Unintended Consquences “Unlimited”

Who is really at fault for Caroline Kennedy’s humiliating brush with Governor Paterson? It might be Mayor Bloomberg:

Round one of Kennedy’s media blitz went well — a December 26 Associated Press interview followed by an appearance on NY1’s Inside City Hall. But the mood changed quickly the next morning. Kennedy walked into a reserved back room of the Lenox Hill Grill, on Lexington near 78th, and sat down with two reporters from the Times. She’d earnestly studied briefing papers on issues like immigration, the economy, education, and gay rights, and she’d been tutored by Ranny Cooper, a PR executive and former aide to Ted Kennedy. Instead, she was greeted with a series of questions on her motivations for wanting to be a senator — and soon became rattled and annoyed, her responses riddled with you knows and ums, which the Times, devastatingly, included in a transcript of the interview. Some of Kennedy’s relatives blamed Isay for not being tougher in readying Caroline for the interview.

Kennedy also smacked headlong into a newly emboldened Times city staff. “We’ve grown a pair of balls, and I’m amazingly proud of the paper,” says a Times reporter. “The turning point was the editorial page’s rolling over for Bloomberg on erasing term limits. The reaction from the reporters and editors is that we’re the last line of defense — we’ve got to hold the line.” Not for or against any particular politician, that is, but to stand up for small-d democracy. After inflating her candidacy by making her simple declaration of interest in the job the lead story of the day, they compensated by hitting her hard.

It’s Like The Mean Joe Greene Coca-Cola Ad Just Without The Kid . . . And The Coke . . .

. . . and the good cheer . . . and no one really gives a shit about the jersey because, well, the Giants totally blew it against a team that tied the Bengals this year — a Cincinnati team that lost eleven games — and that Super Bowl win last year was obviously a fluke:

An hour after Philadelphia eliminated the Giants from the N.F.L. playoffs, beating them in a divisional-round game, 23-11, Brandon Jacobs walked toward the Giants Stadium exit.

Over his shoulder was his blue jersey. But as he passed through a narrow doorway, a gust of wind blew the shirt to the floor. Jacobs did not notice, so a man handed it to him. With his head bowed, Jacobs left with the shirt in his hand.

It was that kind of day Sunday for the Giants, who were looking to successfully defend their Super Bowl championship. They shouldered big hopes but let things slip away against the Eagles, who intercepted Eli Manning twice and came from behind three times.

Caroline’s Cold Start Means She’s Firin’ Sheek

What a satisfying way to end the year:

Caroline Kennedy’s advisers have told Mayor Bloomberg’s political pit bull to tone down his lobbying efforts for her for fear it will kill her chances to be named to the Senate.

“There had been huge missteps in the way [City Hall] constructed this,” said a source involved in the Kennedy effort to muzzle Bloomberg operative Kevin Sheekey.

“It’s just a dialing down of anything that would be harmful to her,” the source said.

“Anything like very public meetings with people in City Hall or inappropriate calls to labor leaders will no longer take place. He’ll still be involved, just not in the same way.”

Another source said Sheekey was being pushed aside so neither Gov. Paterson nor Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver would think Bloomberg was trying to muscle her into the Senate.

“The Bloomberg support has not been helping, clearly, with Shelly or the governor, whose people have talked about him not wanting to feel boxed in,” the source said.

Or is it a case of you-can’t-fire-me-because-I-quit? Though “pulling back” sounds like complete BS:

Mayor Bloomberg’s top political aide is pulling back on his lobbying campaign to propel Caroline Kennedy into the U.S. Senate because “it wasn’t working,” according to sources.

“Everything was backfiring,” said one source of the intense behind-the-scenes effort by Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey.

Nothing But Net(s)

Right into the wastebasket:

In yet another slap against developer Forest City Ratner, architect Frank Gehry has axed nearly every employee working on the stalled Atlantic Yards project, sources told the Daily News.

“Almost all the people working on the Brooklyn project got laid off,” said a source familiar with the cuts who claimed the developer had refused to pay Gehry additional costs for design revisions. “Basically, he’s not willing to pay.”

Gehry’s Los Angeles-based firm laid off two dozen employes working on the Atlantic Yards projects the day before Thanksgiving, according to sources.

Location Scout: Atlantic Yards.

“The Aspect Of Being Out There”

Maybe now that New York has caused the world’s entire economic system to collapse people think the city kind of sucks. And the Yankees’ inability to quickly sign superstar pitcher free agent C.C. Sabathia is the first sign of The End of New York:

On Friday, it will be three weeks since they barreled into the free-agent negotiating period with a six-year, $140 million offer to starter C.C. Sabathia. His response has been silence. Derek Jeter had already called Sabathia by then, and Alex Rodriguez has called him since. Yet the offer sits there, an anomaly in a depressed free-agent market, begging to be accepted but met with indifference.

. . .

Typically, the Yankees do not need to beg free agents to accept. The Yankees’ strategy is usually to identify their target, overwhelm him with an early offer, intimidate the competition and get their man. They have done the first three things, but Sabathia is still a free agent.

“If they went to Sabathia with $140 million, he could go back to them and say, ‘Give me $170 million and I’m there,'” said one major league general manager, who was granted anonymity so he could freely discuss another team’s plans. “He hasn’t done that. The Yankees aren’t his first choice. Why isn’t he jumping on their offer?”

The Yankees have continued to negotiate with Sabathia, and they would like to sign him next week. But they have not sensed the usual enthusiasm that accompanies a splashy Yankees offer.

Mike Mussina signed quickly after the 2000 season, and a year later, there was never much doubt about Jason Giambi’s intention. Both times, the Yankees had just been to the World Series. Both players wanted to be in New York — or in Mussina’s case, somewhere close to his Pennsylvania home — and both had a veteran agent, Arn Tellem.

Sabathia is a different case entirely, and the reason he is stalling, to those who know him, is just as the general manager suspected: his first choice is not New York. Sabathia is from Vallejo, Calif., near the Bay Area, and it is well known that his preference is to play for a team on the West Coast. But the money is elsewhere.

“It’s not that he doesn’t want to be a Yankee; that’s not it at all,” said a friend of Sabathia’s, who was granted anonymity because Sabathia had not authorized him to speak on his behalf. “It’s just the aspect of being out there, his family, that kind of stuff.”

Side note: Red Sox fans, probably still boiling about years of obnoxious “1918” chants from the right field bleachers at Old Yankee Stadium, should consider chanting some aspect of Prince’s “1999” to remind the Yankees of their last World Series win, as in, “Two-thousand zero zero party’s over it’s out of time . . . party like it’s 1999.” Red Sox fans are insufferable yahoos, but this would be funny.