De Blasio Appeared To Be Only Politician To Stay To The End Of Today's 9/11 Ceremony

From WNBC News:

Perhaps it was in the spirit of Sept. 11 -- or maybe they were just stuck together in the politicos’ pen -- but on Friday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke face to face for the first time in months after a widely publicized rift.

...

Subsequent video images of the ceremony show Cuomo and de Blasio standing in separate areas of the politician area, attended by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani.

...

Most of the politicians left the ceremony early, after the fourth set of bells and about 90 minutes before the reading of the names concluded. De Blasio appeared to be the only politician who stayed until the ceremony ended.

Apparently Cuomo, Christie, Bloomberg and Saint Rudy of 9/11 are too important to stay all the way through the reading of the names of the dead from the 9/11 attacks. 

Albany Strikes Back Against US Attorney Preet Bharara

Legislators are whining about US Attorney Preet Bharara's grandstanding tactics as federal prosecutor, particularly his penchant for press conferences and media interviews, but only two had the guts to go public with their criticism:

More than a dozen state legislators, legislative officials and other insiders interviewed by the Daily News give credit to Preet Bharara for targeting Albany wrongdoing but are fuming over what they say is the powerful prosecutor’s publicity seeking, tarring of the entire Legislature, and wading into governance issues far beyond the scope of his office.

“You want to target corruption? God bless you,” said state Sen. Diane Savino (D-S.I.). “That’s what you’re supposed to do. But the fact there’s some corruption in the Legislature does not mean we all are corrupt. And the rest of us don’t appreciate the comparison.”

 Assemblyman Nick Perry (D-Brooklyn) is one of many who agreed. “It’s totally unfair — not just to us, but to our families — to sort of cast a wide net of mud and dirt across the whole spectrum of elected officials that serve New York,” Perry said.

Savino, the IDC traitor, is coming off calling City Council Speaker Mark-Viverito an "idiot," so she's having a helluva media week herself.

But back to criticism of Bharara:

Is he grandstanding?

Absolutely.

Does he make it all about himself?

Absolutely.

Does he enjoy taunting the criminals up in Albany?

Absolutely.

Is all this worrisome?

Absolutely:

“He’s nothing but a politician with a badge,” said one Assembly Democrat. “He should be doing everything he can to root out corruption, but he should not be threatening and grandstanding, telling the world to ‘stay tuned’ and tarring everybody with a criminal brush. It’s inappropriate.”

To me, the most damaging criticism of Bharara is not the grandstanding or taunting (though I think that criticism is fair and accurate) but his failure to take on any of the systemic corruption on Wall Street.

As Michael Fiorillo has pointed out again and again in comments here at Perdido Street School blog, Bharara's only targets on Wall Street have been insider traders and Bernie Madoff - not one of the criminals who nearly crashed the economy in 2008 with their misdeeds, enriching themselves in the process, was indicted by either US Attorney Preet Bharara or the Attorney General at the time, one Andrew M. Cuomo.

Matt Taibbi had similar criticism of Bharara years ago in his seminal piece "Why Isn't Wall Street In Jail?" which aims at the close relationships between the "top cops" on Wall Street and the targets they're supposed to be policing:

Criminal justice, as it pertains to the Goldmans and Morgan Stanleys of the world, is not adversarial combat, with cops and crooks duking it out in interrogation rooms and courthouses. Instead, it's a cocktail party between friends and colleagues who from month to month and year to year are constantly switching sides and trading hats. At the Hilton conference, regulators and banker-lawyers rubbed elbows during a series of speeches and panel discussions, away from the rabble. "They were chummier in that environment," says Aguirre, who plunked down $2,200 to attend the conference.

