Thank to Robert Moses, New York has one of the strongest Governorships in the country. The Moses-created state budget process is actually designed to strip the legislature of its legislative powers. The legislature’s response has been to use the lemons it’s been left with to churn out the sour juice of obstruction, which is not quite the same as demanding accountability. There are, however, other places we might look for such relief. Ideally, the offices of NYS Comptroller and Attorney General are perfect opportunities to create oppositional institutions within the state’s Executive Branch which could be used for such a purpose. With that goal in mind, I became an early supporter of the Attorney General candidacy of the State Assembly’s in-house pitbull, Richard Brodsky of Westchester, in spite of the fact that he is a pompous and overbearing blowhard. My theory was that Brodsky, an unrelenting muckraker, was guaranteed to drive whoever was elected as governor stark raving mad, which they would undoubtedly come to deserve. Brodsky also plays a mean blues piano.

In a matter of days Room Eight will be six months old. All indications are that this was a very successful experiment. We all owe our thanks and praises to Ben Smith and Gur Tsabar, for their foresight and creativity. I appreciate their invitation to be a pioneer blogger here. To say the least, it has been quite interesting. I would like to take some credit for having “guru” Maurice Gumbs use here as a pit stop, on his way to his “Footnotes” wire/blog/periodical. He has sure taken a site that was already flying high to even greater heights. The resident writers here are quite learned and informative; and of course Gatemouth is unique (I will miss you “H”/lol). I have had lots of feedback from people, who sneak on here to browse, peek, spy or pry. I have also gotten feedback from those who aren’t real pleased at some of the things stated here.

In the past, I have generally found NY Times editorials hard to read, as their tendency had been to come up with lame excuses to back the incumbent, when they weren’t just endorsing the Democrat for President.  But things have been getting better.  With the exception of the final decision, I found myself agreeing with much of what was said about Spitzer and Suozzi as candidates for Governor today.  The Times acknowledges Spitzer’s substantial accomplishments, but points out that Suozzi’s accomplishments are in some ways greater, because they were more difficult and involved greater personal risk.  The Times all but says that although Spitzer’s record is excellent, Suozzi may be the better candidate. 

"I don't know just where I'm going, But I'm going to try for the kingdom if I can"

                                   Lou Reed

As I’ve noted in Part One, left-of-center blogger Mole333 has taken public issue with my DLC-tainted brand of neo-liberalism, essentially calling me outside to settle it in the streets. In response, I questioned  how far he’d evolved on the scale of  political evolution. Beyond my ideology, or lack thereof, Mole has also taken issue with my tendency to look at politicians realistically. “And some (like, it seems to me, our friend Gatemouth) simply think all candidates are pretty much the same and despair of finding excitement in supporting a candidate…in fact they seem disdainful of anyone who actually shows some enthusiasm for a candidate.”  He tends to conflate this criticism with my neo-liberalism, as if  they were one and the same, but my cynicism towards pols is a tendency I share with not a few of his friends on the hard left, while muddle-headed idealism tends to blind at least some who sit in my political corner, particularly those who refuse to look at Joe Lieberman in a critical manner.

Let me start off by apologizing to my many fans who called and e-mailed, with concerns about my bi-weekly “Grapevine” column-which is now way overdue. The reason for the column’s absence is that I have been brought in as part of a team of half-a-dozen political operatives, trying to steer the Kenneth Evans challenge to victory in the 40th AD, over the final 4 weeks of the primary season. I am now doing 16 to 18 hour days on this campaign. We are hoping to take out the ethically-challenged and much tainted Assemblywoman Diane Gordon; and time is very very much against us. You all can help by sending funds or volunteers, or by donating some of your own time. Call or e-mail me if you want to help in this effort.

“Not only has the left loudly pressured Democratic nominees into constant courtship, our ideological militants have also limited the Democrats ability to defend themselves from the Republicans…If you are a liberal officeholder, many of your hardest working supporters will tell you that you are “notsaposta” denounce the viciousness of those who commit violent crimes…or that America today continues to be one of the places in the world where political and artistic expression is the freest. In practice, then, the notsaposta is the passionately sincere but grievously mistaken view that acknowledging a troubling truth will weaken a party’s ability to resist the conclusions that its political opponents might draw from those truths" 

Last week was Medicaid week, based on data I have collected and want to let people see. That was planned.  This week is turning out to be public employee pension week.  That was not planned, but is in response to an excellent series the Times has produced on the subject.  Better than anything the Times has done on any subject where I have specific knowledge in years.  Today, the Times smoked out the three remaining major party candidates for Governor on the state legislature’s practice of granting New York City public employee pension sweeteners over the objection of New York City.  For the most part, all three candidates answered the same, but even so, Suozzi had the best answer.

May I call your attention to the latest NY Times articles here and here.  And let me repeat what I said yesterday:  these pensions will not be paid! 

Twenty years from now, when the burden of debt and senior citizen benefits is leading to public service and benefit cuts, soaring taxes, and a crashing standard of living, and seniors of my generation, and those after, realize that they will have to work until physically unable and then face poverty rather than having the cruise-ship lifestyle of those who came before, then public employees who retired in their 40s and 50s will be as unpopular as the tobacco companies are today.  Back room deals will be cut, and budgets passed with little review, but to their detriment, not their benefit.  With no one else benefiting from this largess, they will be a big target for desperate times. 

The New York Times is a fraudulent newspaper. There; I said it. To me it’s true. The editors are a bunch of scam-artists. Year after year, they project that they are the most liberal of all newspapers in this country; but that’s a lie, and it’s time to expose their hypocrisy. Okay; so there goes my future gig at the Times: whoop-dee-damn-do. I hate hypocrisy. I really do.

Two years ago Assemblyman Clarence Norman (43rdAD) was facing reelection-while at the same time facing indictments in Brooklyn’s courts of about 80 counts-the New York Times sat on their hands. They refused to enthusiastically endorse his competent opponent-attorney Edward A. Roberts. They also took a pass on Roger Green’s race (57thAD)-when an aggressive early stand could have helped prevent that embarrassment. This year, Diane Gordon is in a similar situation, and again the Times refuses to endorse in that race (40th AD). Either of Ms. Gordon’s opponents (Kenneth Evans or Winchester Key) is preferable to her. PERIOD. Ms. Gordon is also being opposed for District Leader/Female (she holds two positions in this district), and even there she should be voted out.