The Morning Read: September 18, 2006
Eliot Spitzer and John Faso agree with George Pataki's plan to have some federal and state agencies rent about half the space in the Freedom Tower. But the Port Authority said it would be too traumatic to have its headquarter employees in the building.
Pataki also plans to give a $137,000-a-year job to the daughter of Brooklyn Democratic County Leader Vito Lopez.
Lopez is also expected to help his girlfriend's brother get a judgeship this Friday at a judicial nominating convention.
There are some grumblings that Spitzer isn't helping Democrats move into the majority of the state Senate.
Mayor Bloomberg may do more than grumble if Spitzer insists the city has to share the cost of the court-ordered school funding decision in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case.
Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont aren't offering detailed plans on Iraq.
Lamont is returning a $100 donation from a socialist group, while Joe Lieberman will get lots of money when Mayor Bloomberg throws him a Nov. 1 fundraiser.
A bus driver will challenge Roger Toussaint for the presidency of the Transport Workers Union.
Challenger Shirley Huntley leads state Senator Ada Smith of Queens by 475 votes with 294 paper ballots to be counted.
And a city lawyer is seeking notes from a meeting of the War Resisters League.
-- Azi Paybarah
Post & News are kicking the shit outta Vito Lopez for normal political behavior. Unless they have evidence that his daughter or the brother of his girlfriend are not competent, they should watch where they go with this stuff.
For example, people at both papers know of numerous cases of nepotism and worse at every level of those so called journalistic bureaucracies.
The Post usually follows the "never slap a Prince" rule. Could be that Lopez is no longer seen as a Prince and the Brooklyn machine is no longer feared. You are probably right "anonymous" that this is normal political behavior. But their tendency to be careful is a function of their fear factor.
Hey Nicky, their fear factor is always on. They are always worried about how it looks in the papers. But at the same time, with Pataki wrapping up appointments, they had no choice but to go for it with the daughter and the girlfriend's brother has been in the works for a couple of years. He actually waited his turn and went through some legit screening panels.
What are the counts for the Kavanagh-Friedman, Sabini-Monseratte and Chan-Cohen-Maseley races?
Are you all kidding? The Post and Daily News have always taken swipes at Assemblyman Lopez. The above poster is right though, no mention in either paper about whether the candidates are qualified. Someone shouldn't be dogged merely because there is some relationship with someone somewhere. I mean the title on the Post editorial is really vulgar stuff, and they don't once mention the candidates qualifications, good or bad. Not pretty, but what should we expect from these low-brow tabloids?
Rudy should be swift boated for his inaction '94 to '01 on safety issues at the World Trade Center. That is where the real swift boating will come. How about those police/fire radios rudy? Ya had 8 years after the first bombing to fix um!
lazy and selective journalism by assuming that judicial patronage only happens in brooklyn. it happens in every single county in the state.