Aguirre saw a lot of familiar faces at the conference, for a simple reason: Many of the SEC regulators he had worked with during his failed attempt to investigate John Mack had made a million-dollar pass through the Revolving Door, going to work for the very same firms they used to police. Aguirre didn't see Paul Berger, an associate director of enforcement who had rebuffed his attempts to interview Mack — maybe because Berger was tied up at his lucrative new job at Debevoise & Plimpton, the same law firm that Morgan Stanley employed to intervene in the Mack case. But he did see Mary Jo White, the former U.S. attorney, who was still at Debevoise & Plimpton. He also saw Linda Thomsen, the former SEC director of enforcement who had been so helpful to White. Thomsen had gone on to represent Wall Street as a partner at the prestigious firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Two of the government's top cops were there as well: Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Robert Khuzami, the SEC's current director of enforcement. Bharara had been recommended for his post by Chuck Schumer, Wall Street's favorite senator. And both he and Khuzami had served with Mary Jo White at the U.S. attorney's office, before Mary Jo went on to become a partner at Debevoise. What's more, when Khuzami had served as general counsel for Deutsche Bank, he had been hired by none other than Dick Walker, who had been enforcement director at the SEC when it slow-rolled the pivotal fraud case against Rite Aid.

"It wasn't just one rotation of the revolving door," says Aguirre. "It just kept spinning. Every single person had rotated in and out of government and private service."

The Revolving Door isn't just a footnote in financial law enforcement; over the past decade, more than a dozen high-ranking SEC officials have gone on to lucrative jobs at Wall Street banks or white-shoe law firms, where partnerships are worth millions. That makes SEC officials like Paul Berger and Linda Thomsen the equivalent of college basketball stars waiting for their first NBA contract. Are you really going to give up a shot at the Knicks or the Lakers just to find out whether a Wall Street big shot like John Mack was guilty of insider trading? "You take one of these jobs," says Turner, the former chief accountant for the SEC, "and you're fit for life."

Fit — and happy. The banter between the speakers at the New York conference says everything you need to know about the level of chumminess and mutual admiration that exists between these supposed adversaries of the justice system. At one point in the conference, Mary Jo White introduced Bharara, her old pal from the U.S. attorney's office.

"I want to first say how pleased I am to be here," Bharara responded. Then, addressing White, he added, "You've spawned all of us. It's almost 11 years ago to the day that Mary Jo White called me and asked me if I would become an assistant U.S. attorney. So thank you, Dr. Frankenstein."

Next, addressing the crowd of high-priced lawyers from Wall Street, Bharara made an interesting joke. "I also want to take a moment to applaud the entire staff of the SEC for the really amazing things they have done over the past year," he said. "They've done a real service to the country, to the financial community, and not to mention a lot of your law practices."

Haw! The line drew snickers from the conference of millionaire lawyers. But the real fireworks came when Khuzami, the SEC's director of enforcement, talked about a new "cooperation initiative" the agency had recently unveiled, in which executives are being offered incentives to report fraud they have witnessed or committed. From now on, Khuzami said, when corporate lawyers like the ones he was addressing want to know if their Wall Street clients are going to be charged by the Justice Department before deciding whether to come forward, all they have to do is ask the SEC.

"We are going to try to get those individuals answers," Khuzami announced, as to "whether or not there is criminal interest in the case — so that defense counsel can have as much information as possible in deciding whether or not to choose to sign up their client."

Aguirre, listening in the crowd, couldn't believe Khuzami's brazenness. The SEC's enforcement director was saying, in essence, that firms like Goldman Sachs and AIG and Lehman Brothers will henceforth be able to get the SEC to act as a middleman between them and the Justice Department, negotiating fines as a way out of jail time. Khuzami was basically outlining a four-step system for banks and their executives to buy their way out of prison. "First, the SEC and Wall Street player make an agreement on a fine that the player will pay to the SEC," Aguirre says. "Then the Justice Department commits itself to pass, so that the player knows he's 'safe.' Third, the player pays the SEC — and fourth, the player gets a pass from the Justice Department."


When I ask a former federal prosecutor about the propriety of a sitting SEC director of enforcement talking out loud about helping corporate defendants "get answers" regarding the status of their criminal cases, he initially doesn't believe it. Then I send him a transcript of the comment. "I am very, very surprised by Khuzami's statement, which does seem to me to be contrary to past practice — and not a good thing," the former prosecutor says.

I'm happy to tout Bharara's work on the blog when he's giving Cuomo headaches and heart attacks, when he's holding pressers the day after big Cuomo announcements to steal Cuomo's press coverage, and I certainly am hoping that Barara takes out the last two of the "Three Men In A Room" he mocked at an NYU law speech a few weeks ago (Skelos and Cuomo.)

