Hillary Clinton next SoS; Nydia Velazquez to Senate?

Looking pretty certain at this point that Obama will appoint Hillary to Secretary of State . . . I was pretty sure that Hillary would get (offered) prominent placement in the Obama administration, and this could go a long way to satisfying Hillary supporters. I think she'd do a good job.

Of more pressing importance for us in NY is who will get her seat? I'm hoping for Nydia Velazquez, currently one of our solid local Congressmembers (I'm in Yvette Clarke's district, but right near the edge and the two districts are adjacent.)

There will be tough competition for the spot I'm sure, especially as upstate residents clamor for the seat. But Velazquez would be an excellent candidate for the spot, and certainly good for NYC just when we need federal help more than ever.

Obama Wins Big; Dems To Take Majority in NY State Senate

And I feel like a million pounds have been lifted off of my shoulders!

Many of the things I want to happen in NYC over the next several years (mostly huge infrastructure investments) were predicated on the Democrats taking control of the White House and expanding majorities in Congress. Now that that is a reality, we can actually get down to the business of rebuilding the country that the GOP has driven near to bankruptcy and ruin.

Investing in our infrastructure (transit, clean energy, clean water, etc.) is what will get the city and the country back on its feet. I am fired up!

Also, having spent half the day in Queens today, and half of Thursday as well, it was highly gratifying to see Joe Addabbo pick off Serph Maltese . . . we're going to have a Democratic State Senate for the first time since 1964 . . . 10 years before I was born!

Devin Cohen For Civil Court, 1st District

It is hard to find a more committed public servant than Devin Cohen. Anyone who has seen Devin in action at Community Board 6 or responding to a crisis as an EMT knows that Devin is compassionate, dedicated and truly cares about the community. An attorney, a long-time community activist and solid Democrat, Devin is running for Civil Court Judge and we would be fortunate to have his service.

Devin can't ask for money, but I'm happy to do so for him. There's a fundraiser for Devin tomorrow night - details are below. I hope to see you there.

Wednesday July 9th
Fundraiser for Devin Cohen for Civil Court Judge
at the home of Harley Diamond and Jonathan Lovett
363 Washington Ave, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
6:30-8:30 pm

Obama: Invest In Rail Infrastructure

It's been so long, I almost forgot what leadership looked like. This is change we can believe in:

We can invest in rail, so that cities like Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis are connected by high-speed trains, and folks have alternatives to air travel.

Barack Obama, via Matthew Yglesias via Streetsblog via my Blackberry.

Long time readers know that high speed intercity rail is one of my dreams for this country. If you've ever ridden the TGV in France, you know what we're missing. I hear the new AVE in Spain is even nicer.

Brooklyn Politics Roundup

Last night brought a round of endorsement meetings at local political clubs.

At IND last night, the club endorsed:
Assembly, 52nd - Joan Millman (Incumbent)
Female District Leader - Joanne Simon (Incumbent)
Male District Leader - Alan Fleischmann (Incumbent)
State Senate, 18th - Velmanette Montgomery (Incumbent)
State Senate, 20th - Eric Adams (Incumbent)
State Senate, 25th - Marty Connor (Incumbent)

Challengers Tony Herbert (Senate - 18th) and Dan Squadron (Senate - 25th) were also on hand to present their cases to the club, but had a difficult time making inroads against two fairly popular incumbents.

In Other News
The Brooklyn Paper (among others) reports that Mike McMahon (City Council District 49) has been endorsed by the Staten Island Democrats to run for outgoing GOP Congressman Fossella's seat in the 13th Congressional District. From the Paper's ubiquitous Mike McLaughlin,

Staten Island’s Democratic County Committee voted 131-40 in favor of McMahon on Wednesday night — and the councilman told The Brooklyn Paper that Brooklyn Democrat Party boss Vito Lopez, the Bushwick assemblyman, had also agreed to back him. Lopez did not return a deadline call.
But even though he has the support of both county machines, McMahon will face a primary challenge from Steve Harrison, the plucky Bay Ridge lawyer who lost to Fossella in 2006 and told supporters this week that he would fight on. Harrison was not allowed to speak at Wednesday’s meeting until after McMahon had been selected. His supporters stormed out.

