Go Back To Bermuda, Bloomberg!

The Times chronicles the reception the Mayor of Money and Unfunny Jokes (and even Unfunnier Policies) got at the Saint Patrick's Day Parade:

Even on an unusually lovely afternoon, lingering touchiness over the gibe followed Mr. Bloomberg along the Fifth Avenue parade route like a stubborn storm cloud, showing itself in occasional comments from the stands, lusty boos shouted from windows and a handmade sign held up a block from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“Bloomberg ... You’re a Drunk!” it read.

The mayor tried to focus on the positive, on what he called “the continuing influence of the Irish in New York” and on the towheaded children squealing from the sidewalk. The mercury climbed into the 60s and large swaths of the crowd, many of them out-of-towners, cheered as he came into view. It was a successful parade — better for him than the one this month in Belle Harbor, Queens, where he was booed for blocks.

But Mr. Bloomberg is coming off a difficult winter. There was the post-Christmas blizzard, and then outrage over the blizzard cleanup. There were scraps with Albany, clashes with unions and apologies for various offenses, the Irish joke among them. A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday found that 51 percent of voters interviewed disapproved of the mayor’s job performance, his lowest rating in the Quinnipiac poll in nearly eight years.

If Mr. Bloomberg hoped that the parade and its hints of spring might offer a new beginning, well, Catherine Davis, 76, of Rockaway, Queens, was not ready to move on. “I think he’s doing a rotten job,” Ms. Davis said from the front row. “A miserable job.”

She wasn’t especially bothered by his earlier remark about the Irish, though she didn’t see the humor in it. She was more angry about the budget cuts, the education policies — and the blizzard. “The snow was awful,” she said. “That was a disaster.”

Grumbling parade-watchers were nearly as common as shamrocks. One woman yelled, “Boo Bloomberg! Down with him!” and another shouted, “Go back to Bermuda!,” referring to a favorite weekend destination of the mayor’s.

“He likes Manhattan, he likes the rich, but he ignores the other boroughs,” said Eileen Moran, 62, a betting clerk from Queens who lost her job when Off-Track Betting closed its parlors in December.

Kathleen Fox, 47, an elementary school teacher from Middle Village, Queens, tried to get the mayor’s attention with her sign, “Bloomberg: Kiss me, I’m union.” It failed. “He ignored me,” she said, “just like he did in that snowstorm.”

Disapproval of 51%, boos wherever he goes, people seeing the Mayor of Money for the arrogant, elitist asshole oligarch that he is.

Go back to Bermuda indeed.