But I am under no impression that Bharara is actually looking to clean up the systemic corruption in New York, for if he were, he'd been carting the criminals at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase out in handcuffs the same way he's carting out the criminals in Albany.

Bharara is undoubtedly running for political office, despite his terse responses to the question of his political future ("No."), and as a former Chuck Schumer aide, Bharara is also undoubtedly as political as anybody else in the system.

The last few prosecutors we've had run for political office in this state (Cuomo, Spitzer and Giuliani) have all been holy terrors as politicians, problematic in their own ways.

I'm not looking forward to finding out just what kind of politician Preet Bharara is going to be if and when he announces a run for something in the future.

But I think we will find that out.

Given his smarts, his ego, his political wiliness, and his ability to garner splashy headlines, I have little doubt that he'll be successful at getting elected.

And I'm sure all those Wall Street folks Bharara and his fellow "top cops" at the SEC and the DOJ refuse to prosecute will be just as happy to have a guy like him governor as they are at having their pal Sheriff Andy in office.

To them it's all the same just so long as whomever is in power leaves them pretty much alone.

Rudy Giuliani Declares Himself The Savior Of Black People

I've already posted how former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani blamed teachers for police shooting black people, saying cops wouldn't need to kill black people if the teachers would just accept charter schools, vouchers and merit pay (no seriously - he said it.)

That wasn't the only ridiculous thing he's said recently.

There was also this:

“If you look at my eight years in office, I saved more black lives than any mayor in the history of the city,” Mr. Giuliani claimed.

 Just in case you're thinking maybe he misspoke, well, this is the second time he's said this:

'I probably saved more black lives in this city than any mayor in the history of New York City, with the possible exception of Mike Bloomberg, who was there for 12 years,' he said.  

That's some assertion by Saint Rudy of 9/11 - it goes quite well with blaming teachers for tragedies like the Eric Garner case.

If we'd just accept charters, vouchers and merit pay, Saint Rudy of 9/11 would be able to save even more black people from the evils of the teachers!

And Rudy Giuliani is like a Black Moses.

Makes sense, I guess, what with Isaac Hayes being dead and Rudy Giuliani being an asshole and all.

Rudy Giuliani: When Black Men Are Killed By Police, It's The Fault Of Teachers

Via Raging Horse we learn that former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Saint of 9/11, said this:

“Maybe all these left-wing politicians that want to blame police, maybe there’s some blame here that has to go to the teachers union, for refusing to have, for refusing to have schools where teachers are paid for performance, for fighting charter schools, for fighting vouchers, so we can drastically and dramatically improve the education situation. Maybe they should be talking about and holding rallies about the problem of black fathers taking care of the children they fathered,” he said.”

Wow.

I've heard all sorts of reasons for why ed deformers want charter schools, vouchers, merit pay and a busted teachers union, but this is a new one.

I wonder if Giuliani will blame teachers when worldwide protests explode after the U.S. torture investigation report is released?

Note To George Pataki: No One Cares If You Run For President

This is too funny:

Former NY Governor George Pataki is privately gearing up for a 2016 presidential run, according to sources, and was spotted meeting GOP kingmaker David Koch last week.

New York Republican Pataki has been publicly noncommittal about if he was leaving the door open for a run, telling Newsmax TV’s Steve Malzberg in August, “It’s still summer,” while bashing the current administration, claiming President Obama is “trashing the Constitution in ways that were only dreamed of.”

But sources tell us now that summer is over, Pataki is getting serious, and was spotted meeting with Koch at the Four Seasons restaurant last Wednesday.

Reps for Pataki and Koch declined to comment.

Pataki was making noises like he was going to run in 2008 but Giuliani was running and there wasn't room for another "moderate" Republican from New York in the race.

Giuliani wrapped himself in 9/11 that year and repeated the phrase "September the 11th" over and over on the campaign trail.

He spent about $20 million on his campaign.

Despite the 9/11 ploy and the money he spent on the campaign, he had to drop out after he won just one delegate.

Now Pataki, who also wanted to wrap himself in 9/11 in 2008 (though I'm not sure why, nobody I know associates him with 9/11 at all), is making noises like he wants to run in 2016 and he's having those noises leaked to the NY Post.

