Smith 'jokingly' sells Dems

as someone who has seen smith (0.00 / 0)

work a crowd many times, i can very much believe that he was joking. it was a bad, dumb joke, but he was trying to entertain. it's just the way he is. someone i trust very much was in the room when he said it, and he said it was an awfully lame attempt at humor.

knowing both smith and the source, i'm willing to take their word.

that said, it was incredibly dumb and not terribly helpful. smith knows it too.

TODAY is day one. It always is.

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by: phillip anderson @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 19:05:15 PM UTC

It's a dumb attempt at humor... (0.00 / 0)

When you have a media with no sense of humor waiting in the wings and waiting for you to say something that might get you into trouble. It also says something when Skelos comes out and says that he's not looking for an investigation.

That said, I think lumping this in with other "reform-minded" Democrats is a bit foolish. I have met and/or talked to a number of candidates running on our side for New York State Senate. I know that they have a lot of goals when they get to Albany. I don't think Malcolm Smith - the POSSIBLE majority leader - will get in their way. They know and respect a lot of the current Democratic senators but they are going to be coming in with a new view of the state. That will be good for all of us, not just the folks in their respective districts.

And yes - I said possible majority leader. If you really think that there won't be a power play for that majority leader's slot, you are in the wrong state.

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by: robert.harding @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 19:18:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

there are jokes that get people fired (4.00 / 1)

and I hate to tell Senator Smith this, but this should be one of them.  Preferably before the election.  Not his spokesman, him.

The kindest description I can come up for this is irresponsible - and frankly I'm surprised that the media haven't been MORE aggressive about this than they have been.

Offering corruption isn't really funny, especially when you're supposedly running on a reform platform...  

Corrupt politicians of the other party, that could be funny - but this wasn't.

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by: simonstl @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 19:37:43 PM UTC

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Really... (0.00 / 0)

You are making this too big of an issue.

Corrupt politicians of ANY office aren't funny. When all of the corrupt Republicans were dropping like flies, I didn't laugh. Sure, it helped us in the elections, but they just fooled taxpayers into believing that they were doing their jobs. There were no jokes there. There was actual crimes going on that led to the prosecution of some leaders and lobbyists.

This, however, was not corruption nor was it the offer of such corruption.

They probably would have been more aggressive had he been serious. But he wasn't. And you apparently still believe he was.  

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by: robert.harding @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 19:53:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

corrupt Republicans are a pretty common joke lately (0.00 / 0)

if a very expensive joke, and not a pleasant one.  I don't see any good reason why Democrats would want to portray themselves as headed down that road.

(And I'm especially weirded out because you seemed earlier to be claiming that he was talking about the Republicans, but now that's not funny, and then... I don't really have a clue any more what your actual take on these comments is, beyond trying to keep Smith out of too much trouble.)

But seriously, what does it say that someone would choose this tack at a fundraiser?  Nothing good that I can imagine, and a lot that's pretty awful.

I think I'm actually making way too little of this, and surprised others aren't pushing hard.  I know Smith's a Democrat, "on our team," but after years of making fun of "IOKIYAR", why exactly is it OK if you're a Democrat?

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by: simonstl @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 20:08:08 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Reading too much into this... still (0.00 / 0)

The reason my take has changed is because I had not heard that Smith called this a joke. If I didn't know that before and then I hear that (and read that), then of course my view of his words will change.

I just think you are still reading too much into this as if he committed the ultimate sin here. I believe calling this a poor attempt at humor should suffice so that we can move on and expend our energy where it counts: Helping Democrats win the Senate. The only reason this is even a story in the media anymore is because of what happened today involving his communications director.

Obviously if he was serious, I don't think Skelos would be saying that he would not be calling for an investigation. It would be the opposite.

You are blowing this up. I saw this from over the weekend and chose not to write about it for good reason. I would rather let my head do the talking instead of my gut. It's easy to get all flustered and angry about these things. But if his intentions were to make a joke, then those were his intentions. You can't make a mountain out of a mole hill.

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by: robert.harding @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 20:29:08 PM UTC

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I guess (0.00 / 0)

I think that standing up at a fundraiser podium and offering your party for sale, complete with discounts for those who buy now, is pretty much the ultimate sin, politically.

Calling it a joke doesn't make it much better.  Offering a serious apology might help, but I don't get any sense that that's likely.

I'm sorry if my pointing this out is inconvenient to our plans to take the Senate, but, uh - you know, Smith would have been smart to think about the problems this would create before opening his mouth rather than after.  And again, maybe he should have contemplated what canning his communications director this week would do for the life of the story.

Not only that, but my head is doing the talking, not just my gut.  This isn't a sudden reaction - it's seeing someone do something incredibly stupid in a context that should be incredibly obvious.  This is bad for Democrats, bad for prospects of reforming Albany, bad for New York's likely government to come.  There could could be a bright side, of course: his colleagues realize that it's a bad enough mistake that Smith can't lead, and others get the lesson, avoiding this kind of nonsense in the future.  

I don't care much about Smith personally, one way or the other, but this is the kind of mistake Democrats should not make and cannot afford to make.  I guess we'll see what Democrats are made of in years to come.

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by: simonstl @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 20:53:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

He said it was a joke... (0.00 / 0)

I know that you are taking this seriously (a little too seriously) but if he said it was a joke, I believe him. I would much rather criticize him for his vote in favor of the property tax cap (which flew beneath the radar, apparently) than try to berate him for his bad sense of humor.

