Wayne Barrett

Here’s Village Voice investigative reporter Wayne Barrett in City Hall today, saying that Christine Quinn shouldn’t necessarily be held responsible for the City Council's recent troubles.
 read more »

Over on the Politicker, The Observer's Azi Paybarah reports:

Investigative reporter Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice confirmed to me just now that he is considering writing a biography about the former governor, and has been contacted by at least two publishers about such a project.

“I haven’t made up my mind one way or the other,” Barrett said in a brief telephone interview.

Read the rest of Mr. Barrett's thoughts on this potential project here.

Eliot Spitzer’s career in public service may be over, but the race to tell the story is just getting under way.

Investigative reporter Wayne Barrett of The Village Voice confirmed to me just now that he is considering writing a biography about the former governor, and has been contacted by at least two publishers about such a project.

“I haven’t made up my mind one way or the other,” Barrett said in a brief telephone interview.  read more »

This morning, the New School hosted a panel discussion on whether Eliot Spitzer can regain his political capital. (The answer is already looking quite different in light of yesterday's special election.)

Some highlights:

Panelist Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice said "hallelujah!" about yesterday's results and said Democrats should be given a chance to control the entirety of state government.  read more »

This week's issue of Newsweek contains a story by DC investigative reporter Michael Isikoff on Rudy Giuliani's ties to terror-financing outfits in the Middle East. The piece treads much of the same ground as a Village Voice story by Wayne Barrett published last week. Today, in a blog post that drew attention to the two pieces under the heading "Giving Credit Where It's Due," The Voice appeared to argue that its reporting should have been credited by Newsweek.

Media Mob asked Mr. Isikoff about the decision not to credit The Voice. His emailed response after the jump...  read more »

Wayne Barrett has long been a leading critic of Rudy Giuliani. Since Sept. 11, even more so. Apparently, though, Barrett believes that there are worse presidential candidates out there. Specifically, Mitt Romney, who, according to Barrett, is a "vacuum" with "plastic beliefs."

Sorry for the delay in posting -- I'm trying to straighten out a couple of minor technical issues.

In the meantime, here's something to keep you busy: it's that famous Chris Lyon-authored, self-commissioned oppo research report on Rudy Giuliani, posted by The Smoking Gun. (It's the same report that Wayne Barrett got a hold of and wrote about in his Rudy biography.)

The report was commissioned in 1993 when Giuliani was running for mayor, so some of the stated negatives now seem shockingly out-of-date. Like, for example, the section about Giuliani being insufficiently sensitive to "the concerns and needs of the gay community."

Needless to say, when he finds himself in the middle of a bruising Republican presidential primary next year, that's going to be the least of his problems.

-- Azi Payabarah

Here's something that should be a pleasant change for Alan Hevesi from his recent press coverage: it's Wayne Barrett's Top Ten reasons not to oust the state comptroller.

1. Hevesi is not a recidivist abuser

2.Hevesi cannot be removed based on speculation about his intent.

3.The commission ignored indications that Hevesi intended to reimburse the state.

4.Removal is inexcusably disproportionate to Hevesi's wrongdoing.

5. The commission's findings are politically selective.

6. The two other Pataki-appointed commissioners are as ethically challenged as Shechtman [NYS Lobbying Commission member]

7. Spitzer isn't transcending personal and political ties in the war on Hevesi; he's bowing to them.

8. Singling out Hevesi on the basis of commonplace car abuse would be a hypocritical high.

9. Spitzer is allowing campaign damage control to frame critical government policy.

10. Going forward with a senate trial and replacement will be a colossal mess.

Barrett, no softy on public corruption, argues that it's not too late for Spitzer to back away from his stance on Hevesi without losing face. Spitzer "could say now that he will await the result of the ongoing grand jury probe by Albany District Attorney David Soares and be bound by it; if no criminal charges are brought, he could conclude that no further action would be necessary."

-- Azi Paybarah

Andrew Cuomo may not have read that Village Voice article about his relationship with Andrew Farkas, but he did have a suggestion for the article's author:

"The author of The Voice's article, Wayne Barrett, said in an interview yesterday that Mr. Cuomo had suggested delaying its publication until after the primary. Mr. Cuomo said in an interview that he had suggested delaying publication so there was more time for Mr. Barrett and Mr. Farkas to exchange information."

And a letter from Farkas's lawyer to the Village Voice warning of possible libel was also sent.

The New York Post endorsed Cuomo, noting "Cuomo's greatest asset may be his chief opponent in the primary race, perennial candidate for high office Mark Green." A preview of the Rev. Al Sharpton's endorsement today of Cuomo is discussed here.

George Pataki hailed the opening of the Tribute Center, which honors people lost on 9/11. The Times noted "This will be a long interim" since the permanent memorial is not scheduled to open until 2009.

The Post and Daily News give their front pages to the newly released health study of 9/11 rescue workers.

Democrats and some Republicans, like CT Rep. Christopher Shays, want Donald Rumsfeld to resign.

And the city's Campaign Finance Board wants to slash contribution limits for people doing business with the city.

