| As with previous Times puff pieces about potential Gillibrand opponents, this one is breathless about how wonderful Taylor is.
Here's a taste:
Republican lawmakers, consultants and operatives continue to describe Ms. Taylor - a former investment banker and state banking regulator - as a "perfect candidate," a "grand-slam home run" and a "shoo-in" for offices ranging from governor to mayor of New York.
The only way someone with little name recognition and a scant political resume, all of it from working for well-disliked former Gov. George Pataki, is some kind of political juggernaut is because of her multi-billionaire boyfriend and his publisher friend.
The story recounts how Taylor was lobbied by top state and national Republicans to challenge Gillibrand this year, and their gushing appraisals of her that obviously hint at a 2012 run:
Taylor arranged to speak with (former NY congressman, now lobbyist Bill) Paxon and his former chief of staff, Michael Hook, now a Republican political consultant. She impressed them with her command of the state's byzantine political system, rattling off the names of local party officials and far-flung flyspeck towns "This wasn't a situation where you would have to introduce her to that world," Paxon said.
He recalled assuring her that, if elected, she would immediately become a national Republican figure.
snip
Bloomberg is scheduled to leave office in three years, clearing the way for Taylor, who would still be under 60, to run for office.
"I get the sense," said (John) Cahill, the former Pataki aide, "that she would really like to do it."
The puff piece begins with Paxon meeting Taylor, at the Manhattan Ritz-Carlton, naturally, to encourage her to run this year.
Paxon tells the Times that Taylor was "eager to delve into the details of a potential campaign and future career in the Senate."
The Times spin continues with the previously unknown "fact" that Taylor "is beginning to make unmistakable forays into New York politics, shedding her reputation as a glamorous sidekick and becoming closely watched in her own right."
Well, she is certainly being "closely watched" by the Bloomberg-cheerleading Times.
Gillibrand will deservedly win election to the two-year remainder of Clinton's term in November.
And she will win re-election in 2012, because the Republican bench remains so third-rate that Bloomberg's unknown girlfriend is considered first-rate by the Times. |
