Bloomberg Trying To Get Back On Quinn Bandwagon

Story after story has emerged that Michael Bloomberg has reached out to all kinds of prominent people to see if they are willing to run for mayor this year and succeed him - from Hillary Clinton to Mort Zuckerman to Henry Kissinger to Richard Nixon's ghost.

Okay, I made those last two up, but the others I didn't.

You see, Bloomberg is worried that his "legacy" will be destroyed by whomever succeeds him at City Hall, so he's hoping to get some right wing, police state-happy, business-friendly, union-busting, ed deform corporatist to run.

(For those of you who think Hillary doesn't fit that description, let me remind you of Waco, NAFTA, her stint on the Walmart board, and her support of the ed deform movement as Exhibit A; Exhibit B is how the hell did the Clintons, who didn't have a house to live in or a pot to piss in during the 90's, get to be multimillionaires anyway?)

Bloomberg has been rumored to have been supporting City Council speaker Christine Quinn behind the scenes as payback for her manipulating term limits so that he could run for a third term, but his public support of her has been lukewarm at best.

How else do you describe a guy who allegedly is supporting Quinn but keeps looking for someone else to run for him?

But after the Daily News mayoral debate on Thursday, Bloomberg seems to be trying to get back on the Quinn bandwagon:

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Michael Bloomberg singled out City Council Speaker Christine Quinn Friday as the only "rational" Democratic candidate to succeed him — because she's the only one who refuses to criticize his policies, he claimed.

“I will say, you know, the one aspirant that we know of on the Democratic side that really hasn’t engaged in any of this — most of this foolishness — is Quinn," said Bloomberg, speaking during his weekly radio show with WOR's John Gambling.

"She’s much more rational and understands there’s no simple solution to complex problems,” Bloomberg said.

Apparently Bloomberg's fe fe's were hurt by all the criticism he received over his piss poor Hurricane Sandy response, so he decided to lash out on his Friday radio program:

Bloomberg dismissed that criticism and slammed the other expected candidates, which include Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, his 2009 challenger Bill Thompson and City Comptroller John Liu.

“Number one they have no idea what they’re talking about. Number two, they have no suggestions on what to do. And number three, they just sound ridiculous," he said.

“And what’s more, if you criticize all the people that are doing things, why would anyone want to come and take those jobs again?" he asked.

It seems in Mayor Bloomberg's world, any criticism of his performance as mayor means the critic doesn't know what he's talking about and criticism of him must not be made because this will keep good and qualified candidates from wanting to become mayor.

It's so interesting that Bloomberg, who is absolutely savage in his criticism when he talks about teachers, can't seem to stomach any criticism sent his way.

And so the dutiful Christine Quinn, who refused to criticize Bloomberg's ed deform polices, who refused to call for a moratorium on school closings as the other candidates have, who has said that the city could have done a better job of helping people post-Sandy but never named names on whose to blame for that, is receiving some Bloomberg "love" once again.

Make no mistake, though, Bloomberg doesn't actually like Quinn or respect her.  

She isn't a self-made billionaire the way he is and she's a suck-up to boot, which Bloomberg likes in a toady but not in a potential successor.  

He'll back her for now but he's still looking for somebody else to marry in the election.

I think Bloomberg will back Quinn in the Democratic primary but look to back the Republican in the general election if that person is more to his liking.

That might be the best of both worlds for him - a Democratic candidate AND a Republican candidate both beholden to him and his money as the election approaches.