-- Azi Paybarah

I interviewed Wayne Barrett, whose new book, Grand Illusion, tries to strip Rudy Giuliani of his post-9/11 mythic stature. Barrett interviewed people in the Giuliani administration who said the '93 World Trade Center bombing and terrorism in general never came up.

Terrorism is also missing from Barrett's 2000 biography on Giuliani. "If somebody wants to say I wasn't sensitive to the terrorist threat when I wrote the first Rudy book, I think that's fair comment. I think the question is 'Why wasn't he?' "

As for whether Grand Illusion is opposition research for Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Barrett said, "Rudy has a long way to go before he faces Hillary Clinton."  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

My invitation to Wayne Barrett's book party got lost in the mail, so I had some time to actually read some of it. As the title suggests, Barrett argues that Giuliani wasn't ready for a terrorist attack, and didn't even think about it until it happened.

Page 106:

Asked if Giuliani was accurate when he depicted himself as someone who understood the terrorist threat prior to 9/11, [John] Miller [a top aide for years to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton] declared, "Hello, history. Get me rewrite."

[skip]

Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall said that "specifically on terrorist attacks, there was no sense of awareness" at the highest levels of the administration and "no discussion of the WTC." Asked if the '93 bombing ever came up, Weinshall, who later became transportation commissioner, said, 'No. Isn't that odd?"

Weinshall's spokeswoman had no comment.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

Even as Rudy Giuliani climbs to near-frontrunner status in the Republican presidential primary on the strength of his security credentials, it's worth noting there was a time when he couldn't even make his way past a police barricade.

While Mayor Dinkins was in Japan during the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Rudy Giuliani was in the city. But, according to Wayne Barrett's new book on Giuliani and his pre-Sept. 11 record on terrorism:

"Although it was never reported, Rudy Giuliani, who'd narrowly lost to Dinkins in 1989 and was running again, rushed to the site in his campaign car, but was barred by cops from entering."

Barrett's source is "a campaign aide who requested that he not be identified described the Giuliani trip toward the Trade Center in February 1993."  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

The rough treatment Freddy's gotten from the press, as Wayne Barrett and Evelyn Hernandez both noted on Kirtzman's show on Sunday, may well have been the fatal blow to a campaign that was already up against a the long odds created by a billionaire incumbent, low crime, and a decent economy.

Some of the bad press was really almost unavoidable. The preferences of media barons for their fellow-tycoon over a middle-class politician from the Bronx was predictable. That accounts -- at the very least -- for some decisions about whose gaffe makes tabloid wood. Beyond that, and throughout the press, Freddy was painted earlier as a bumbler and a lightweight; Mike was pictured as invulnerable, successful, and in control.

So the question isn't whether Freddy's had a hard time with the press. He has. The question is whether this was automatic, decreed by big theories of class and race and the media; or whether it could have been different.

And framed that way, it seems fairly clear to me that a different Ferrer (maybe a different candidacy; maybe a different candidate) could have been a press darling. Reporters love an underdog. Reporters love someone who answers questions straightforwardly, is personally open, and -- sadly it matters -- at least pretends he or she likes to deal with the press. The history of modern electoral politics is full of underdogs the press fell in love with, candidates who convinced reporters to identify with them personally and who converted that into coverage you can't buy.

Reporters don't much like dealing with Bloomberg. He's vague and bland when questioned, often repeating message points rather than answering directly. He never spontaneously makes news. He's made his personal life off limits. And his wealth, as well as his choice of career, make him somebody reporters don't naturally identify with. (His administration has been relatively open to the press, however, which counts for a lot.)

But maybe Freddy's problem with the press wasn't that he was too different from our darling, Mike. Maybe it's that he was too much like Mike: oblique, aloof, on-message. Personally closed. (Not that there's anything wrong with that -- Freddy has always been a private person, and it's certainly his right.)

And as for the notion that the media elite weren't ready to fall in love with a badly underfunded Hispanic underdog, it so happened last night that Freddy's appearance on Road to City Hall was followed on another station by West Wing's fake presidential debate, in which the show's liberal, blue-state audience has predictably fallen in love with the underfunded Hispanic underdog candidate, Matt Santos. Who was invented by the media elite. So the viewers could fall in love with him.

Which is to say that tabloid owners were always going to go with Mike, but Freddy's relationship with the reporters who wound up diminishing his candidacy chip by chip could have been utterly different.  read more »

ALSO: The Lipskys take the others side of this argument on their blog, here. And stay tuned for the details on a post-election forum The Politicker, Gotham Gazette, and the Drum Major Institute will be holding to talk about press coverage of the race.

Much of Freddy's brain trust gathered at a glassed-in conference room in the office of his consultants today to release two very different new television ads.

The English language one, by Ferrer aide Jonathan Prince (along with Ellis Verdi's production company), is called "Poverty." It's a single shot, closing in on Freddy's face as he speaks in a park on the East Side, a bridge visible over one shoulder. (Trivia question: Which bridge?)

"Two things rose in New York City last year, the salaries of the wealthy, and the poverty rate," it begins, ending with the tag line: "It's a great city. It could be greater."

