Tag: Daily Intelligencer

Last month in an appearance on Meet the Press, New York Times columnist David Brooks said that Mayor Bloomberg might be “counterproductive” as a spokesman for gun control because the movement needs to win over “rural and red America.” As Frank Rich put it: “Translation: He’s an East Coast Jew.” Bloomberg shot back at Brooks in a Sunday interview with the Washington Post, saying, “Incidentally, just define David Brooks … As I remember, he’s got to be in the 1 percent — the amount of money he makes as a columnist. I don’t know where that came from.” He also provided more fodder for Brooks, saying of gun rights advocates who think the government is out to get them, “the general public that thinks this is meshugana.” But supposedly, Bloomberg is fine with others taking the lead on his pet issue. “And so we’re not going to be the star,” Bloomberg said. “My interest is in having this done. I don’t need to get credit for it.”

Of course, Bloomberg still wants to play a large role in the push for stricter gun laws, but he’s content to let his super-PAC do the talking. In the last election Bloomberg donated $10 million to five candidates who oppose the NRA and four won. “It seemed effective, and I’m certainly going to take a good, hard look at next time,” says Bloomberg. “You can organize people, I can write checks.”

That’s not to say that Bloomberg is following anyone else’s lead on the issue. While many fellow gun control advocates think they’ll need to vote out Republicans to get reforms passed, the mayor believes that if the GOP can have a change of heart on immigration, they can do the same on guns. “Somebody got them the way they are now,” he says. “Why can’t you change them?” It did take the loss of a presidential election for some Republicans to change their tune on immigration — and the shift has yet to result in any new legislation — but if anyone has the time and money to devote to a longshot effort like breaking up the GOP and the NRA, it’s Mayor Bloomberg.

Read more posts by Margaret Hartmann

Filed Under:
the third terminator
,gun control
,michael bloomberg

via Daily Intelligencer http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/bloomberg-split-nra-gop.html

Since two “hippie types” were arrested two weeks ago for keeping a small arsenal of weapons and bomb-making supplies in their Greenwich Village apartment, we’ve heard conflicting opinions on how seriously we should take their interest in explosives. One source called the Dalton and Harvard grads, “well-to-do junkies, not terrorists,” and Aaron Greene told the Post that he’s just an “outdoorsman” who planned to go out into the country and set off some “experimental fireworks.” Former bouncer Max Fish countered that the case should be taken more seriously since Green did time for stabbing him with a butcher knife. After hearing the latest details in the case, we have to side with Fish. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne says Greene recently told acquaintances that he was “making bombs” to “blow up” Washington Arch. It also seems he was starting to move past the planning stage; he was spotted sprinkling a white powder on the sidewalk inside Washington Square Park and hitting it with a rock, setting off an explosion.

Investigators believe the powder was the highly explosive chemical HMTD, which was found in the apartment Greene shares with Morgan Gliedman, leading police to evacuate nearby buildings. Police sources also say they found letters believed to be written by Greene that suggest he wasn’t all about peace and love, or even innocently blowing things up in the woods. One letter repeats the word “kill” and the phrase “kill them all,” and is signed the lightning-bolt symbol associated with Hitler’s SS.

On Wednesday, police raided the Orangeburg, New York home of correction officer Daniel Whittaker based on Greene’s claim that he’d given some of his weapons to “a friend in law enforcement.” They found several legally owned rifles. “They searched my house for no reason. I was charged with no crime,” said Whittaker. “There was no person charged in this area. All (the authorities) did was come and destroy my stuff.” Police say Greene is the “the focus of the investigation,” and Gliedman, who gave birth to their daughter while in custody, has been released on bail into a drug treatment facility.

Read more posts by Margaret Hartmann

Filed Under:
crimes and misdemeanors

via Daily Intelligencer http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/bomb-hippie-planned-to-blow-up-washington-arch.html

When it was reported last month that Mayor Bloomberg called Hillary Clinton to urge her to run for mayor in 2013, Hizzoner was highly offended that people would believe a story the New York Times corroborated with only three anonymous sources. That’s probably why the paper was sure to include confirmation from several of the other high-profile figures courted by Bloomberg in its latest piece on the mayor’s search for the perfect successor. The Times reports that in addition to Clinton, who received Bloomberg’s most formal solicitation, “conversations have occurred over dinners and by telephone, in tones both serious and playful,” with Senator Chuck Schumer, billionaire Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman, former Bloomberg deputy Edward Skyler, and former mayor of Philadelphia and governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell. While it’s long been presumed that Bloomberg planned to endorse City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, it seems he doesn’t feel she possesses wealth and fame required to hold such an incredibly important position. Rendell sums up Bloomberg’s predicament nicely:  “The mayor believes he is special,” he says. “He wanted somebody at a very high level to come in to do a job he has often said to me — and he’s not the only person who says it — is the second most difficult job in the country.”

Clinton, Schumer, and Skyler, who is now an executive at Citigroup, had no comment on the matter, so we may never know why they turned down an opportunity to spend their days squabbling with local lawmakers. While Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson denied the claims that Bloomberg encouraged Schumer or Zuckerman to run, the media mogul said otherwise. “A lot of people have talked to me about that possibility,” Zuckerman said. “He’s not the only person.” He added that he would love to be mayor, and joked, “If I could be appointed, I’d probably be serious about it.” The major stumbling block to Rendell’s candidacy is the fact that he lives in Pennsylvania and is only familiar with Manhattan, where he grew up. “I’m not sure how many times I’ve stepped foot in Brooklyn,” he said. “I have no understanding of Queens and no understanding of the Bronx.”

Bloomberg may be overlooking another potential candidate standing right next to him (not his sign language interpreter, though he’s asked nearly everyone else). While it seemed that after months of dancing around the idea Ray Kelly had decided not to run, the Times reports that the police commissioner’s allies “are again discussing the idea of his entering the race as a Republican.” There’s still hope that the real election will be more interesting than the race involving Bloomberg’s fantasy team.

Read more posts by Margaret Hartmann

Filed Under:
the third terminator
,michael bloomberg
,christine quinn
,2013 mayoral race

via Daily Intelligencer http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/bloomberg-courted-many-high-profile-successors.html

Chuck Hagel, Obama’s nominee for secretary of Defense, has already been called a homophobe and a foe to Israel, and now some have found another fault with the president’s recent picks:  They’re all white men. With the recent nominations of John Kerry for secretary of State and John Brennan for director of the CIA, as well as a short list for Treasury secretary that doesn’t appear to include any women, the Washington Post notes that Obama may wind up with a group that’s less diverse than the Cabinet in his first term, or even George W. Bush’s Cabinet. When questioned about the increasingly homogenous national security team, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president “insists on diversity on the lists that he considers for the job” but “in the end he’ll make the choice that he believes is best for the United States.” Apparently he resisted the urge to point out that Obama’s attempt to nominate another woman to replace Hillary Clinton didn’t go over too well.

Read more posts by Margaret Hartmann

Filed Under:
barack obama
,love and war
,comings and goings
,chuck hagel
,susan rice

via Daily Intelligencer http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/obama-criticized-for-packing-cabinet-with-men.html