Mike Nieves

Here’s Councilman Charles Barron in City Hall yesterday, sounding off on the political situation in Zimbabwe.

I asked Barron, a longtime admirer of Robert Mugabe, what he thought about Mugabe’s behavior, considering the horrific violence reported against the democratic opposition to his government in Zimbabwe. Barron's answer was the same as always: the West and Western media is biased against Mugabe because he took land back from colonial white settlers.

(Barron invited Mugabe to City Hall in 2002.)

“In the year 2000, when he said one farm, one farmer, he was vilified,” Barron told me. “For 20 years they loved Mugabe because they didn’t take the land from the whites.  read more »

Eliot Spitzer's visit to the Somos El Futuro conference in Puerto Rico is apparently going great with audiences, and not so great with reporters. 

“He’s getting  a very good reaction," according to Mike Nieves, a Democratic operative who's there. But, he said, "the issue that the press was asking was still about the driver’s licenses.

Liz also has a dispatch from the scene explaining that reporters were barred from the governor's breakfast this morning, but caught up with Sheldon Silver, who reiterated his opposition to the governor's driver's license plan. 

There are some changes happenings in Christine Quinn’s press office.

Angel Audiffred, who handled Hispanic media and the Health Committee for Quinn, went back to his old boss, City Councilman Joel Rivera, as director of communications. Rivera is majority leader in the City Council, chairman of the Health Committee, and is eyeing a race for Bronx Borough President.

“We want him back,” said Rivera adviser Mike Nieves, “And he’s going to play a big role in not only ‘09, but we’re going to crank up the councilman’s views on health and he’ll play a big role on that.”

Nieves went on to say, “Don’t believe the rumors. Nobody canned him. He worked for us before but we wanted him to get more press experience, so we sent him over there.”

The departure of Audiffred comes about a week after the start of Quinn’s new director of communications, Jamie McShane.