Jerry Nadler

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It seems that Christine Quinn has two important factions to please. On one side are the 50 other members of the City Council. On the other are good-government groups and, particularly, The New York Times editorial board.

When Quinn began discussing the slush fund scandal at the City Council, The Times editorial board--a big voice in Democratic primaries for offices like, say, mayor--held out hope that Quinn could set things straight, writing, "[her] reformist zeal is still needed."

The first package of reforms Quinn announced, on April 11, would have stripped the City Council of the ability to determine how $20 million in discretionary money from the council speaker's office is spent, giving that power instead to the mayor's agencies. The Times called it "sensible" but added, "[S]he must do a lot more."

Then, council members objected. Loudly. Strongly.

So this week, Quinn unveiled another set of reforms that are more palatable to her members.

The major difference between Quinn's old plan and new plan is that the new plan leaves a majority of decision-making power with council members. The Times was not pleased:  read more »

At today’s press conference in Brooklyn about the new ferry pilot program, Congressman Jerry Nadler discussed what he called “those great, terrible things called earmarks,” which helped pay for part of the program.  read more »

Citizens Against Government Waste published its annual list of congressional earmarks (they actually call it the Congressional Pig Book list).

Of course, what one person calls wasteful spending, another person calls bringing home the bacon, and now that Democrats are in the majority, New York was supposed to be getting more federal money.

The state made out with a good portion, particularly in the Catskills, where Maurice Hinchey brought in $43.7 million.

Here is a list of what some members from New York, and a few from elsewhere, brought their districts, according to the list. (It's in numbers of millions):  read more »

Here’s a shot from the breakfast hosted Sunday morning by the Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations on the West Side, which, as Grace Rauh noted, attracted nearly every 2009 candidate for citywide office.  read more »

This Sunday, likely mayoral candidates Bill Thompson and Anthony Weiner are among those expected to deliver remarks at a breakfast organized by the West Side Community of Orthodox Jewish Organizations.

Notably absent from the invitation is Christine Quinn, another likely mayoral candidate who does, after all, represent parts of the West Side.

The March 30 event is taking place at the New York Historical Society, and will also include remarks from Representative Jerry Nadler and a tribute to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.  read more »

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel are special guests at a fund-raiser at the Yale Club this afternoon for six Democratic congressional challengers, including two from New York: Dan Maffei and Eric Massa.  read more »

I just got off a somewhat contentious conference call with Hillary Clinton surrogates for New York reporters , who proved somewhat resistant to the pro-Hillary Clinton message coming from Chuck Schumer.

Referring to her primary win in New York yesterday, Schumer told reporters, “This was all Hillary. There was no big party machine in operation. There was no, you know, kind of things like that. It was Hillary.”

I asked him to explain that, given that virtually the entire party establishment was in her corner.  read more »

Hillary Clinton appears to have won four delegates in Representative Jerrold Nadler’s district, a liberal area of the city where Barack Obama was expected to do very well and maybe even win.

According to Nadler, who was walking through the ballroom of Clinton’s party here at the Manhattan Center on 34th street, with 90 percent of the vote in Clinton had 58 percent of the vote. The threshold to win four of the district’s six votes is 58.333 percent said Nadler, who couldn’t help but boast a bit about the result.

More after the jump.  read more »

Much of Barack Obama's New York support comes from Brooklyn, but the Upper West Side, represented by Hillary supporter and Congressman Jerry Nadler, is also home to a likely Obama demographic.

“The more liberal the Democratic base in that electoral district, the more upper-income that Democratic base in that [district], the more probably for success you have for Obama," says polticial science professor David Birdsell of Baruch College.  read more »

It's worth noting that Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one trying to get squared away with Eliot Spitzer’s new license policy.

The governor’s (original) plan would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain a driver's license, but now it's being linked to federal guidelines that will be outlined in the Real ID Act. Although Spitzer backed Real ID this week, a number of Democratic congress members from New York opposed it during a 2005 vote (which may explain why it hasn't been easy getting most of them to say anything about Spitzer's new plan).

One congressional aide was kind enough to refer me to the results of the 2005 vote on the Real ID Act.

Democrats Gary Ackerman (Queens/Nassau), Tim Bishop (Suffolk), Joe Crowley (Queens/Bronx), Eliot Engel (Bronx/Westchester), Carolyn Maloney (Manhattan/Queens), Greg Meeks (Queens), Jerry Nadler (Manhattan/Brooklyn), Charlie Rangel (Manhattan), Jose Serrano (Bronx), Ed Towns (Brooklyn), Nydia Velazquez (Manhattan/Brooklyn/Queens) and Anthony Weiner (Queens/Brooklyn) all voted against it.