Pataki had no shot to win the GOP nomination in 2008, even if Giuliani hadn't been running, and he has less than zero chance of winning it in 2016.

I know the business interests and party elders in the GOP are worried that they're going to have a Ted Cruz/Rand Paul contest in the primaries and they're desperate to get some establishment conservative like Jeb Bush into the race to take on the Cruz/Paul contingents.

But I doubt even those guys think George Pataki is a candidate with a shot to do anything in the primaries.

I'm sure the political consultants are talking Pataki up, telling him he can win.

But they're looking for his money.

Anybody else - including his family and friends - ought to tell him to step back onto Planet Earth, realize no one cares about him or his presidential dreams, and go back to cashing in by sitting on some corporate boards.

Cuomo Still Thinks He's Running For President

Neo-liberal real estate magnate Mort Zuckerman has given Governor Andrew M. Cuomo space in his New York Daily News to wax hawkish about 9/11 today.

Here's some:

Security never comes from denial; security comes from recognizing reality and taking action.

We may have pulled our troops out of Iraq and be drawing them down in Afghanistan, but the war against global terrorism is far from over. It’s simply entered a new phase.

In his speech Wednesday night, President Obama outlined his strategy to destroy ISIS. This comes on the heels of successful U.S. air strikes in Somalia that killed Al Shabab’s top leader, a man who has targeted Westerners in East Africa and bragged about planning last year’s assault on a mall in Kenya.

In light of the new threats, American officials must also recommit ourselves to intelligence-sharing and coordination among federal, state and local authorities.

And we must recognize the growing unrest in the Middle East is not merely a regional problem. It’s ours, too.

I recently led a bipartisan delegation of New York leaders to Israel during the conflict with Hamas. I walked through Hamas attack tunnels that lead from Gaza into the heart of Israeli communities — sometimes directly into Israeli homes. The fact that Hamas diverted resources, which should have been used to build bomb shelters and schools, to create these tunnels reveals its true priorities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government officials made the point that their country’s fight is our fight, too. They’re right.

Our enemies do not distinguish between us. They are waging a war against democracies and the democratic principles of freedom of religion, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly — principles New York has proudly embodied for centuries.

After 9/11, Republicans and Democrats united to face our common threat. Political leaders of all stripes must come together once again. To honor the memory of those we lost, we must do everything in our power to protect New York and America from those who have attacked us before and those who would attack us again.

Let us note that Cuomo is using a George W. Bush frame here - "The terrorists hate us for our freedoms" - a frame that is of course jive.

Freedom of assembly and expression?

Does he mean like when the SWAT teams shut down the assemblies expressing their love of freedom at the Occupy camps?

He also fails to note how the U.S. keeps creating these "enemies" through policies that continually cause blowback.

In any case, let us also note that this Daily News piece is clearly Cuomo's attempt at establishing some foreign policy bona fides.

I can't remember his weighing in on foreign policy much in the past, but in the last two months, he's made the trip to Israel, now he's writing (or having someone ghost writing for him) Rudy Giulianiesque opinion pieces on terrorism in the papers of his neo-liberal pals.

Despite his humiliation on Tuesday, when he had to hide out on Primary Night because he enjoyed the worst showing in a Democratic gubernatorial primary ever, he still is making attempts to run for president in the future.

Run, Andy, Run!

It will be great fun to see you win one delegate in a presidential contest the way Giuliani did when he ran for president.

Rudy Giuliani Loved To Call People Marxists Too

Jill Colvin at Politicker discovered that Joe Lhota's "De Blasio's A Marxist" campaign strategy is old hat for Lhota - his boss back in the 90's loved to do it too:

In the late 90s, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani–under whom Mr. Lhota served as budget director and deputy mayor–constantly made similar allegations, accusing those who opposed him of subscribing to dangerous, leftist ideologies, according to reports from the time.

“A decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the swift collapse of communism’s Evil Empire, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani is still darkly wary of Marxist influence in the nooks and crannies of the city,” the New York Times wrote in a 1999 piece entitled “Giuliani’s Hunt for Red Menaces.” Mr. Giuliani reportedly “discerned a sinister Marxist tinge to a wide variety of enemies, from the paradoxically well-organized anarchists who sacked a Starbucks in Seattle to the gardeners who plant flowers in the city’s vacant lots.”

