When we think of the things we're thankful for, do you think anybody puts New York government on the list?

Nah. Creative types with a wide vision might pause to give thanks that Bernie Madoff is in jail and Bruce Springsteen is still touring. But nobody raises a...

The Rudy Giuliani brand has deteriorated so much that it's hard to imagine an elective office for which he might be suited.

But the image of Rudy running for governor did have its fascination. For all his self-promotion as an expert on leadership, his real talent is for...

The outcry against trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused terrorists in New York has a strange flavor to it. The same people who tell us on a daily basis that we have to stand up to terrorism seem to feel that it's too scary to have them...

The state legislature is back for another round in Albany and Gov. David Paterson is threatening to keep them there until they do something responsible about New York's budget problems.

Since there are only a handful of people in the Assembly and Senate who would be missed back...

Having lived in cities almost all my life, I get nervous about celebrating positive change. Cities are by nature ironic, and if your city hears you extolling the increased cleanliness of the streets, it will send a garbage truck to turn over on your corner. Bask in the glory of...

Bernie Kerik's guilty plea was a tragedy for the former police commissioner and his family. Kerik has been destroyed as a public figure for some time now, and there's a temptation to just let the man go off to the slammer in peace.

But there is still...

For a normal mortal, Michael Bloomberg's 5-point mayoral win would be a healthy victory. For him, it looks like a desperate scraping of the barrel.

That's the burden that comes with being a multi-billionaire who can afford to clog the airwaves with more TV ads than the pharmaceutical...

If New York was mother to many of the evildoers in the financial disaster that sent the economy into a tailspin, it's also home to an avenging angel for the millions of ordinary Americans who lost billions of dollars in the meltdown.

The guy with the wings and the sword...

There is only one possible upside to the pathetic, miserable, appalling story of state Senator Hiram Monserrate: Teenagers are not generally known to take state legislators as role models.

Monserrate was found guilty of misdemeanor assault last week in the case involving the girlfriend who was slashed with...

Bill Thompson held up fairly well in Tuesday night's mayoral debate. Unfortunately, his staggering campaign needed more than a victory by a nose.

He needed the kind of moment in which Mayor Michael Bloomberg fell to the floor weeping, or suddenly admitted that he was an alien from...

The lengthy list of goodies from Albany today was extremely impressive even by the standards of our dysfunctional State Capitol. To wit:

-- The witness list in the corruption trial of former State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno includes several Republican state senators and a crew of major lobbyists....

If you failed to vote Tuesday, take heart. Nobody else did, either.

The turnout was memorable for its lowness. Still, the people who did show up for the runoff elections in New York City picked the next comptroller (John Liu) and public advocate (Bill de Blasio).

We...

Wow. Harsh.

The White House came crashing down on Gov. David Patterson over the weekend, letting it be known that the first African-American president would like New York's African-American governor to go away.

The fact that Patterson has terrible poll numbers isn't exactly a secret....

Imagine how surprised and delighted New Yorkers must have been this morning, when they awoke to find the city is embarking on a Democratic runoff -- a two-week political steel cage match to decide the nominations for public advocate and comptroller.

Yes, welcome to Round Two....

The September 11 commemorations have increasingly become a family affair. The rest of the country seems to have moved on, leaving New Yorkers to hold the ceremonies and revisit their memories.

Perhaps that's inevitable. And on one count, it's the way we ought to want it. The whole...

Congressman Peter King is not going to run for the Senate. And it's all the fault of Caroline Kennedy.

After an endless will-he-won't-he dance, King has announced that he won't challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand next year. He would have made the race, he said "if Caroline Kennedy were...

The rumor that Barack Obama wants to appoint David Paterson to a job in his administration is almost as old as Paterson's stint as governor. Since the vaguest part of the story is always the identity of the job (maybe an ambassadorship?) it's safe to assume that the rumor...

It's hardly a surprise that 58 percent of New Yorkers said their state government was "the worst" or "among the worst" in the country in a new Quinnipiac poll. The real shock was that 28 percent said it was "among the best." Perhaps instead of "New York state...

A while back, my wife and I took a helicopter ride around the Grand Canyon. I have learned since that this was an environmentally bad thing to do, and also somewhat risky. Our helicopter dipped and zoomed, and then suddenly jumped upward just at about the point we thought...

Rudy Giuliani used to call New York's Off-Track Betting operation the only bookie in the city that lost money. It still does. So much so that the board of directors is thinking about declaring bankruptcy. Apparently a state-run public benefit corporation is allowed to do this under some very rare...