The violent verbal assault on Mayor Bloomberg, initiated by Governor Paterson or his nearest and dearest, has flared out for the moment, but it will be remembered in Albany and New York City as a discouraging display of distemper.

 

In real life, most politicians have contempt for each other.  Over the years, I have heard enough of them speak privately to know that to be true.  In fact, it is a compliment to a staffer when he is allowed to hear the boss speak frankly about other people, or express his own feelings in unprintable language. It shows that the boss believes the staff member will use discretion by not repeating his master's remarks, except where it is totally appropriate.

The wisest words on the subject of what to say came from one of my former employers, Bess Myerson, who was commissioner of consumer affairs from 1969 to 1973.  She had a highly successful four-year run under Mayor Lindsay, and if she had not been ill at the time, she would probably have been elected City Council President that fall.  She would have run against incumbent Paul O'Dwyer, Carol Bellamy, Carter Burden, Abe Hirschfeld and Leonard Stavisky.  Bellamy won and served capably for eight years before challenging Mayor Koch unsuccessfully in 1985. She later served ten years (the maximum term allowed) as executive director of UNICEF.  Her four male rivals have passed away. She is living in Vermont, leading a nonprofit.

The unilateral war of words began Monday in a column on p2 of the Post by Fredric U. Dicker, the prize-winning Albany bureau chief who was Bernstein and Woodward in reporting Troopergate, which drove Governor Spitzer to distraction, a state from which he sought relief by a diverting but more dangerous distraction.  Link to the entire Dicker column, GOV BLASTS 'NASTY' MIKE, here. We will extract the juicier parts. We begin with the lede:

"Mayor Bloomberg is a nasty, untrustworthy, tantrum-prone liar who has little use for average New Yorkers like the 1500 workers who would have lost their jobs had OTB closed, a furious Gov. Paterson has said privately.  'He appears to be self-destructing,' the governor said.

"According to a source with firsthand knowledge of Paterson's comments, the governor said that during talks last week on OTB's future, Bloomberg threw the same kind of bizarre tantrums that disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer had been known for.

"He has the same kind of anger that reminds you of Spitzer," Paterson said. "I think he's starting to be concerned that he can't get anything done."

Dicker cited an anonymous source who quoted Paterson as saying, "His presidential thing didn't work out, term limits is looming to force him out, he's waiting and waiting to be asked to be vice president, congestion pricing didn't happen, he lost teacher tenure, the Jets stadium and OTB isn't going the way he wants it."

The abuse attributed to Gov. Paterson becomes more personal with these quotes: "It's obvious that Bloomberg has little use for the kind of people who come from Queens and Staten Island so how is he going to approach the people of Oswego and Lewis counties and Buffalo?"

"The people of New York City may be OK with the mayor taking off and flying to his private home in Bermuda every weekend, but if he did that at the state level, I think the people would send him a different message."

As expected, Gov. Paterson denied at a Monday press conference that he ever uttered those fighting words. His response led to Tuesday's Dicker column, TELL THE TRUTH, GOV.

"The laughable nature of Gov. Paterson's half-hearted denials that he called Mayor Bloomberg a tantrum-prone liar wouldn't be significant if New York's accidental governor hadn't vowed from the start to be different from other politicians and tell New Yorkers the truth. His denials were made all the more ridiculous by the fact that only a few people know the source of the story - and Paterson is one of them. That's right, the governor knows where - as we say in the media business - the story came from."

Dicker eviscerates the governor in his column. What rational person could believe that Dicker would manufacture such a story? If he did, he should receive the Jayson Blair treatment. But, and we quote Rule 29-T: "The trouble is, the charges are true." When Dicker reports the words of the governor and/or his key staff, obviously intended for publication and not given as background or confided to a personal friend.

Dicker continued: "Paterson's tirade against the mayor also extended to his staff and the City Council. He told friends he believes Bloomberg, a billiionaire, isn't getting honest advice from his staff 'because they're all afraid of him and his wealth.' And he said council members have repeatedly refused to stand up to the mayor because 'he's bought most of them off'."

Paterson's clincher, as quoted by Dicker: "We have a very good example of a person who had no defects with the public, and, all of a sudden, he's self-destructing."

Anyone with half a brain knows that while Paterson's remarks about Bloomberg may contain a grain or so of truth, there is nothing in the record to justify his using such intemperate language to express his distaste for an elected mayor who has had only kind things to say about the governor, much less the man who single-handedly made him lieutenant governor in 2006. But Rule 6 applies: "There is a reason for everything," and later we will inquire as to why he exploded.