With GOP in total disarray, the primary is going to be where all the excitement is this year.
~

NY-13: Fossella Not Running; Recchia Out?

Swing State Project has a post up with speculation on candidates . . . potentially one or more Staten Island Dems will challenge Steve Harrison for the Democratic nomination and speculation that Domenic Recchia will drop out, while the GOP is looking for a successor to Fossella, who announced he will not stand for reelection. (Ya think?)

Another interesting race this year, as the national Republican party implodes.

One Last Post On Fossella

Commenter Slappy over at Gothamist had this to say on the latest news on Fossella:

So tired of hearing about the sex lives of politicians. Its their political, not personal actions that are important. If there was more expose about what they are doing that really affects all of us, it might be more interesting. But I don't really care about their personal lives.

Ben Franklin contracted syphilis. Poor guy. So what.

It's a good point. I take some glee when real family values hypocrites like Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Ted Haggard, or others flame out. And I'll be glad to see Fossella lose his seat in the election later this year. But it's HYPOCRISY that makes me angry, not who's shtupping who or has engaged in some stupid drunken behavior.

Excessive prying into people's private failings is corrosive, and ultimately, the calls on Fossella to resign his job are overblown. What if your banker, insurance agent, personal trainer, doctor, or other professional exhibited the same failings? Should they be forced to quit as penance? Wear a scarlet letter?

Fossella will almost certainly lose his seat in November. He's damaged his family life, perhaps irreparably. But nowhere has it been said that these failings had anything to do with his job performance. The people can choose to turn him out of office in November, or he can decide not to run again. But resignation? Let's keep some perspective here.

I say this as a staunch Democrat who is eagerly looking forward to picking up that seat. But let's keep our fairness and humanity intact. I wonder how perfect are those who are piously calling for Vito Fossella's head right now.

Clinton Can Not Be Obama's Vice President

Matt Yglesias hits the important notes on why Hillary can not be Obama's choice for VP.

This reflects, I believe, an incredibly damaging mindset that's been crippling the Democratic Party for years and the prospect of excising this mindset is the single most appealing thing about the prospect of Obama being the nominee. Clinton's "street cred" on national security consists, of course, of being massively wrong on the most important national security issue of her career. Paradoxically, a lot of folks find her massive wrongness on this hugely important issue reassuring because they and their friends were also wrong and they view having made the right call to be a suspicious quality. After all, the Iraq War may have led to thousands of U.S. deaths, tens of thousands of U.S. casualties, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths, and millions of Iraqi refugees all at a cost of over $1 trillion and in ways that's damaged the strategic position of the United States, but war opponents were all a bunch of hippies.

Seriously, who thinks this would be a good idea, except Republicans, the few pro-war Dems left out there, and the corporate media?

Hillary rightly or wrongly galvanizes the right-wingers in this country, and would bring them out in droves. She would also undermine the message of change. I strongly believe that an Obama/Clinton ticket would be weaker than virtually any other combination.

Pick someone else without the baggage and negatives. (h/t Atrios)

UPDATE: The Observer also has a piece on whether Obama can afford to eschew Clinton and a so-called "Unity Ticket". The upshot? Yes he can!

Fossella Love Child

What a week it's been.

If it had just been the DWI, Republican Congressman Vito Fossella (Brooklyn & Staten Island) probably could have hung on this year. But now that he's acknowledged an affair and a love child, he's got to be finished.

Fossella's got two experienmced opponents coming at him in the form of Domenic Recchia and Steve Harrison. Long time readers will recall that Domenic Recchia (along with Simcha Felder and Bill deBlasio) strongly support our efforts to improve subway service on the Culver Line (full express and local service).

I hope we can keep the Democratic primary civil. If we win this seat, we make the NYC congressional delegation 100% Democratic. A strengthened NYC delegation will help us realize major projects like the Cross Harbor Tunnel, the Gowanus Expressway Tunnel, and other major infrastructure programs that require federal funds.

Hilarious Parody of Matthews/Russert

For anyone who is a political junkie, but sick to death of TV pundits, this is awesome.

Obama/Gore '08!

Last night was the final nail in the coffin for Clinton's campaign. Truth be told, her campaign has been dead man walking for two months, but lingers on. After two solid months of negative campaigning against Obama she was unable to turn the tide. It's over. She'll officially pack it in before May is through.

