NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg had been somewhat coy of late, as questions swirled about the overturning of the city’s term limits law. This uncharacteristic reluctance -on Bloomberg’s part- to verbally engage the issue lately, led many to speculate that the fix was in to overturn term limits: the will of the people, twice expressed via referendum. Well; it sure was. Today, the mayor announced that he will support a change in the law, which -for elected officials- will extend the limit from eight years to twelve.
This is the same mayor, who once deemed “disgusting”, any attempt to overturn this law without going back to the voters via referendum. This is the same mayor, who has expressed many a time and over again, that the voters of New York City have spoken on this issue: twice. Now he will seek a third term; after saying umpteen times that he will not. Didn’t he say that he was riding off into the land of philanthropy, after his term ended on December 31st, 2009? Didn’t he publicly say this at least a dozen times already? It looks like Mike Bloomberg may be evolving into another duplicitous politician inebriated by political power: right before our unbelieving eyes.
This issue is quite disheartening for those of us who feel that democracies should express the will of the people. After all, the voters of NYC had this issue put before them twice already, and voted for term limits both times (1993 and 1996). This is a slap to the face of those who take “the will of the people” seriously; and the justification for this affront is supposedly based on the fact that the current economic hard-times necessitate a businessman like Bloomberg at the city’s helm. It’s the old indispensable-leader delusion trick. It gives politics a bad name one more time.
To think that Bloomberg will do this now, after years of playing around with this issue, is rather astounding. During any of the past seven years, he could have activated a commission to put this issue back on the ballot, whereby voters could make clear their views on whether or not the limit should be extended. He never did this; which would have been the decent thing to do. That’s why his announcement today is disgraceful; it reeks of autocracy.
Word on the street is that NYC council speaker Christine Quinn will join Bloomberg in this referendum-hijack. I am told that she will soon bring anti term-limits legislation, to a vote on the council floor. One council-member told me that the votes for passage of such a bill are already secured. If that be the case, then the current term-limits law is dead. Long live the dead (I hope)!
Mayor Bloomberg needs to hit the history books on this one; he needs to go research a baseball player named Joe Jackson. Jackson -whose nickname was “Shoeless”- was arguably one of the best all-round players in the history of the game; but he is not in the baseball Hall of Fame; and he may never get there. You see in 1919, Shoeless Joe Jackson was one of eight players from the Chicago White Sox team who conspired to fix the outcome of the World Series that year. When he took the stand during his trial, Jackson admitted to his minimal part in the plot. This confession broke the young hearts of many fans of baseball. Folklore has it, that in disbelief, one kid followed Joe as he left the court that day, mumbling repeatedly: “say it aint so Joe; say it aint so”.
Jackson was banned from major league baseball at the prime of his career. He lived out his life in shame and obscurity. When you disappoint people in a very public setting, a formerly adoring fan-base can be pretty unkind and unforgiving. Mayor Bloomberg needs to remember the Joe Jackson story. He needs to consider the legacy he will be leaving after his long mayoral run inevitably comes to an end.
Stay tuned-in folks.