Bloomberg 1 -- Democracy 0

Last week, Barack Obama teased Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the Al Smith Dinner by noting that, as Bloomberg tried to alter term limits so he could run again, Bill Clinton replied, "You can do that?" Joke's over. In a run around democracy that not even Chavez or Putin attempted, Bloomberg muscled the City Council to go along. Is Schwarzenegger next?

Twice, New York City voters, in 1993 and 1996 -- voted to limit the terms in office of all Council members and the mayor to two four year terms. That forced Rudy Giuliani out in 2001 and enabled Mike Bloomberg to run and win (against me). Then after seven years of supporting these two referenda, Mike Bloomberg last month did a 180 and said that the financial crisis required him to be able to run again to save the City. And although 89% of New Yorkers in a poll this week said that the only fair way to alter term limits was by another voter referendum, not a City Council law, Bloomberg got the Council to support his law by a vote of 29-22.

First, it's just wrong that Mike Bloomberg says it was too late to put a voter referendum on the ballot this November when it was the Mayor himself who stalled for nine months putting it on this November ballot in the hope he could wire the Council for a fast, favorable vote. As we say in the law, he now has "unclean hands" to exploit his own inaction.

Second, it's just wrong that the deciders of this momentous issue are 51 Council members thinking about their self-interest -- their jobs, paychecks, perks -- rather than voters weighing the public interest. When the annual pension of pensioneers is determined, those deciding aren't all pensioneers.

Third, it's just wrong that the Mayor and Council are trying to railroad this through in three weeks in order to avoid a public backlash...when it takes three years to enact horse carriage legislation. Is horse carriage legislation more important than the way we choose our government?

Fourth, it's ridiculous to cite as a reason that only Bloomberg can get us through the current national financial crisis, since he was manuvering last Spring to change term limits before this crisis hit in early September and since the mayor has zero national or local jurisdiction over this credit crunch. The crisis is an alibi, an afterthought, not an argument.

And it's really wrong for the Council Speaker and Mayor to bully various decision-makers, like the way members were threatened with the loss of committee chairmanships if they voted "wrong,", the way Council chairs were told they'd lose their positions if they voted their conscience, the way the original pro-limits advocate Ron Lauder was promised a seat on a 2010 Charter Commission in exchange for his support, the way the Mayor's City Hall staff actually called groups receiving his charitable gifts -- at a quarter of a billion dollars annually -- to coerce them to testify for their benefactor, and the way the Mayor's office explicitly threatened to bury any Democratic nominee 2009 with $80 million in negative ads in 2009. That's not very nice.

Can you imagine if Ike or Clinton had tried to alter federal term limits to stay in office in 1960 or 2000?

That's why all major good governent groups in NYC opposed this undemocratic, self-dealing power grab as "disgraceful." Which is the strong word Mike Bloomberg himself used to describe this ploy when he opposed it earlier this year, before he flip-floppd.

This doesn't pass the laugh or smell test. But the Mayor should be careful what he wishes for. When ambition called, he opted to be more monarch than mayor and in so doing sabotaged his reputation of being a straight-talking, selfless, non-partisan mayor.

Comments

[ObamanextPresident]

Official Broadcast System: "Warning....This is a test...this is only a test...should a real emergency occur (a global economic crisis, et al, causing W to declare he must stay in office) you will not receive a warning." ....Just testing the backlash we might be up against.

Keith Olbermann put Bloomberg in Worst Persons for this sham. I hope New York says NO! We want our Democracy back!

Thank you Mark Green.

[larry278]

Mark, Mike Bloomberg won't get too far into his 3d term before Barack Hussein Obama calls Mike to Washington, DC to clean up the mess from the melt-down, winding down the wars in Iraq & Iran, finding employment for the returning troops & returning them to useful civilian lives, 8 years of W & Cheney-including the efforts of W & Cheney's sychophant­s-associat­es-cohohor­ts-operati­ves. After Mike has spent 2 years within the confines of the beltway the score will be: Bloomberg 12, Democracy 0. There is also a remote chance that A Bloomberg won't be re-elected & B Mike will be caught in a scandal which will combine the very worst of NJ's former Gov McG & NY's former Gov Spitz.
The Yankees will also abandon the Bronx for a Japanese city to be named later & the Mets will move to a domed stadium in Mexico City. The Giants will move to London. The Jets will move to LA. The Rangers will move to Berlin. New York City will get a CFL franchise. NYC & LI's pro basketball teams are working out a deal to move to Moscow & Hong Kong for part of the season & to Madrid & Paris for the rest of their games.

[singsing]

What's the cure for amnesia, again?

"The hardline stand continued into the Bloomberg administration, exacerbated by security concerns after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. "The Bloomberg administration is less forgiving of dissent than the Giuliani administration, and I never thought I'd say that," Dan Perez, a lawyer who has represented protestors, said in 2004.