Remember when John Kerry screwed up trying to tell a joke?  He apologized for his poor attempt, but you also could tell by watching the clip that anyone could clearly understand what he was attempting to say there.

I don't see this hurting our plans for a Democratic Senate, nor do I see the value in discussing this any further when the media that covers Albany is more focused on budget cuts and Sam Hoyt's affair than the screw-up involving Malcolm Smith.  

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by: robert.harding @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 21:15:27 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

and Reagan promised (0.00 / 0)

that he had just outlawed Russia, and bombing would begin in five minutes.  A joke, on a microphone test...

That was really funny too, right?  Didn't say anything about the underlying dynamics, right?

At least, from from Reagan's perspective, though, it wasn't too far off-message, however horrifying.

I can see why you'd rather not talk about this joke, but I obviously disagree about the value of silence.  

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by: simonstl @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 21:51:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Agreed. (0.00 / 0)

He ought to go now... immediately be fired from his job as senate minority leader, and if he can't be pressured to resign from his seat, primaried next time around.

It's people like him that make it clear that changing who's in control of Albany won't stop it from continuing to be the nation's most dysfunctional state legislature.

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by: homoaffectional @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 21:17:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I don't suppose... (4.00 / 1)

...that the "spokesman" wrote the joke-- Malcolm is always talking up the "biz-speak" on his own (he went to school before the dot.com bust, so, he is living in the lala land where they had lotsa IPOs.... even tho that is over in the real world). So, it is not all that surprising that he didn't know what to say to undo it.

Oh, well. Don't suppose that job is posted anywhere, or will be rehired based on merit?  Nah, you probably have to know somebody.... and it helps if your daddy contributes to his campaign, too.  It's a culture, ya know?

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by: robinia @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 20:08:24 PM UTC

Gee what a shock here (4.00 / 1)

Look all,

Smith is a Floyd Flake guy (former Congressman and Head Minister of the most high profile African American Church in Queens), just like Greg Meeks. For those of you who don't remember the abyss years of 1995-96, Flake was the sole city Dem who decided it would be fun to vote with Newt and the gang on a regular basis.

Then he quit because all of the other Dems stopped being his friend.

You may recall how unusally long it took for Smith to become the Dem leader when Paterson became LG. This is why.... nobody is particularly comfortable with him.  He was selected because he would be Eliot's guy to thrown bombs at the Reps. and then when they took over, Eliot and Smith would make Shelly step back.

Hmmn, Eliot's gone, Smith is on the way out, Shelly and the conference are still teaching Steny Hoyer and co, how not to sell out on Principles.

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by: jacksonian dem @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 20:27:48 PM UTC

Rev. Floyd Flake... (0.00 / 0)

...now, there's a guy who knows how to do the "IPO" type thing.  Or, maybe it is more like franchise... or pyramid scheme... or something.

Don't mind me, my Mom's a Rev, so I got attitude about giving to the church.

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by: robinia @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 21:08:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Smith and Meeks... (4.00 / 1)

... should go the way of Flake.

Shelly, too.

Throw all the bums out...  Republicans, Democrats... all the leadership and most of the incumbents in Albany, basically.  Defeat the Republicans with Democrats in the generals; primary 75% of the Dems with non-corrupt, progressive Dems.

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by: homoaffectional @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 21:21:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Not to harp on it, but (4.00 / 5)

This is exactly why we need a solid system of full public funding of elections, one that also seriously limits party and PAC spending.

The bill currently before the City Council here in NYC is such a bill.  I ought to know; I wrote it ... sort of.  I took what had been known for years as the "Ortiz/Paterson bill," named after Assemblymember Felix Ortiz and then-Senator David Paterson, who introduced it year after year.  Then, working with Citizen Action NY on a variety of improvements, I ended up with what is now officially Intro 803 (warning -- it's very long).

Under this bill, such "jokes" as Malcolm Smith told would not happen, because large fundraising wouldn't be useful.

Twenty years from now, long after this bill is enacted, there will be loopholes found (or created), and we'll be talking about the next round of improvements.  But for now, this is the best available, and Malcolm Smith is on record, stating publicly that he will push such a bill in the state Senate if he becomes majority leader.

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by: Dan Jacoby @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 21:16:49 PM UTC

Thank you. (4.00 / 2)

I know to some readers, I sound like a broken record on this, but, the root of all reform is eliminating the need for the cash.

Thank you for your work on this.... I remember this day when we got Paterson to at least admit that we were right to, as he put it, "keep fighting."  Maybe it's time to ask if he would like to put his name on this bill again?  Reform needs a champion (note to Eliot, and warning to David: one who can keep his pants on).  NYers like the kind of tough talk Paterson does-- real, not combative.  Maybe he can take that high rating he has and fly NY out of this morass of corruption into democracy?

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by: robinia @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 21:32:49 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Exactly. (0.00 / 0)

That was my first thought as well.

I've met Smith a number of times and generally think well of him. He's also a funny guy. This obviously wasn't funny, but you know, fine, have them commit to campaign finance reform. That's what the lobbyists are really worried about.

Which is, presumably, how this story got planted with Dicker in the first place.

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by: Michael Bouldin @ Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 22:16:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]