UPDATE: Another congressional staffer, putting this story in context, noted that every Democratic congress member in the state voted against Real ID, except for Mike McNulty, who voted for it, and Maurice Hinchey who was absent.

Other Republicans are picking up the argument Roger Stone made to me when he refuted Democratic claim that the investigations into Eliot Spitzer are just like Whitewater.

Democratic members of congress Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney have been the latest to push the analogy, scolding the Republicans for being political and urging them to “get back to work.”

Here, Michael Brady, who used to work for the Assembly Republicans, and Michael Giuliani (no relation to Rudy), the former chief of staff to former Rep. Sue Kelly, have an article making the case that there's a certain hypocrisy in the Democrats demanding more disclosure from the White House in Washington but blocking for Spitzer in Albany. From the piece:

With House and Senate Democrats holding more than 600 oversight hearings into the Bush Administration since assuming control of Congress in January, one might assume the two veteran lawmakers were urging an end to the relentless partisan attacks on President George W. Bush.

They weren’t.

[skip]

That Nadler and Maloney were the first Democrats to come to Spitzer’s defense is rife with irony. Maloney, once dubbed a “lightweight…devoting herself to symbolic causes that have little chance of passage,” opined that “four investigations equal a four-ring political circus.” But the Manhattan Democrat is a sponsor of exactly four different House resolutions targeting the Bush Administration, including three separate bills to censure the President.

UPDATE: An aide to Carolyn Maloney sent over the following statement: "The Congresswoman issued her statement because she believes that the time and energies of the Governor and his staff should not be tied up in multiple political investigations. The State Ethics Commission has the power and independence to investigate this matter thoroughly."

UPDATE: And here's a response from Nadler's office: "The notion that one can draw a direct comparison between congress's investigations into the Bush administration and the partisan witch hunt into Governor Sptizer is laughable and absurd. It's not even apples and oranges. It's apples and automobiles.

"The so called 'investigation' led by state majority leader Bruno is redundant. The Albany District Attorney has already determined that no criminal activity occurred. More importantly, congress is acting now because for six years, the Republican-led congress failed to carry out their constitutionally mandated oversight role and a politicized Justice Department ignored and possibly helped evade the rule of law.

"In Washington, I'm working to restore checks and balances; in Albany, Mr. Bruno is engaging in a partisan sideshow."

 

Here is a clip of Jerry Nadler on the House floor recently speaking about the new electronic monitoring law. Towards the end of the three-minute clip, Nadler is asked by a Republican colleague to take back statements about the president committing "illegal" activity.

Nadler did. Sort of.

In a notable bit of reverse-migration from private political work to the public sector, Micah Lasher -- the recently departed co-founder of Knickerbocker SKD is joining the staff of Representative Jerry Nadler.  read more »

A 9/11 worker from Queens whose son joined Hillary Clinton at the State of the Union speech died last night.

Rep. Jerry Nadler called George Bush and Rudy Giuliani "villains" for how they treated Ground Zero workers.

Ben has the entire missing 140-page Giuliani campaign document online. [Note: The link to this item is being adjusted.]

Hillary and Joe Lieberman clashed on Iraq during a hearing yesterday.

Clarence Norman stands trial for selling judgeships in Brooklyn.

Two ethics panels in Albany will merge to crack down on corruption in state government.

Next up for Governor Spitzer are the health care cuts he is expected to propose in his first executive budget.

Spitzer's promise to ease access to driver licenses may be problematic for him.

Lawmakers continue to interview comptroller candidates in Albany.

Off Track Betting by cell phone may be on its way.

Lillian Roberts won re-election as head of DC37.

Crain's Insider [no link] says state Senate candidate Craig Johnson is gaining momentum in his special election.

Air America Radio may be bought by a family with ties to Westchester.

And the Boston Globe is closing its last three overseas bureaus [subscription].

-- Azi Paybarah

Here are some of the union members who joined Rep. Jerry Nadler, Council members David Yassky and Mike Nelson and Working Families Party Executive Director Dan Cantor on the City Hall steps today to protest a draft proposal from the city to close the Red Hook Container Terminal, where 633 people work.

Nadler, who I'll venture to say is as knowledgeable as any elected official in the country about the shipping industry, said the end of the terminal could mean the end of New York's relevance as a port city.

From a statement:

"This type of myopia and short-term economic planning will only mean fewer jobs for New York City, a less dominant shipping industry, more vehicular traffic and congestion, and rising transportation costs for all of us. Absent a Brooklyn container port, we would be entirely dependent on the ports located on the other side of the Kill Van Kull. This must not happen."