Ben Smith, the Eminent Blogger, Makes a Judgment

Ben Smith, a pioneer political blogger now writing for Politico, expressed his views on the case: "Having a source deny publicly what he told you privately is a particular kind of breach of trust, and Dicker's story is a heated response."

We would say there are special circumstances in which a source could deny what he had said, say if he worked for a government agency or private corporation, and would be dismissed if his opinions were disclosed and attributed.

But for the governor of a state, unelected as he may be, to deny his own words the day they appear in print and yet fail to demand a retraction or point out specific errors of fact by the reporter, is most unusual. Monday afternoon's press conference creates a public controversy as to what he said, and to whom he said it. That is why it is sometimes wiser just to say, "No comment." In this situation, Paterson lacks what we call Rule 911: "Plausible deniability." Where else does he think Dicker got the story, from the tooth fairy?

The Sun Shines on the Story

Paterson's denial of what he was alleged to have said went unnoticed by the Times and the News, perhaps because the story was leaked to a competitor. It was reported only in Tuesday's Sun, whichcarried a page one story by Jacob Gershman, PATERSON'S ALLEGED REMARKS STIR ALBANY. The lede:

"As Governor Paterson sought to distance himself from a published report quoting him discharging a lengthy, blistering critique of Mayor Bloomberg, lawmakers and others in Albany were left wondering whether the alleged comments were just a blowing off of steam or the first salvo in a possible contest between the two leaders in 2010.

"Around the Capitol, lawmakers expressed amazement at the harshness of the remarks attributed to the normally even-keeled governor, who was quoted in the New York Post as calling Bloomberg 'a desperate, lame duck mayor who is out of touch with the common voter and filled with rage reminiscent of Eliot Spitzer's."

The Ascent of Paterson

The crack at Spitzer was considered odd since Eliot was the man who plucked Paterson from the Senate minority and installed him on the Democratic ticket, derailing the campaign of Leecia Eve, daughter of an African-American deputy speaker of the assembly, who was homeland security adviser to Senator Clinton, a Harvard Law graduate and practicing attorney in Buffalo, the western metropolis of the Empire State.

Paterson's father Basil, was a state senator, deputy mayor under Ed Koch, and secretary of state under Mario Cuomo. Highly regarded, Paterson Sr. practices law in a top firm in Mineola. He is known to be a friend of labor, frequently representing unions. David Paterson, a Hofstra Law graduate, was elected to the Harlem senate seat his father once held. He served twenty-one years, and was chosen minority leader in 2002.

Michael Goodwin Weighs in, Scolding the Governnor.

The controversy is explained and amplified in Michael Goodwin’s perceptive column printed in Tuesday's Daily News on p33, headed GOV'S BATTY BLOOMY BASHING.  You can link to the full article here; it is well worth reading. We quote some choice lines below. 

"When Eliot Spitzer suddenly went ballistic on Mayor Bloomberg last year, a surprised Bloomy asked a friend, Why did he do that?"

[CULTURAL DIGRESSION: On driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, Spitzer said Bloomberg was 'wrong at every level - dead wrong, factually wrong, legally wrong, morally wrong, ethically wrong.' Consciously or not, Spitzer probably derived this litany from the Munchkins' song rejoicing at the demise of the Wicked Witch of the East. Link here to read those delightful lyrics.] Now, back to Goodwin:

"Fast forward to new governor David Paterson's blistering attack on the mayor, and again Bloomy can ask the same question: 'Why did he do that?'

"Spitzer, of course, was psycho. What's Paterson's excuse?

"Inquiring minds at City Hall and Albany are scratching their heads for an answer. Theories range from simple frustration to political calculation to clumsy work by Paterson's staff.

"The only thing not seriously being considered is Paterson's claim he is an innocent bystander. The chance he was totally caught off guard by the published report and never said any of the things attributed to him gets snowball-chance-in-hell odds.

“The reason is that Paterson would be furious that somebody with enough credibility to be the source would make up the inflammatory quotes and put them in his name.  But there was no obvious fury when Paterson denied responsibility.  Nor is there any effort by his administration to find the unnamed source quoted in the store.  No effective chief could let an infraction like that go unpunished.”

Who is Credible? Who Is Incredible?

We credit Fred Dicker of the Post for reporting the ramblings and refuting the ridiculous representations of a governor betrayed by his tongue.

Governor Paterson does have reasons to be upset. His bills are going nowhere, so far. The trivia on which he has announced agreement comprise a small addendum to his legislative agenda, which is based on the sensible property tax cap he proposed..

