Tag Archives: New York politics

Spitzer’s bad year just got worse

Eliot Spitzer’s year — which was a rocky journey to begin with — has ended with a crash.

The former New York governor and his wife, Silda, are divorcing. OK, so that’s not so uncommon these days. In Spitzer’s case, though, it’s a rather public parting of the ways.

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/193986-spitzers-split-after-26-years-on-christmas-eve

Spitzer was governor of New York until 2008 when he resigned after admitting to fooling around with hookers. Silda stood stone-faced by his side when he quit. Then he had a brief fling as a CNN commentator. The network dumped him when his ratings tanked. This year, Spitzer ran for New York City comptroller and lost that race, too.

Then reports began to surface that Spitzer had struck up a relationship with an aide to New York Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio. Sometime during all of this, Silda and Eliot separated and were living apart.

Christmas Eve wasn’t full of much cheer for the former New York power couple as they announced their pending divorce.

I don’t usually spend too much time hashing this kind of thing over, but Spitzer’s inability to bow out of the limelight after the hooker blowup makes him an easy target.

He should have just called it quits back then, retreated into private life and sought to restore his marriage behind closed doors. Spitzer didn’t do that. He continued to thrust himself into the spotlight, apparently forgetting that in this age of prying eyes and ears everywhere no one can escape public scrutiny.

Maybe now he’ll disappear from public view.

Weiner poll numbers numbers take a dive

This is what I’m talking about.

Anthony Weiner – aka Carlos Danger – is taking a serious hit in public standing as revelations about his latest “sexting” escapade start to sink in with New York City voters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/25/poll-anthony-weiner_n_3653422.html

Weiner revealed this week that he engaged in lewd communications via the Internet after he resigned his congressional seat in 2011. He called a press conference with his wife, Huma Abedin, standing with him. The New York mayoral candidate vowed to “move forward” and will stay in the race until the end.

Good for him, and that’s not because I want him to win.

The former frontrunner is now running second behind fellow Democrat Christine Quinn, who’s about 9 percentage points ahead of Weiner.

Many pols and pundits have called for Weiner to drop out of the race. I maintain he should stay in and let the voters have their say. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that a majority of New York Democrats will nominate him. If they do, that’s to their discredit – but they have to live with the result. Thus, it’s their call to make. Not mine. Not anyone else’s.

My guess is that Weiner’s polling will continue to slide as primary day approaches. If he loses, then we’ll be done with the tasteless jokes. Let’s hope, too, the nation will be done with Anthony Weiner.

Get some help, Mr. Weiner

Anthony Weiner has just held an extraordinary news conference in which he admits that some of the “sexting” messages he sent out came after he resigned his congressional seat in 2011.

But everything’s OK, said the New York City mayoral candidate, because he and his wife, Huma Abedin, have repaired their marriage and she’s forgiven him.

Well, forgive this, Mr. Weiner: The people of NYC should take a dim view of these latest revelations into your (lack of) character.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/23/weiner-comments-on-new-sexually-charged-messages/?hpt=hp_t1

This is a preposterous turn in the life of a once-promising Democratic lawmaker who now wants to run the nation’s largest city. It’s NYC’s standing as the financial capital of the universe that makes this story important in places far away from the Big Apple.

Weiner got in trouble two years ago when it was revealed he had sent lewd text messages and tweets that showed parts of his anatomy that should remain, um, private. He quit Congress after first denying that his body part on display and then admitting it. Now we learn that even after leaving office, he kept doing it.

Now he wants to New York voters to elect him mayor and take the reins of arguably the most important city in the world?

Good grief.

Is there no limit to this man’s gall?

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