In a bit of poetic justice, the "gas tax holiday" pander blew up in her face, contributing to her disappointing showing in Indiana (the barest squeaker of a win, where she was previously poling a double-digit victory). That kind of pandering is just insulting, and it solidified any doubts that middle-of-the-road voters may have had about her integrity.

In any case, we can now say definitively what I've been saying to friends since September: Hillary Clinton will not be the Democratic nominee for President in 2008. Which brings me back to the "dream ticket" I proposed almost one year ago: Gore/Obama '08!

Gore would make a fine Vice President . . . hell, he already has 8 years on the job experience. Give him total responsibility for Energy and Environmental policy and he just might want the job.

Congressman Weiner: Hillary or Gas Tax?

Still waiting for a substantive response from the Weiner camp on McCain/Clinton's incredibly stupid, pandering "Gas Tax Holiday" plan.

Meanwhile, condemnation of the plan is virtually universal from every economist or policy wonk on either side of the aisle. Here's Mayor Mike:

Mayor Bloomberg is criticizing a proposal to suspend the federal gas tax during the summer months, a plan backed by senators Clinton and McCain, as "about the dumbest thing I've heard in an awful long time, from an economic point of view." . . . . Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday he thought, "In this case, Obama had it right."

Asked about a proposal by the state Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, to apply a similar policy to New York state's gas tax — about 33 cents a gallon — over the summer, Mr. Bloomberg repeated his objections.

"I just do not think that it is intelligent policy and it's not a good energy policy," he said.

This is literally among the worst policy ideas I've ever heard. What disgusts me is that I am certain that Clinton is smart enough to know this . . . but is pandering anyway, going for the low-information voters.

Congressman Weiner, a few short months ago, was absolutely correct to say that we need an increased Federal gas tax dedicated to transportation and especially transit improvements. That is still correct today, and I hope that Rep. Weiner will reiterate his call for a responsible gas tax policy.

Fossella Popped For DWI

From the Washington Post:

Rep. Vito J. Fossella (R-N.Y.) was arrested overnight in Alexandria and charged with driving while intoxicated, court records showed today.

Fossella is the only Republican currently representing NYC in Congress . . . for now.

He will be challenged in the election by either Domenic Recchia or Steve Harrison, depending who wins the Democratic primary.

This will help.

Clinton, Schumer, McCain Pandering On Gas Taxes

Reuters - Clinton-McCain gas tax holiday slammed as bad idea
Newsweek - Political Pandering
Matt Yglesias - "real harm is done to people's lives by this sort of gimmickry"
Streetsblog - Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton: Where Is the Leadership?
TIME - Clinton joins McCain in the race for panderer in chief
Paul Krugman/New York Times - Gas tax follies

Again, this is the sort of bull$hit pandering I expect from the GOP . . . I expect this steaming pile from McCain. But Clinton and Schumer are out there shilling for a "Gas Tax Holiday" which would do NOTHING to help ordinary Americans while exacerbating our underlying problems of oil dependence and runaway deficits.

Ask any economist worth his salt: the Gas Tax Holiday is the worst kind of economic policy. Pandering to the public, yet shortchanging us of any actual benefit.

Barack Obama (video)is the one candidate in this race has called it for what it is.

My question: where is Congressman and Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner on this? Weiner very vocally opposed Congestion Pricing on the promise of increasing the Federal gas tax to pay for transit improvements. Yet he is also backing Senator Clinton for President . . . the same Senator Clinton calling for a gas tax holiday. I've called Rep. Weiner for comment, and his staff was polite. I'll post here when I get a substantive response.

Just in case I wasn't clear above: it might sound good in a vacuum, but this gas tax holiday is HORRIBLY IRRESPONSIBLE ECONOMIC POLICY. If you only have time to click one of the above links, click on TIME for Justin Fox's succinct explanation of why this is bogus pandering of the worst sort.

Sex Withheld Over Clinton Support

How could I not blog an article with a lede like this? The fact that the couple lives in Carroll Gardens is just the icing on the cake:

Howard Graubard and his wife, Sabina Tyrk, were on opposite sides for months—he with Sen. Hillary Clinton and she with Sen. Barack Obama—when matters came to a head one night at their home in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Ms. Tyrk made it clear that her husband's advances would be for naught unless he switched allegiances.