In one such instance, Mr. Giuliani, on the heels of reaching a tentative deal to prevent a strike by the Transport Workers Union, told those gathered at a City Hall press conference that, “a week ago I said that Marxism unfortunately is still alive in parts of New York City even in the latter part of this century even though it’s been disgraced all over the world.”

In another instance, Mr. Giuliani suggested that members of a group concerned about the city’s growing reliance on private funding to maintain city parks had been influenced by “a very, very extreme radical political outlook on the world.”

“It probably comes out of spending some time in school in the 40′s or 50′s studying Marxism or something,” he said, according to the paper.

When Mr. Giuliani criticized Seattle’s anti-World Trade Organization demonstrations, he further bemoaned “the remaining damage that Marxism has done to the thinking of people.” Asked later about his remarks, the former mayor said the comments had to do with “the whole notion of class warfare, which really comes out of the teaching of Karl Marx, trying to divide people into different classes.”

The charges continued as Mr. Giuliani was running for president in 2008, when he labeled the Democratic candidates’ health care plans “heavily influenced by Marxism,” according to the New York Post.

Smear and fear, smear and fear, smear and fear...

It's a classic Republican tactic, dating back to McCarthy and Nixon in the 40's and 50's:

 Baruch College professor Doug Muzzio said the strategy reminded him very much of Mr. Giuliani.

“It’s part of the playbook. It’s the fear mongering and the aliens are going to take over,” Mr. Muzzio explained, slamming the tactic as “dumb” and ineffective. “He shouldn’t be using it at all.”

We'll see in the next slate of polls if it helped Lhota, helped de Blasio or made no difference.

Can Joe Lhota Win The Race For Mayor?

A tweet from Michael Barbaro:

I'm hearing from a surprising number of Manhattan Democrats who say they are open to voting for Lhota, just need more information.
— Michael Barbaro (@mikiebarb) September 15, 2013

I don't know many - or actually any - Democrats who say they are open to voting for Lhota.

But I'm also not writing a story for the Times in which I want to frame an article with: "Manhattan Dems Say They Are Open To Voting For Lhota."

Barbaro is.

That said, I do not doubt for a minute that Lhota, given the right circumstances, could be the next mayor of New York City.

The de Blasio campaign knows this too.

They didn't run the savviest primary campaign we've seen since Obama in '08 to suddenly turn clueless in the general.

They will try and turn him into Rudy III and/or Bloomberg IV and capitalize on the Bloomberg fatigue people are having these days.

Poll after poll is showing that about 2/3rds of New Yorkers want the next mayor to go in a different direction than Bloomberg on policy.

De Blasio can win handily if he can get people to realize that Lhota wants more of the Bloomberg/Giuliani policies, especially on the economy, on police issues, on education, in real estate.

Lhtoa has been going around this last week saying "I am not Giuliani.  I am not Bloomberg."

That he feels the need to do this leads me to believe their internal polls are showing them that's how people see him.

And they should see him that way - those are his policy stances.

Stop-and-frisk?

Loves it!

Charter schools and schools closures?

Gotta have more of those!

Affordable housing for working and middle class New Yorkers?

Screw 'em!  Let 'em move to Yonkers!

A Lhota administration would be the start of a third decade of some very harsh, very punitive policies here in NYC.

Now I dunno, de Blasio may turn out to be Obama and do the exact opposite of everything he promised in the primary.

But you can be sure Lhota will do exactly as he is telling people he will do.

Close schools.

Expand charters.

Screw the working and middle class on housing.

Sell out to the real estate interests.

Keep stop-and-frisk and the other authoritarian policing policies Bloomberg and Kelly are so fond of.

The de Blasio campaign needs to start getting this message about Lhota out right now.

One of the problems with Thompson still hanging around is that de Blasio can't turn to Lhota completely just yet.

Once again, Bill Thompson, ostensible Democrat, seems to be helping out the Republicans and corporatists.

Nonetheless you out there can help by talking the race up at school and at work.

Let people know what Lhota is about.

Let them know that if they liked Bloomberg's reign, they'll love Lhota's.

Let them know, too, about his temperament issues.

