I suppose congrats are in order for Errol Louis, and I also suppose he will be an improvement over his last fulltime predecessor.
Errol’s done some good work, which I’ve sometimes cited myself; recently he got a great self-incriminating quote out of Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez.
I'll add that, Errol’s not always been unkind to me; one morning at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Errol Louis gave me (along with himself) credit for helping to alter the zeitgeist in the press concerning the Kevin Powell-Ed Towns race (I myself credit Kevin).
But Errol’s got some issues, most seemingly related to ego. Recently, he boasted proudly on his Twitter feed about getting an on-stage shout out from Jimmy McMillan during the Gubernatorial debate.
I dunno, but I can think of six million reasons why I would not be proud to get a shout out from a man who holds THE JEWS responsible for 9/11. If it happened to me, I’d not be boasting, I’d be blushing. I wouldn’t brag if Timothy McVeigh or Charlie Manson called me their friend either.
Incidentally, my noting this when it appeared on Errol’s Facebook page got me unfriended and blocked.
Then there is Errol’s potato chip level of thin-skin, perhaps best illustrated in this dialogue ripped from the pages of Room 8. I will admit that I should not have used the word idiocy; but you will notice how Louis’ self-importance prevents him from engaging the issue:
GATEMOUTH: The continual idiocy of New York's Hometown Paper continues unabated; first, Errol Louis says a Statewide Democratic Ticket with two Upstaters (out of six jobs) offers Upstate "scant representation“ when Upstate accounts for less than one-third of the State’s population. Now comes this piece of Editorial lunacy. The News is binary and only can see "Good" and "Evil". Developers are "Good" and Vito Lopez is "Evil." As such, they miss the real story, which is that THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE LOPEZ CONTROLLED Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council VOTED FOR THE PROJECT IN HER CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION. You think they might have taken the better shot at Lopez by questioning whether he really opposes the project at all. This Domino must not fall: Don't let local politicians scuttle Brooklyn housing www.nydailynews.com
ERROL: "The continual idiocy of New York's Hometown Paper continues unabated; first, Errol Louis says a Statewide Democratic Ticket with two Upstaters (out of six jobs) offers Upstate "scant representation“ when Upstate accounts for less than one-third of the State’s population."
*SMH* If Gatemouth thinks a hand-picked Lt. Gov. matters as much as any of the other positions, he is worth every penny paid for his insights and should explain to the Dems in Buffalo, Syracuse and points north why they ought to be ecstatic about the fair and balanced ticket.
GATEMOURH: Errol; criticizing the idiocy of the Daily News’ Editorial page and Op-Ed columnists, as well as the news pages which too often echo those idiocies has been a long tradition of this Department; for example see:
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/state_of_confusion.html
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/the_blind_man_can_t_find_the_elephant_in_the_room.html
Quite often, such idiocy involves blind adhesion to the News’ editorial flavor de jour, to the point where, as cited in this column, the paper actually misses the better story about its target because it didn’t quite sync with the approved narrative.
In your case, your own effort to smack around Lopez caused you to credulously swallow the scam of thuggish political operative Taharka Robinson that his beef with Vito Lopez was about Lopez’s bypassing of the Party’s Judicial Screening Panel, even though Robinson derived a large part of his living from running candidates who’d themselves been rejected by the Party’s panel.
In this case, in the effort to throw whatever sticks at Cuomo you again pretty much missed the point again.
There was a problem with the ticket, but it was not geographical; in fact, it was racial; as I myself pointed out in reference to Cuomo, “Could he not find one black person worthy of inclusion on his ticket? He need not have limited himself to elected officials.” As I also noted, “an all white ticket at a time we are dumping an African American Governor is just not tenable. Wake up and smell the G-ddamn coffee guys.”
But you decided to focus on both race and geography, when the categories were pretty much in direct opposition to one another. Cuomo could have balanced his ticket with an African-American or Latino, but he chose instead to run with an Upstater. And, as a result, Mr. Barron’s chickens have come home to roost.
