Rick Lazio seems like a pleasant and apparently rather well-adjusted guy. For that very reason, you have to wonder what he's doing in New York politics.

If you want an idea of how pathetic the New York Republican party currently is, here's a hint. For Senate, they nominated the husband of Paul McCartney's girlfriend.

These parties tend to devolve into a legal extortion system -- demanding patronage or financial support from the Democratic and GOP nominees in return for giving them a second, or third, or fourth line on the ballot.

For those of us who lived through the aftermath of Sept. 11, the story of the emergency responders has a chilling familiarity.

Ah, the New York street fair. What could be more ... boring? The fairs are a fixed part of summer in the city, one that taxi drivers detest, some community groups love and regular residents regard warily.

The fight over the budget in Albany is impossible to explain, and even if I tried to do so, it would just make you feel terrible about New York's wretched politics. So let's stick to the question of selling wine in grocery stores.