Let them know how he challenged a 77 year old man to a fight last year at an MTA board meet.

See if people like that sort of thing in their mayor.

Lhota is a loose cannon, he says stupid things (calling Port Authority police "mall cops," for example), he does stupid things (push a reporter outside City Hall back during the Giuliani administration.)

The quicker that meme gets out there about Lhota, the better.

It happens to be truthful.

So start getting that message out to people.

I know I do all the time - both through the blog and in person.

Like Tip O'Neill said, it's all local.

The Politics Of The Terrorism Alerts

Just two links I wish to post tonight.

The first is a New York Magazine article from Mark Green in August 2011 chronicling how he lost the 2001 election Mike Bloomberg.

The second is a link to the NY Daily News and a little bit of the story:

The terrorist threat that forced the closure of 22 embassies in the Middle East was “the most serious in the last several years” and eerily reminiscent of the leadup to 9/11, top U.S. lawmakers said Sunday.

 

Many questions remain about the nature of the threat, adding to the alarm that extends from Washington to embassies in the Middle East and Africa, 19 of which will be closed through Saturday.

 

...

Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.) said intelligence officials had heard possible dates of the attack.

“The threat was specific as to how enormous it was going to be and also that certain dates were given,” King said on ABC’s “This Week,” adding that the most serious threats came out of Yemen.

The assumption is that [the attack is] most likely to happen in the Middle East at one of the embassies but there’s no guarantee at all,” King said. “It could be Europe, the United States. It could be a series of combined attacks ... We have to ready for everything.”

Just something to keep an eye on as we get closer to Primary Day.

Had 9/11 not occurred, it is probable Bloomberg would have lost the election and we might never have heard from him again.

Of course the attacks did occur and one of the consequences was that Bloomberg won the election.

You can bet the Lhota campaign is looking very closely at these terror alerts.

It is a long shot for a Republican to win the mayor's race this, but one of the ways they could win is if they get to use the politics of terrorism once again to persuade citizens that only they can keep New Yorkers safe.

I would think with these alerts being issued - the most serious alerts since the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks two years ago - the politics of terrorism will be on the GOP campaign short list of topics to come up during the November campaign.

Lord knows, I've gotten very cynical around terror alerts, especially after Bush wrapped himelf in the whole thing in 2004, but I am also aware that the Boston bombings put a slightly different gloss on these alerts this weekend.

Boston is fresh in people's memories and terror alerts can still strike fear in people's hearts when something like Boston is so close in the past.

Just something to keep an eye on as the campaign goes on - how and when the GOP uses the terrorism issue.

They will use it, it's something they like to use, and you can be sure Giuliani, Lhota's old boss, will get trotted out for just that kind of messaging to the public.

Maybe it won't mean much this time around.

But it is something to keep in mind.

Giuliani Shows What A Phony He is

Imagine one of the Democratic candidates for mayor had called Port Authority police "mall cops."

What Saint Rudy of 9/11would have said about that?

When Rudy's former budget director, Republican candidate Joe Lhota, called PA police "mall cops," here's what Saint Rudy had to say:

Republican Joe Lhota did the right thing in apologizing for his "mall cops" crack about Port Authority police, and the misstep isn't derailing his campaign -- or so says his old boss, ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

 Lhota fell on his sword after police unions and rivals excoriated him for dissing PAPD officers during a Tuesday forum. The former MTA boss said he regretted his remark, calling it "insensitive," "unfortunate" and "inappropriate."

Giuliani, who recently made his first personal fundraising appearance for Lhota, told the Daily News the two "had a little talk" about the episode.

"He apologized. We all make mistakes, but I think he's doing fine," he said of Lhota, who was at his side during and after the 9/11 terror attacks that claimed the lives of 37 Port Authority cops.

"Everyone's going to have two or three mistakes during the campaign," Giuliani said -- adding that he himself was hardly immune to such missteps as a candidate. "The important thing is that you've got to acknowledge it right away, apologize, and move on, which I think he did."

The Port Authority PBA wasn't buying:

I circled back with the Port Authority PBA's Paul Nunziato after Lhota -- whose dad retired from the NYPD with the rank of lieutenant -- issued his lament.

He didn't seem particularly ready to forgive and forget.

