Tag: Bill Weld

There are few people who would deny that Elliot Spitzer has done a decent job as Attorney General of New York State. I would think only a handful maybe, and probably Republicans mostly. Some of his detractors say he is a bit aggressive and “macho”, others say he is a bully. Others yet claim that he is an “alpha–male” all the way, possessing too much testosterone. Point being, there is no real attack on his competency and/or capability. In most regards, this is good for Spitzer.

The only area where Spitzer seems vulnerable is the one where his relationship with Albany legislators can be gauged. The least you can say is that he has been quite accommodating. Can anyone find the public attacks on Albany (from Spitzer) in the past decade? And for sure, most elected officials are lining up in droves to endorse him. Not surprisingly, his endorsement list will be an Albany “who is who” list.

As both readers of my blog know, I recently concluded that only two candidates for Congress in the 11^th CD, David Yassky and Christopher Owens, met the minimum standards to be fit for service, but while I found Yassky more promising, I was reluctant to support him because he is a white candidate in a black majority district. I sort of feel ashamed about this, but my reluctance to support him is a pragmatic judgment, not a moral one.

Yassky's whiteness is going to hang from him like a target and every two years he is going to face another racial crusade. This presents several problems. The first is that it does little for community comity. The ugliness of this race has already been damaging to community relations in Brooklyn, and will become more so as the primary approaches. This animosity is fueled by other candidates (especially Chris Owens), free lance community opportunists, and parasitical institutions of the Fifth Estate like Ed Weintrob’s repulsive collection of Brooklyn Paper rags.

Some recent events have highlighted how completely full of it, Mike & Doctoroff & the Jets were last year in pushing for the West Side stadium.

#1 – Cablevision has announced they want to build a new MSG near the new Post Office. Anybody want to bet on whether Mike will offer them millions in subsidies even though last year Cablevision was attacked by the Administration for not paying enough taxes.

#2 – Corzine wants to re-open negotiations on the new stadium for the the Giants & Jets and he thinks maybe it should have a dome, so it can be used more often. Both the Giants & Jets don’t want a dome and say it would be a deal breaker. The West Side stadium was supposed to have a dome and Mike & Dan & Jay Cross claimed that  the dome would make the stadium much more succesful.

#3 – Last year, the NFL pulled the NFL draft from MSG because Cablevision was an enemt of footbal fans. This year, the draft will be held at Radio City, another Cablevision property. What changed?