-- Azi Paybarah

Hillary Clinton called Representative Eliot Engel on Monday morning to ask him to support her potent  read more »

At an appearance last night by Senator (and prospective presidential candidate) Joe Biden at a meeting of the Israel Policy Forum at the Times Square Marriot last night, I caught up with Congressman Jerry Nadler to talk about the storyline of the day.

He told me that Hillary Clinton had called him earlier yesterday to tell him that she was leaning towards running for president, and that he said he would support her.

His choice, he explained, was a pragmatic one.

"I don't see a lot of other good possibilities in our party," said Nadler, standing just a few feet from Biden and a few blocks from Obama. "Someone like Barack Obama, who is suddenly a real candidate, always worries me, because he is a novice candidate. He hasn't done it before. Novice candidates, not always, but 95 percent of the time make a mistake. I made some terrible mistakes in office, when I was district leader, no one remembers what they are. I wasn't in front of all the news cameras."

--Jason Horowitz

With the Senate and House under Democratic control, and the defense department in new hands, some members of Congress are apparently now comfortable enough to tell their scariest Donald Rumsfeld stories.

Here's one from Jerry Nadler:

"During the one month official war with Iraq, you know, before Mission Accomplished, when the tanks were rolling across the dessert, we had a secret briefing with Rumsfeld. And I went to him at the end of the briefing and I said to him privately, 'Mr. Secretary, what is our policy to keep Iran from getting atomic weapons?' And he looked at me, because I was not concerned about Iraq, he looked at me and he said, 'The Iranian regime is very unpopular, there is lot of opposition internally, it may be unstable. We hope the regime will be overthrown before they get nuclear weapons.' I said 'Well I hope so too, but what is our policy?' And he turned and walked away."

--Jason Horowitz

Jason and I have arrived! We were greeted on the second floor by a cash bar. "Premium brands" are 13 dollars. "Name brand drinks" are 11.75. Apparently it gets free-er later, which is good: Glenn Thrush is thirsty! The Bloomberg inauguration (also held here!) was the watermark in political parties. Sad. Also of note: the press room wifi is down. NY1 is replaying shamelessly Pirro's Page Ten moment. Jerry Nadler just sashayed by. It's just like Christmas up in the Sheraton! And Jason just spotted someone he wanted me to blog about but I forgot and he's looking for a free drink. Oh here he is! Jennifer Cunningham, political director of 1199, was wearing a white button that said Cara Kennedy Cuomo Something Something 2006. Like part of the family now. Also we think we spotted Vernon Jordan! To the bar! Hi-o! -- Choire Sicha

Representative Jerry Nadler came out swinging last night at the scoping meeting for the New York Economic Development Corporation's planned redevelopment for Piers 7 through 10 on the Carroll Gardens/Red Hook Waterfront. Mr. Nadler opposed the transformation of Pier 10--currently used for maritime shipping--into a second cruise-ship terminal and 250-room hotel.
Citing the vulnerability of the Kill Van Kull--which connects Newark Bay and the Upper New York Bay and is the principal access for container ships to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the 15th-busiest port in the world--Mr. Nadler said that the shipping operations must continue in Brooklyn. "The Kill Van Kull is too narrow and shallow for the [metropolitan] area to depend on it," Mr. Nadler said, noting that if by accident or terrorism a ship sunk in the narrow straight, the economy of the region would be seriously affected. The Red Hook piers would be needed if any traffic to New Jersey is disrupted.
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Jerry Nadler reacted to yesterday's setback on a housing bill with angry sarcasm --  read more »

Jerry Nadler reacted to yesterday's setback on a housing bill with angry sarcasm --  read more »

The Upper West Side’s special election on Feb.  read more »

Over on The Real Estate, Matt Schuerman takes a look at federal legislation that would punish states and localities for using eminent domain. The bill brought a real split in the city's, and the borough's, Congressional delegation. Nydia Velazquez and Anthony Weiner, among others, backed the legislation, while Jerry Nadler and Greg Meeks were among the mere 38 Nays.  read more »

Add a name to that long, sweet list of Democrats who thought for a minute or two about running against Mike Bloomberg -- Bob Kerrey, Jerry Nadler, perhaps Bill Clinton:

Howard Dean.

The Politicker has learned that after last November's election, when Dean was thinking about his future and about the future of Democracy for America, and before it had become clear that the Democratic National Committee chairmanship was his for the taking, he spoke to associates about running for Mayor of New York.

There's a certain logic to his flirtation: He did, after all, grow up here -- Park Avenue, Browning, off to boarding school and Yale, then back to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. And remember all those Dean for America bumper stickers around here last year?  read more »

And how much fun would that have been?