, and those politicians nothing.”
Alan Hevesi before the election
“Hevesi’s not asking voters to support him as a stopgap; he’s outright promised to regard his re-election as a mandate…The only reason to feel any comfort about Hevesi’s position is that he’s already proven himself a liar, and there’s no reason to believe he’s going to change now.”
Gatemouth before the election
“Impeachment in the wake of the kind of landslide that returned Mr. Hevesi to office would be, by our lights, a mistake. This is not a case of voters being ignorant of the wrongdoing of which he is accused. Mr. Hevesi himself owned up and apologized. This is a case in which voters knew full well the scale of Mr. Hevesi's scandal and decided that they could live with it. Call it an acquittal at the polls. To impeach Mr. Hevesi at this point would only subvert the democratic process, no matter how "odd" the result. Love him or hate him, Mr. Hevesi won, fair and square.”
The New York Sun after the election
Yeah, I expected Hevesi’s spinmeisters to be out full-force to attempt to sell the bill of goods that the Comptroller’s re-election should be taken as a personal mandate rather than as an implied preference for “the legislative process” (a discussion between Shelly Silver and Pat Lynch) over electing a douchebag with a bowtie; and yes, I expected some in the Press and political chattering classes to buy into that bill of goods. But, never did I expect “The New York Sun” to drink that Kool-Aid, without even waiting for the water to be added. What good is it to have a Republican paper if they can’t even see clearly through such cheap smoke and mirrors, utilized by the other side’s very damaged goods. Hey Seth, it’s Podhoretz who’s supposed to be the whore. This does not bode well for the future.
“But, BUT, but”, you say, “Ed Koch told me Hevesi was toast”.
Well, to paraphrase the Wilbert Tatum of ancient times, BEFORE HE PROGNOSTICATES AGAIN AND DOES MORE DAMAGE, “KOCH MUCH RESIGN”.
As to Hevesi, this toast seems to have his bread buttered on the right side this morning.