To The Woodshed

Mayor Moneybags overturned the will of the people in New York City when he arranged to have the City Council dismantle term limits so that he and some of his fellow cronies could run for third terms.

In order to win that third term, Moneybags had to spend $104 million dollars against his opponent, the anemic and woeful Bill Thompson.

Even after spending $104 million dollars and blanketing the city with paper and media ads touting his leadership and charm, Moneybags still only won re-election to a third term by 51,000 votes.

Of course he called that slim election victory a "mandate" and began dictating new policy initaitves as if it is a foregone conclusion that his will is the people's will.

Turns out that's not the case, however.

The City Council voted down a Bloomberg initiative to turn an armory in the Bronx into a retail mall.

The vote was, hold your breath, 45-1 - with one abstention.

That's right, the City Council, led by Bloomberg pom-pom girl Christine Quinn, handed Moneybags a 45-1 defeat on a real estate initiative.

That's never happened before, not in the Quinn era at any rate, where what Moneybags wants from the City Council on real estate, Moneybags gets.

But not today, not anymore.

Moneybags says he'll veto the City Council decision but Quinn says she has the two-thirds majority to override him.

The message from that vote is clear.

Moneybags is a wounded lame duck mayor.

He struts like he's LBJ in December, 1964.

But let us remember, he's Mayor $104 million/51,000 votes.

He can be taken to the woodshed and beaten.

Let's take him to the woodshed on the school closures.

Schools closures are a different issue than real estate, of course, and the PEP board that will hold the hearings on the closures is a rubber stamp for Moneybags.

But let's at least make a lot of noise so that the citizens of this city start to notice that Moneybags has no education plan other than to keep closing things down and hope people mistake reckless activity for meaningful action.