On the contrary, Nunziato said he didn't consider Lhota's "a true apology," and said the episode spoke to his "elitist attitude towards police officers in general."

As for Giuliani, Nunziato said as a candidate, he "came begging for our endorsement and [then] he wanted to close the Port Authority. Maybe [Lhota's] got a little Rudy in him."

Two things to say about this:

First, Lhota revealed his true thoughts about PA cops with that statement.  He can try and walk it back all he likes - Port Authority cops and their families won't forget.

Second, just another example of Giuliani's hypocrisy.

Had Liu or de Blasio said something like this, he'd have hammered them all campaign over it.

But because it's his boy Lhota, it's fine.

Saint Rudy Full Of Shit - that's what they ought to call him.

Lhota And The Elephants

The NY Times reminds us this morning of the infamous Brooklyn Museum Virgin Mary/elephant dung painting and Joe Lhota's role in the Giuliani administration's controversial plan to punish the museum for having the show.

While not as damaging to Lhota as the NY Times piece on Christine Quinn earlier this week was to Quinn, today's article leaves the reader with the impression that Lhota is as reactionary and vindictive now as he was then:

He still appears to be wrestling with the lessons of “Sensation,” as the museum exhibition was called. Mr. Lhota, a seasoned municipal deal maker, prefers to describe the ultimatums that the city issued, including the eviction threat, as routine strategies in a negotiation, not as a flash point in the battles over free speech that raged throughout Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s tenure.

Should Mr. Lhota become the Republican nominee for mayor, his Democratic opponent would most likely pounce on his role in the museum controversy, linking him to an administration that, in pursuit of a better-behaved New York, ran afoul of the First Amendment by seeking to block a rally for young black men in Harlem, cutting financing for an AIDS housing group that mocked City Hall and firing a police officer who criticized the department. 

For many involved in the Brooklyn Museum debate, bitterness toward Mr. Lhota still lingers.

“He did it once; he could certainly do it again,” said Jack A. Josephson, a museum board member at the time. 

“If you are a museum person today, you’d have to keep this in the back of your mind. They all should be worried that they might do something that would offend a Mayor Lhota.”

Some people think Lhota has a shot at becoming mayor.

I think his years in the Giuliani administration, his inextricable links to the Guiliani "ferret moments" like the Brooklyn Museum episode, make him a hard sell in a general election.

Yeah, I'm sure there will be white voters in parts of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island who remember the Giuliani years fondly and will happily cast a vote for Lhota.

And yes, many of the city's power brokers would support him.

But I have a hard time seeing how that puts him over the top if the Democratic candidate who runs against him uses the "Rudy Test" on him throughout the campaign.

Do you want the Rudy years back?

If so, vote for Lhota - he'll bring back such favorites as defunding arts institutions in retaliation for shows he doesn't like or shoving reporters and call them ethnic slurs at press conferences.

And just in case you think Lhota can say he's grown up since the Rudy Years, let's not forget this episode from his time at the MTA:

On Thursday, Joseph J. Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, turned his attention to another adversary: a member of his own board, whom he accused of lying and challenged twice to “be a man” during an unusually heated exchange at the authority’s monthly meeting.

The board member, Charles G. Moerdler, 77, who served as New York City’s housing and buildings commissioner in the 1960s, responded by saying he would “bring it on,” although his response was rather muted compared with Mr. Lhota’s remarks.

The group was discussing a proposal to reduce the number of board meetings to 8 a year from 11, and add 2 “forum” meetings specifically for the public to address the chairman and the authority’s presidents. The board meetings include public comment periods.

Mr. Moerdler opposed the plan, saying, “We need at this time to increase, not decrease, timely disclosure.”

It did not take long for Mr. Lhota, 57, to pounce. He said he wished Mr. Moerdler would reconsider his position, “since your flawed thinking and the erroneous things that you’ve just said are actually scurrilous.”

Mr. Lhota, who has trumpeted the authority’s transparency, said agency information would be available more frequently under the proposal.


He said Mr. Moerdler’s “blubbering” was “just a waste of time and a waste of effort.”

Mr. Lhota then appeared to allude to a May article in The Daily News in which Mr. Moerdler was accused of using a police-issued placard to park illegally outside the Cornell Club.