As people throughout the world prepared to protest the war in Iraq on Feb. 15, 2003, the police department, citing security concerns, denied New York demonstrators a permit to march by the United Nations. Instead, police directed demonstrators to block-long pens created with barricades. More than 250 people were arrested, many for trying to get to the rally. Others tried to leave but were prevented from doing so...."

http://www.gothamgazette.com/print/2312

[singsing]

Re 7days just now:

It's not McBush's McCarthyism, its what the GoP has morphed into under Rovian direction, thus non bushies like Hagel are out and PNAC Addington Norquistian lemming sycophants without a conscience are in.

The fact that the DLC and BlueDogs who control the other side of the isle have tacitly and openly advocated for the same objectives, as in retroactive FISA immunity, Habeas Corpus, CIA extraordinary rendition with secret prisons, under the CORPORATE media radar funding ongoing covert operations into Iran with the Kyl-Lieberman sense of the senate, lack of accountability for Katrina response and recovery debacle, inaction HAVA voter registration exact match and ongoing Choicepoint purge lists without prosecution for US ATTORNEY firings liked to refusal to pursue political indictments, NO BID MEDICARE DRUGS, WINDFALL EXXON PROFIT TAX and IMPEACHMENT OFF THE TABLE, etc., means anyway you cut it in 4 words; WE'RE STILL FLUCKED INDEFINITELY!!!

http://www.whatnowtoons.com/images/wn_138_color.jpg

[Citizen54]

For his next post, Mr Green should include the names of all the City Councilors who voted to overturn the will of the people, and do some reporting as to what motivated their vote.

[TheIndependenceParty]

Ah, so we truly are a nation of men and not laws!

When a person becomes so indispensable that we bend the laws to allow them special privilege, the other laws come to mean nothing, ... but then that has become the mantra in the Bush years all across America.

[WritusMaximus]

What? The citizens didn't get to vote? Sounds like a dictatorship to me. And to think that it all began in New York City! Once the economic center of the world, now the birthplace of the American Dictatorship!

[LeonBNJ]

Mr. Green has been a far more progressive past canidate for mayor of NY, but somehow the voters didn't choose him. Why? When you have mega-rich canidates who pour something liek $80 million into their campigns, they are not doing that for 'the people', but to make sure the business community people like Bloomburg are kept in power, hold down taxes on big business, give them huge tax and contract subsidies and not spend as much as needed on schools, health care to the poor, cops and other real needs.

[InofTouch]

Can FDR get away with this beacause Bloomberg is useing his argument

[hrhkat]

I kinda like Bloomberg, he is kinda liberal on alot of issues...but 3 terms in office? um no sorry Castro, you might be kinda liberal, but New York has tons of more liberal people to replace you...and they should. Term limits are there for a reason, if he wins a third term, what makes every other mayor, and government figure not uphold their limits? It seems rather easy to change if he wins, and we will see public office become a dictatorsh­ip...Might as well have Lords, Counts, Dukes, and all the crap, because these people will be ruling over us foras longas they live..and their children will inherit their title. Mayor=Lord, Congressman=Duke etc. Please dont let this happen...stop him from ever having a third term limit.

[rpr]

Campaigns and offices have been for sale for many years. Why else would Barack Obama need the biggest campaign ever although he is the better candidate by a wide margin?
Everybody knows that we have the best democracy money can buy. Why should it be any different in NYC?
As long as campaign financing isn't 100% reformed this will not change.

[4evryoung]

I don't know Bloomberg but I do know that the citizens of New York decided that term limits are in the city's best interest.

I have a problem with politicians(or anyone) that don't believe the rules apply to them.

[anfractuous]

Why is everyone so upset? The law, in its wisdom, allows anyone to spend $100 million of their fortune to run for mayor.
If Bloomberg was so omnicient, he would have made NYC less beholden to Wall Street during his reign. As it is, he's tried to consign anyone who's not in finance to a career in sheet folding for those who are. This represents his irreplacable expertise.
There actually was a time when NYC could manufacture things besides suicidal electrons. Perhaps we should investigate the possibility of returning to that model and ride out on a rail those whose lives orbit Wall Street like a toxic comet.

[jsarets]

We already have term limits. They're called ELECTIONS! If NYC voters don't think that Bloomberg should have a third term, then they shouldn't vote for him. It's an insult to our intelligence to suggest that voters don't know corruption when they see it.

Progressives oppose mandatory minimums, for example, not just because of racial bias but because we trust judges to dole out fair sentences on a case-by-case basis. So why don't we trust ourselves to judge whether sticking with Bloomberg is the right move in these somewhat unusual circumstances?

[Scarabus]

Does Bloomberg have aspirations to the presidency, as he hinted? Then are voters not entitled to ask whether he would abuse the presidency just as he has the mayoralty? Imagine: We would not have just McCain the Bush wannabe running this year, but the genuine article. It's up to New Yorkers to decide what happens in their own city. But voters across our nation should most definitely be paying close attention.