Obama Breaks All Records With February Haul of $55MM

Wow. Just . . . wow. Recall that Hillary's campaign was ecstatic to raise (an impressive) $35MM last month. It turns out that Obama blew the doors off that by $20MM!

Sen. Barack Obama raised $55 million in February, a stunning total that his campaign hopes will breathe fresh momentum into his presidential bid following losses in three of four nominating contests earlier this week.

The Tribune has learned the Illinois Democrat raised the amount in an effort that shatters the record for money raised by a presidential campaign in a single month.

And over 1,000,000 donors, including 385,000 new donors last month.

The Clinton camp can continue their shameful, disgraceful smear campaign, but the writing is on the wall. This is the year that the Democratic party FINALLY selects a people powered candidate.

Be a part of history. Consider donating HERE.

Primary Day: Down to the Wire

Today is a make or break day for the Democratic primary. We hosted an Obama party on Sunday, but you don't need a party to make some calls . . .

Go to the Obama campaign website if you have some free time today and want to make a difference in the outcome of the Texas primary. Fired up!

Obama Party

Yesterday Mia and I opened our home up to a dozen people we'd never met, to host a calling party for Obama. Through Moveon.org, we received phone numbers for voters in Texas, and had a great time reaching out to 700 contacts in Texas. WE connected with over 120 people, and left messages for probably a 100 more.

All told, people around the country made over 400,000 calls yesterday. And that's not even counting the Obama phone banks.

This was our first time doing this sort of thing, and it was a great experience. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Late Night, Lazy Morning Roundup: Election, Toll Brothers, 116 3rd Place

A long day and then a couple hours vegging in front of election coverage. We've got a race on our hands, possibly into the convention.

Obama took the gloves off for a few minutes and laid a few shots into Clinton, which was good. I don't think the Hillary camp ever anticipated that it would come to this point: neck and neck after "Super-Duper Tuesday". But here we are.

In other news, Toll Brothers, the luxury housing developer, reported it's seventh straight quarter of declining sales. Begs the question of just how soon Toll will be in a position to develop along the Gowanus. I'm betting no time soon.

Katia has some pictures of the out-of-scale enlargement at 116 3rd Place. This building fascinates me, partly because I used to live directly behind it, and so I had a rather intimate acquaintance with it's construction up until May 2007. I can remember being excited to see them laying in radiant flooring. I can remember being horrified to see the three extra stories added on top. Actually, I can remember the day I was taking a shower and realized that the workers were now high enough to see right into the window of my fourth floor bathroom. Alas, no more cool breezes. As Katia notes, adding the mansard roof level would have made for a lovely addition. But those final two levels stick out like a sore thumb.

And then, via Curbed, to see (1) the hideous renderings of the interiors on Corcoran's site (really? a fake zebra carpet?) and (2) the prices they're asking - $2.7MM for the top unit (I can't bring myself to call it a penthouse when it's not in a highrise building . . . even if that term is technically correct).

I don't quite know what to say.

VOTE!

Mia and I pulled the lever for Obama this morning. Turnout was the heaviest I've seen it over at good old P.S. 58. I think Obama will do surprisingly well in NY, especially in NYC.

Obviously, if you're reading this I hope you will vote for Obama as well. There is a tremendous amount of energy in his campaign, and we will need to harness that for the general election. The theme of the 2008 election will be change, and our primary should be about change as well. New blood, new ideas, a new politics . . . Obama. Beyond that, I strongly believe that Hillary Clinton is the ONE candidate on either side of the aisle that will inspire the wingnuts to get out and vote . . . against Hillary.

I don't care for Hillary for a variety of reasons, not least of which was her positioning on Iraq. But the right wingers have a blinding, irrational hatred of her that I find difficult to fathom, and that venomous hatred will drive them to the polls, even as Paul McRomnabee, whoever the GOP winner is, leaves them uninspired. Is that fair? Of course not. But it is the reality as I see it.

Also there is a bake sale conveniently located in the hallway. So do your civic duty, and reward yourself with a tasty treat.