The spot includes a poverty stat -- New York as the only big city in the country with an increase in the poverty rate -- that Census officials cast partial doubt on recently. But there's little question that this isn't Mike's favorite topic; as Wayne Barrett recently noted, the Mayor has apparently only let the word "poverty" pass his lips once in his entire term.

The Spanish language ad is probably the one that will have people talking. It is as passionate as the English one is cool, and is all about ethnic pride. It shows a triumphant Ferrer hitting it just right during the brief Spanish section of his primary-night speech. Freddy's words are innocuous, but the text makes the point: "On September 13th, we made history."

Freddy needs to get Hispanic New Yorkers excited about him in a way they notably weren't in the primary, and this seems the thing to do it.  read more »

(The two spots should be up a little later today on Freddy's site.)

The Voice's Wayne Barrett has what, if Anthony is still around tomorrow, will be next week's story everywhere: That many of the candidate's vaunted policy proposals are impossibly vague or seriously flawed.

From the start, the "man of ideas" thing was more strategy than content. There was a long, serious drumroll of "policy speeches" and a torrent of "ideas." But somehow, the quotation marks never quite departed. Many of the central ideas are paper thin.

In our pox-on-all-your-houses piece a few weeks ago, Lizzy Ratner and I wrote that "it's hard to escape the feeling that Mr. Weiner is little more than Mr. Schumer's skinny Mini Me, a flyweight mimic of the muscular old bruiser. His tax plan, for instance, is a back of the envelope calculation lopping 10 percent off the top of the city's tax rates. At one recent presser an announcement of Mr. Weiner's plans for 'real fiscal responsibility' the would be Mayor made the classic, technical but telling mistake of confusing the capital budget for the expense budget."

Today, Wayne takes a look at Weiner's proposed cuts, and notices that they seem likely all to come out of child welfare and other social services -- a fact that won't thrill many Democratic voters.  read more »

Now, thick policy papers can be over-rated. Mike, for example, had the money to buy top experts to do his policy work in 2001. But he hardly memorized them at the time, and was free to ignore major planks -- from school uniforms to the Cross-Harbor tunnel -- later. The "white papers" were a gesture, not a commitment.

Still, Anthony's going to need to add some substance to his "substance" if he makes it past today, either in the form of one big, clear idea or some explanations to accompany his little ones.

ACORN, the many-hat-wearing, Brooklyn-based activist organization, will endorse Freddy Ferrer tomorrow, The Politicker has learned.

This is a boost for the Democrat, as the group seemed to have been flirting (to say the least -- that picture is still on the newsrack in my local far-left coffee shop) with following various other traditional Democratic constituencies to Mike's camp. ACORN is a movement organization, and will bring at least a hint of what Wayne Barrett finds so lacking in Freddy's campaign.  read more »

What's more, when it chooses, ACORN can also provide formidable logistical support, as it did for Mark Green in 2001.

But our source cautions that this endorsement may not be all it seems: "They specifically waited until late because they will not put teams out in the street."

We know Mike's communications director's ears must have perked up when the legendary longhaired muckraker at the Village Voice, Wayne Barrett, gushed about Mike during Tuesday's panel discussion at the New School on "The Mayor and the Media."

(Yes, we know, a three-day lead time is a bit long for a blog. Blame Ben.)

Barrett said Mike should get credit for "extraordinary fiscal management of this city. I think that's the measure of any mayor." Wayne didn't stop there. "I love the mayor for the way in which he deals with municipal labor. This may sound strange coming from a liberal Democratic columnist at a liberal newspaper."

Strange indeed.

Barrett also lamented that City Hall reporters have become the Boys on the Bus.

"The New York Times coverage is led by the City Hall bureau. That's a mistake because City Hall reporters need to keep a different relationship."  read more »

(NOTE: An earlier version of this item misattributed that last quote to Joyce Purnick. Nope. That was Wayne. The Times columnist called Mike a great innovator, but poor communicator.)

Al Sharpton's annual King Day political gala served this year as a platform for the campaign of his, er, executive director, Marjorie Fields Harris, who is running for vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee. (Wayne Barrett has the extremely exhaustive details on their relationship.)

Up at the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ today, ushers handed nonplussed politicos and reporters two-page pieces of campaign literature, which advertise the one-page website of the Fields Harris Group. Ms. Harris played a high-profile role in a plaid jacket, asking questions and introducing a United Nations official.  read more »

Were John Kerry president, he might have owed Sharpton the favor of giving Harris a job. As it stands, however, her main qualification for the post is, as her bio puts it, her role as the "most capable and closest aide" to Sharpton, as executive director of the National Action Network. In evaluating her capabilities, we would note that the Network's headquarters, damaged by a fire two years ago, has yet to reopen. And that the Network's website has been down for something like a year.

There's no ignoring Wayne Barrett's Village Voice Al Sharpton Package, but did it all belong in print? Here, there's some great stuff on Sharpton's campaign to bring down Jesse Jackson:

[Sharpton ally Harold] Doley told the Voice: "I said to Sharpton, 'I'm going to bring Jesse down and make you the man.' Al said, 'I'm ready.' "  read more »

And here, there's um, shocking proof that Al's not a moral paragon.

Rudy!  read more »