The money paragraph in demonstrating how obtuse you are is this one: “It was different four years ago, when the Democratic slate included Jewish candidates for governor and controller (Eliot Spitzer and Alan Hevesi, respectively), a black man running for lieutenant governor (David Paterson), an Italian (Cuomo) in the attorney general slot and Hillary Clinton seeking reelection to the U.S. Senate.”
Errol, four years ago the ticket you hailed as balanced consisted of four residents of New York City (80%), one from the suburbs (20%) and zero from Upstate (0%).
By contrast, this year’s ticket consists of two residents of the City (33%), one from the suburbs (17%), a player to be named later (17%) and two from Upstate (33%). You call this one-third of the ticket, which is a percentage so high it is without precedent in modern times, “scant representation.”
Are you high?
Let’s put things in further perspective.
In the last census, there were 19,541,453 people living in the State of New York. 8,272,527 (42.3%) lived in the City; 4,936,527 (26.%) lived in the eight suburban NYS counties in the New York City Metropolitan Statistical area; 6,332,417 (31.6%) lived Upstate. Sicne that time, almost everyone agrees that Upstate’s percentage of the whole has shrunk. Further, since this is the Democratic Party, which by law designates its candidates using a weighted vote which reflects where the Democrats are, we might want to look at those stats.
1,891,143 people voted in the last Democratic Presidential Primary. 955,966 (50.6%) came from the City. 411,177 (21.7%) came from the suburbs; 524,000 (27.7%) came from Upstate.
You further opine that not all positions are created equal. That is true. But of the three big prizes, Upstate’s 27.7% of the Democratic vote got it 33% of the big three positions (one Governorship and two US Senate seats); further, it got it 33% of the three lesser positions as well.
While it is true that the Lieutenant Governorship is far less powerful that either Comptroller or Attorney General, it is not necessarily less prestigious or politically valuable.
For instance, many recall as a pioneer the losing 1970 Democratic nominee for LG, Basil Paterson, but the 1962 nominee for the far more powerful AG position, Edward Dudley, is forgotten today, even though he was the first African-American to be nominated for statewide office by one of the two major parties.
Further, LG seem to have more political value. In the last fifty years, three of the nine NYS LGs (33%) have directly gone on from that office to become Governor. In the same time, only one of the six AGs (17%) has so far managed to do so–the same percentage whose next public position following that office was service on an NYC Community School Board. Further, it also beats the percentage (0%) of State Comptrollers who’ve gone on to the Governorship, a percentage smaller than that of holders of that job who’ve subsequently gone on to cop to a felony plea (20%).
So why don’t you just admit you were wrong instead of being such a pompous bag of gas?
ERROL: See ya! .
Nice try, pal, but I don't feed trolls or hang out in their smelly backwaters.
Go fuck yourself.
GATEMOUTH: Wrong on the facts, argue the law.
Wrong on the law, argue the facts.
Wrong all the way; curse the guy who called you out.
I cite another item I ran for the proposition that Errol often lets his ideology get in the way of seeing things clearly:
ERROL PLAYS WITH HIS TWITTER AND PULLS A WEINER: Errol Louis Twitter: “Today's column: Weinder (sic) and Grayson show the fighting spirit Dems will need for victory in November. http://soc.li/cofRC0Z”
Of course–the problems is that Weinder's (sic) fighting spirit isn't about the entire country in November 2010 (where its results will be mixed at best), but rather, it is about NYC in November 2013,when Tony the Hot Dog runs (he hopes) for Mayor.
And Errol, Artur Davis' failure among the Democratic primary electorate is of extremely limited relevance to a general election in Alabama. Dems, embrace the fighter within: Anthony Weiner & Alan Grayson know how to cut through clutter soc.li
I will add to that that whatever the Democrats need this November notwithstanding, Grayson appears headed for an ignominious defeat.
Anyway, if when NY-One ever starts a “Bloggers’ Corner,” you will know why I’m not being invited.