Gold9472
10-23-2008, 08:39 AM
The rich versus the rest
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/10/23/2008-10-23_the_rich_versus_the_rest.html
Thursday, October 23rd 2008, 4:00 AM
Mayor Mike Bloomberg "stands on the verge of staining his legacy beyond repair," writes Errol Louis.
It's possible Wednesday's scheduled City Council vote to eliminate term limits will be postponed. That would signal what I have believed from the start: Mayor Bloomberg and the Council hacks in his pocket lack what they need to overturn the law.
They don't have the nerve, the truth or the people on their side. They probably don't have the 26 needed Council votes, either.
What they do have are the mayor's billions, and the sound of an ominously ticking clock.
At least half the members of our municipal Legislature climb out of bed each morning with a cold shudder, realizing they lack the talent to convince any employer in the public, private or nonprofit sector to pay them a councilman's base salary of $112,500 a year for part-time work.
And most employers don't allow workers to vote themselves a 22% salary increase, as the Council did in 2006.
Tick, tick, tick.
The average Council member would sooner part with a limb than hit the bricks and compete on the merits against an army of laid-off Wall Streeters, ambitious grad students and seasoned social service professionals.
So an appalled public will likely witness a depressing carnival of treachery, backstabbing, backroom money deals and self-serving double-talk down at City Hall Wednesday - all brought to you by an ex-reform mayor who values fame and the trappings of political power above his word and reputation.
Bloomberg, surrounded by sycophants whose daily flattery has skewed his judgment, stands on the verge of staining his legacy beyond repair.
What he does not know, and his chorus of hacks and flatterers will never tell him, is that New Yorkers are literally aching for institutions, leaders and ideas they can trust.
In a world where all too often schools don't teach, clergymen turn out to be pedophiles, markets crash, courts have been corrupted and members of the press run for cover, a heartbroken people seek honesty from our leaders.
We would rather be governed by honest bumblers than brilliant liars any day. Bloomberg cannot govern without the credibility and trust of the public.
New Yorkers love this thing we have. We loved it through sleaze, grit and grime through excess and austerity, and through the dust, death and destruction of 9/11.
We love the rule of law that says we are all equal as citizens, and we love the checks and balances - including term limits - that keep power from accumulating in the hands of a few.
These are the finest of democratic instincts, and everyone who signed a petition, made a phone call or berated a Council hack in recent days deserves a medal.
Some of the mayor's aides tell me the matter is simple: The mayor, after years of scorning political attacks on term limits as "disgusting" and "disgraceful," simply changed his mind.
Wrong. You change your mind about what color tie to wear or whether it's worth waiting for the crosstown bus. You don't change your mind on matters involving honesty, integrity and keeping your word.
The Council members who embarked on Bloomberg's ill-fated journey - and the public, too - are in the position of a woman who dates a rich man and enjoys the attention, only to have him produce a wad of cash at the end of the evening, making clear that what appeared to be genuine affection is something more crass.
And like the woman caught in such a position, our need to choose virtue over vice is, inevitably, accompanied by a deep, smoldering resentment that it has come to this.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/10/23/2008-10-23_the_rich_versus_the_rest.html
Thursday, October 23rd 2008, 4:00 AM
Mayor Mike Bloomberg "stands on the verge of staining his legacy beyond repair," writes Errol Louis.
It's possible Wednesday's scheduled City Council vote to eliminate term limits will be postponed. That would signal what I have believed from the start: Mayor Bloomberg and the Council hacks in his pocket lack what they need to overturn the law.
They don't have the nerve, the truth or the people on their side. They probably don't have the 26 needed Council votes, either.
What they do have are the mayor's billions, and the sound of an ominously ticking clock.
At least half the members of our municipal Legislature climb out of bed each morning with a cold shudder, realizing they lack the talent to convince any employer in the public, private or nonprofit sector to pay them a councilman's base salary of $112,500 a year for part-time work.
And most employers don't allow workers to vote themselves a 22% salary increase, as the Council did in 2006.
Tick, tick, tick.
The average Council member would sooner part with a limb than hit the bricks and compete on the merits against an army of laid-off Wall Streeters, ambitious grad students and seasoned social service professionals.
So an appalled public will likely witness a depressing carnival of treachery, backstabbing, backroom money deals and self-serving double-talk down at City Hall Wednesday - all brought to you by an ex-reform mayor who values fame and the trappings of political power above his word and reputation.
Bloomberg, surrounded by sycophants whose daily flattery has skewed his judgment, stands on the verge of staining his legacy beyond repair.
What he does not know, and his chorus of hacks and flatterers will never tell him, is that New Yorkers are literally aching for institutions, leaders and ideas they can trust.
In a world where all too often schools don't teach, clergymen turn out to be pedophiles, markets crash, courts have been corrupted and members of the press run for cover, a heartbroken people seek honesty from our leaders.
We would rather be governed by honest bumblers than brilliant liars any day. Bloomberg cannot govern without the credibility and trust of the public.
New Yorkers love this thing we have. We loved it through sleaze, grit and grime through excess and austerity, and through the dust, death and destruction of 9/11.
We love the rule of law that says we are all equal as citizens, and we love the checks and balances - including term limits - that keep power from accumulating in the hands of a few.
These are the finest of democratic instincts, and everyone who signed a petition, made a phone call or berated a Council hack in recent days deserves a medal.
Some of the mayor's aides tell me the matter is simple: The mayor, after years of scorning political attacks on term limits as "disgusting" and "disgraceful," simply changed his mind.
Wrong. You change your mind about what color tie to wear or whether it's worth waiting for the crosstown bus. You don't change your mind on matters involving honesty, integrity and keeping your word.
The Council members who embarked on Bloomberg's ill-fated journey - and the public, too - are in the position of a woman who dates a rich man and enjoys the attention, only to have him produce a wad of cash at the end of the evening, making clear that what appeared to be genuine affection is something more crass.
And like the woman caught in such a position, our need to choose virtue over vice is, inevitably, accompanied by a deep, smoldering resentment that it has come to this.