“To make statements in public like this, similar to the statement that you made when you only parked in that parking spot for a few minutes when it was documented by camera that it was over four hours — enough of lying to this board,” Mr. Lhota said, at turns pounding his finger on the table.

Mr. Moerdler seemed taken aback. “Mr. Chairman,” he said, “character assassination does not do you credit.”

But he said he “will not challenge” Mr. Lhota, to which the chairman responded, “I wish you would.”

“Be a man,” he said, as the two began speaking over each other. “Be a man.”

“Oh, I’d be happy to do it,” Mr. Moerdler said. “In your words, I will bring it on.”

“Let’s go,” Mr. Lhota said.

Mr. Moerdler said he stood by his opposition to the plan. “With respect, and I say with respect, I find your comments disturbing,” he said. “I will leave it at that.”

“Respect is not mutual,” Mr. Lhota said.

Clearly, Lhota is a bully and a jerk, using character assassination and ad hominem attacks against the MTA board member simply because he didn't like the proposal the man made.

It's a shame the Times didn't do the same kind of temperament piece on Lhota that they did on Quinn.

It is quite clear that Lhota's temperament is no more suited for running NYC, the NYPD or the NYCDOE any more than Quinn's is.

Just ask the reporter he shoved or the MTA board member he challenged.

Tells You All You Need To Know About Cuomo

Look who Little Andrew picked to be on his transition team:

New York Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo (D) named Rudy Giuliani (R) to lead his transition committee on public safety, the New York Daily News reports.

"By bringing Giuliani into the fold, Cuomo may be neutralizing the ex-mayor's potential to be a vocal critic of the incoming Democratic gov on all things security related. After all, if Giuliani helps pick Cuomo's public safety cabinet, how can he trash them later?"

Important to note: Giuliani crossed party lines to endorse Mario Cuomo (D) in his unsuccessful race against George Pataki (R) in 1994.

Didn't Rudy put the city's emergency command center in World Trade Center #7 so he could have a place close to City Hall to go schtup his girlfriend?

And hadn't the WTC been a terrorist target once before in 1993?

So wouldn't putting the city's emergency command center in a terrorist target be a, you know, bad idea?

And wouldn't it be even worse if the rationale for the idea was for Rudy to have a place to entertain away from the prying eyes of his wife, Donna Hanover?

And wouldn't it be worst of all if Little Andrew Cuomo named the guy that did all this to lead his transition team on public safety?

Rudy The Hypocrite

St. Rudy of 9/11's daughter was arrested for shoplifting last week.

When asked for a comment, St. Rudy of 9/11 said "It's a private matter and it's going to stay that way."

NY Daily News columnist Michael Daly points out the gall Rudy has to issue that statement:

The hypocrisy was remarkable even by Rudy Giuliani's standards.

"It's a private matter," he said after his 20-year-old daughter was arrested for shoplifting. "And, it's going to stay that way."

Compare that to the Giuliani of a decade ago, when the then-mayor hurried not only to release, but distort the criminal record of an unarmed security guard who had been shot to death in an altercation with an undercover cop.

Giuliani even released a sealed juvenile record of Patrick Dorismond's arrest for robbery and assault when he was just 13.

"People have the right to know the background and record of a person involved in a criminal situation," he said, adding darkly, "He's no altar boy."

Giuliani failed to mention that the juvenile arrest arose from when Dorismond punched another kid in the nose in a dispute over a quarter and that the charges had been dropped before the case even went before a judge.

Nor did Giuliani mention that Dorismond's arrests for assault and weapon possession as an adult had been reduced to disorderly conduct, a violation.

In fact, Dorismond had never been convicted of a crime

On top of that, Dorismond actually had been an altar boy, at Holy Cross Church in Brooklyn.

"Jesus said, 'He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone,'" the priest there said as he prepared for the funeral. "Patrick's dead and they're still throwing stones at him."

Rudy's father, btw, did time for armed robbery of a milkman before Rudy was born.

In fact, Rudy's dad was on early release from jail when Rudy was conceived.

How ironic that the law and order mayor had a convicted armed robber for a father, has a shoplifter for a daughter, and a finger that points out everybody else's sins while insisting upon privacy for those of himself or his family.