His frustration comes in part from his buddies in Albany, Leader Bruno and Speaker Silver, to whom Randi Weingarten and the United Federation of Teachers obviously count for more than the substitute governor. That is not a rap on Paterson, since the UFT was also more important than Spitzer. But at least with Spitzer there was an argument, even, God forbid, curses. He tried, before he went down in a whirlpool of his own making.

Now the legislative kingpins who never met a deficit they couldn't increase are bringing New York closer to becoming a financial basket case. And who is it that is excoriated in an explosion of rage. It's Bloomberg, the man who balanced the city's budget, who set aside billions for future health costs. The mayor has a background in fiscal matters which Paterson may not have had the opportunity to acquire since he has no private sector experience.

Why Did He Do It?

We proceed to the question: Why did the Governor so evidently lose his temper.

The controvery is about Off-Track Betting. The idea of driving out bookies by giving their livelihood to a city agency was enacted into law, and Howard (Howie the Horse) Samuels, Undersecretary of Commerce under LBJ, and Democratic aspirant for governor, was appointed head of OTB by Mayor Lindsay in 1971. Samuels was aided by the talented Ken Auletta, who has since become a distinguished author.

The municipal betting business prospered and made millions of dollars for the city treasury, while providing employment for some 1500 people, some of whom were politically chosen, and appreciated that fact.

The tracks took a piece of the action, as did the New York Racing Association, and the State of New York. So many entities were taking bites of the proceeds, that the net to the city fell below zero. Mayor Bloomberg said the city would not run a betting operation that lost money, and said he would close it down on June 15, thus giving the state months to take it over.

After long negotiations, the state agreed to take over OTB. The city wanted to continue to receive the $19 million it once earned from the betting parlors. The state refused. More negotiations failed to bridge the gap as the deadline for shutting down OTB (June 15) approached.

The Governor announced a press conference in his New York office at 3 p.m. Friday, announcing that the issues had been resolved, and OTB would stay open, with the city receiving a pittance (in the city's view).

The Mayor balked at this plan, did not attend the press conference, and two hours later issued a statement, linked to here, that expressed the city's dissatisfaction. with the financial terms of the state takeover. The governor apparently believed that an agreement had been reached, and he was distressed that the mayor was balking.

Two bills were being prepared for the legislature to pass, which they would pass under a message of necessity issued by the governor.

One was a state takeover of OTB with the city's consent, the other was a takeover without the city's consent. The state has the legal right to do that, this country is the United STATES of America, and the cities are merely creatures of the state. Sorry about that, blame the founding fathers.

What actually happened between the two staffs we do not know. Possibly enough was said to allow the optimists among them to report to their principals that agreement had been reached. If there never was agreement, the people who misrepresented the facts should be reassigned to less sensitive duties. Our guess, based on experience, is that this is a Rule 30-T situation: "The truth lies somewhere in between."

BTW, this article is not meant as an encomium to Mayor Bloomberg. He has his own temper to deal with, but usually confines it. He sometimes gives short shrift to the sufferings of the multitude, but he usually returns to an appropriate degree of solicitude. He does not call the press to denounce people with whom he disagrees on an issue. Like all high officials, he receives limited, rose colored messages from his staff and petitioners. We do not know if he is aware of how much of what he is told consists of lies. But he has run a decent, honest administration, and kept the peace in New York.

The Governor was upset because his press conference did not go as planned, and he thought the Mayor had reneged on an agreement reached previously.

The Mayor was upset because he felt the city was being screwed on the money issue, and bullied into losing a revenue stream it had worked hard to develop, but which had turned into a losing proposition because of state taxation of payouts. He denied that he had reached any agreement with the Governor.

The Speaker and Leader sided with the Governor because, while they scrap with each other from time to time, the dysfunctional Albany family sometimes comes together to fight New York City's interests when they differ from those of the state.

All the triumvirs, Governor Pataki, the Republican Senate and the Democratic Assembly, united to repeal the city's commuter tax in 1999, a decision which by now has cost the city about four billion dollars. Compared to that, OTB is petit larceny.

Albany may well repeat its behavior if another issue arises which divides the state and city. The irony here is that the governor is a Democrat from upper Manhattan, the speaker is a Democrat from lower Manhattan, and most members of the Democratic assembly majority caucus are from the city of New York.

Can it be the air in Albany that causes these lawmakers to forget their origins? Or do they feel a greater responsibility to serve all New Yorkers, unencumbered by provincialism or self-interest? What magnetic force compels all of them to line up in a row?

All we know is empirical, we send up young bulls, and they are somehow transformed into sheep. Baaaah.