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. 

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. 

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. 

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"