Comments on: Anti-Pricing Lawmakers Dismayed by Potential Backlash

By: Delto

Delto — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:29:41 +0000

Remember another dumb move. Dinowitz has been working to get Senator Clinton elected president, not Senator Obama. Some of us also remember that Dinowitz endorsed Fernando Ferrer for mayor instead of Michael Bloomberg. A good bookie would say that the safest bet is always the candidate that Dinowitz decides not to endorse.

By: orloff jimmy

orloff jimmy — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:51:31 +0000

yup. dinowitz made a dumb move on congestion pricing and it’s going to come back to bite him big time. #5 soundview is right. if that little club of his cannont keep the local council seat, dinowitz is really going to be exposed as worthless. i heard that koppell is going to back one of his own guys against some stooge backed by dinowitz. it would be really funny if both of their puppets lost!

By: Soundview Sten

Soundview Sten — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:21:37 +0000

Just wait and see what happens to Jeffrey Dinowitz next year when he has no viable candidate to replace the term-limited Oliver Koppell in the New York City Council. Each day Assemblyman Dinowitz gets more and more isolated, and his political world grows smaller and smaller. Now all the main members of his Benjamin Franklin Club are going to run against each other for Koppell’s seat. What a mess. The Bronx Democratic machine should just finish Dinowitz off.

By: Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli — Tue, 06 May 2008 04:22:33 +0000

I think “special interests” have to be considered in the same way “terrorism” is considered. One persons terrorist is anothers freedom fighter. Attaching the pejorative to it only matters if you are already a partisan. Much like the pejorative “lobbyist”. Lobbyist = special interest = advocate = progressive = revolutionary = freedom fighter = terrorist. People have political positions and they choose from a menu of methods to put those positions across. The deeper you are drawn into this web determines how much any single issue will determine your political activity and preclude any further coalitions or coordination with other groups or individuals.

By: gecko

gecko — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:06:05 +0000

#3 floyd, If you mean by “special interests” environmental organizations can you explain why since it seems that the air, water, life-on-earth, etc. belongs to everyone?

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:03:03 +0000

(Why do the pols need to represent special interests? They are suppose to represent the citizens in their districts.)

Because the special interests are organized, pay attention, and give money, and the citizens don’t. In general citizens have no voice because there are no contested elections. Cross the special interests, and an election there may be.

Right now just about every special interest is making an all-out effort to keep the Republicans in charge of the State Senate. On the other side, they are content to own Sheldon Silver who owns the members via the flow of money. There is no ideology.

By: floyd

floyd — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:55:51 +0000

Why do the pols need to represent special interests? They are suppose to represent the citizens in their districts.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:27:27 +0000

It’s a group project – if you don’t get the job done as a team, you fail. Just “supporting” something isn’t enough anymore – action and leadership is required.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:16:24 +0000

(The league was dissatisfied with the Legislature’s environmental record lately.)

I’ll have to add the environment to my list of reasons to be dissatisfied with the legislature. I’ll put it down at number 20 or so.

I’ll say it again — as bad as it was, and as much as I disagree with the result, the legislature’s handling of the congestion pricing issue was better than the way it has handled any issue in as long as I can remember.

If those upset about this issue were aware of what has gone on otherwise, they’d be nuts.