Ever since Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, instead of Caroline Kennedy, the favorite of NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg and New York Times publisher Pinch Sulzberger, was appointed to replace Hillary Clinton, Bloomberg and Sulzberger have promoted various challengers to Gillibrand, most obviously Tennessee Harold Ford.
Despite the best efforts of the richest and most politically powerful person in the city and the silver-spoon publisher of the nation's most important newspaper, no Democrat is challenging Gillibrand in the primary, and the three Republican/Conservative challengers are third-rate nobodies who cannot win in November.
But oligarchs never give up wanting more power and/or revenge, as is clear from a Bloomberg/Sulzberger story in the Times today, about what a wonderful Senate candidate Bloomberg's girlfriend Diana Taylor would be against Gillibrand in 2012.
NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg has supported, in one way or another, several potential primary challengers to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, but none of them pulled the trigger, though one (Harold Ford) did campaign for a few weeks before giving up.
The New York Times posted a story today that explores every angle of Mayor Mike Bloomberg's antipathy to the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand except one.
Nowhere does the story mention Caroline Kennedy, Bloomberg's very public candidate for the Senate appointment last January.
But there's lots of good stuff in there about how the richest and most powerful person in New York City has been not so quietly campaigning against Gillibrand for more than a year.
At a press conference at the Governor's Manhattan office last week to announce the introduction of the marriage equality bill, Mayor Bloomberg blew up at wheelchair-bound Examiner reporter Michael Harris, who was trying to pick up a tape recorder he had dropped.
If marriage equality is important enough to Mike Bloomberg for him to publicly humiliate a wheelchair-bound journalist for no particular reason, then is it not important enough for him to use whatever popularity he has left to pressure Senators like Pedro Espada and Frank Padavan to vote yes? Bloomberg picked the winner in the Squadron-Connor primary last year, and it's hard to imagine a scenario where Espada avoids a serious primary challenge in 2010. Padavan squeaked by in his last contest and could struggle against a Bloomberg-endorsed Democrat next year.
For my home state, Governor David Paterson's budget is a window into the future. Simply put, we are witnessing what happens when New York State ceases to be the financial capital of the world. At the moment the world doesn't really have one as the global economy sorts through massive wreckage. Truthfully, the era of financial centers concentrated in western port cities such as New York or London is a relic.
This had long been been predicted because information technology makes it possible to outsource back office functions remotely and utilize cheap labor. Why pay for New York City real estate and labor when a trader can just as easily play with other people's money from a computer in Dubai? However, until the recent economic catastrophe Wall Street stubbornly hung onto its symbolic trappings as the center of the universe.
(If she wants it so bad, she needs to earn it. Period. - promoted by phillip anderson)
There are several reasons to oppose having Caroline Kennedy be appointed to the U.S. Senate, and several arguments in her favor, that have been dissected in dozens of op-ed columns and blog diaries in the past week.
No column or diary, to my knowledge, has referenced the work of Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice, who has, as a veteran investigative reporter, dug out some interesting stuff that has not made it into other media (aside from one radio show this morning).
For example, CK's work for the city schools is a lot less than you've been told, and she got that volunteer position through a close college friend.
And, she's clearly Republican Mayor Mike Bloomberg's person for the job, which should make real Democrats uneasy.
"Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn need a strong voice in Congress to get results in transportation, health care and the economy," Mayor Bloomberg said. "During the last seven years, Mike and I have worked together to deliver just those kind of results: increasing ferry service, developing a workable solid waste plan after decades of stagnation, holding the line on government spending, and saving surpluses for tougher times like the ones we're in now. The 13th Congressional District and all of New York City need a proven leader like Mike to fight for results in Washington. He's delivered during his seven years on the City Council, and I know he'll work just as hard in Washington. I am proud to endorse Mike McMahon for Congress, and urge all of the voters of Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn to send him to Washington this November."
