Tony’s Business Has Been Critical To Vesuvio’s Financial Survival, But Lately The Combination Of Artie’s Obsequious Style, Dodgy Service And Somewhat Tired Menu Has Led Some Crew Members To Believe That He Has Lost His Edge — And That The New Place, Da Giovanni, Is The Best Spot In Town

“If Mike Bloomberg is going to stick around until 2014, he wants to have all possible power at his disposal. How he uses that power can’t completely efface the fact of how he gained it.”:

Even if the cause was unseemly, the execution of the political strategy to rewrite the law was staggeringly impressive, enlisting Bloomberg’s moneyed friends and the friends he’s made with his money and displaying an impressive eye for detail. An ethnically diverse cast of average citizens appeared in the front row at the council hearings, clutching preprinted signs reading democrats for choices. Bloomberg campaign aides like Patrick Brennan were suddenly “volunteering” their time to round up supporters to pass the needed City Council bill extending term limits. When Linda Gibbs, the mayor’s head of Health and Human Services, lobbied an official at a social-services group to make calls to council members, there didn’t seem to be much choice. The mayor’s operatives coaxed a wide range of recipients of his charitable donations to testify, but most were smart enough that they didn’t need an invitation. The Public Art Fund has received at least $500,000 from Bloomberg; its head, Susan Freedman, spoke enthusiastically on the mayor’s behalf — and, she says, with a clear conscience because of Bloomberg’s belief in the importance of the arts. “Do you think you would need to twist my arm to have me want this kind of leadership continue?” she said afterward.

The parade of witnesses included Mario Cuomo, the former governor, who is now of counsel to Willkie Farr & Gallagher, the firm that is defending Bloomberg L.P. against sexual-discrimination lawsuits and that has as one of its top partners Richard DeScherer, Bloomberg’s lawyer. Geoffrey Canada, who runs the Harlem Children’s Zone, spoke of his worry for New York’s most vulnerable during the downturn. He didn’t mention that his organization has city contracts worth millions of dollars and has received more than $500,000 in private money from Bloomberg.

“It’s a legitimate question, to ask about people being compromised,” Canada says. “But everybody knows we get money from the city! We have since the seventies. I wouldn’t turn down money from anyone who wants to support our programs. But is my vote for sale? Absolutely not. I’m very comfortable with the real reasons I’m supporting Bloomberg — his attention to education, the reduction in crime without the rancor of the Giuliani years, and his fairness in spreading the budget pain.”

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.

Somewhere Dick Van Patten Picks Up His Pet Cat And Sadly Reflects On What A Long Career In Television And Film Has Amounted To

And Willie Aames wonders if this somehow means that his life may turn around:

As the debate concluded, Mr. Carter asked each candidate to say something nice about the other. Both complied, momentarily, before reverting to attack mode.

“He is a great golfer,” Mr. Bloomberg said. But he added, “I just think he’s not the right person to lead the city for the next four years.”

Mr. Thompson offered that the mayor “is well dressed” but went on, “At some point, after eight years, eight is enough and it’s time for him to go.”

The mayor became uncharacteristically animated, interjecting: “Wait, wait. Eight isn’t enough for better schools, eight isn’t enough for lower crime.”

Mr. Thompson shot back: “Obviously eight is enough, when you violate the will of the people and overturn term limits.”

At that point, the moderator put a stop to it: “O.K. All right.”

Bright Signs For The Thompson Campaign . . .

. . . Conventionally wise Steve Kornacki writes a CYA piece four weeks out:

Lest I be accused a month from now of having had my head buried in the sand while this turned into a real contest, let me state for the record: Bill Thompson could end up making this a much tighter affair than we think.

“But A Blemish On An Otherwise Stellar Record”

The Community Newspaper Group — the Murdoch-owned entity that not so long ago gobbled up like half of the borough-centered weeklies — publishes its Bloomberg endorsement on all of its associated websites (the gutting of the Brooklyn Paper makes me sad):

Granted, Mayor Bloomberg’s quest for a third term has not been the prettiest thing to watch. First, the billionaire mayor, a former Democrat, renounced his Republican Party affiliation during a flirtation with the presidency in 2008 as an independent.

Then, when faced with the obstacle of New York City’s two-term limit, he spent a considerable sum of money to overturn the inconvenient law.

For many voters, that disqualifies Bloomberg from further service.

But for us, it is but a blemish on an otherwise stellar record.

You have to like that way of putting it — “but a blemish on an otherwise stellar record.” Let’s skip the lamely obvious parallels, but I want to try this on because it might be fun. So Clinton’s perjury was “but a blemish on an otherwise stellar record,” as was Nixon’s obstruction of justice. In this way, Robert MacNamara’s technocratic plunge into Vietnam was also “but a blemish on an otherwise stellar record,” and half of Hollywood apparently believes that Roman Polanski’s indiscretion with a child was similarly “but a blemish on an otherwise stellar record.” When you put things that way — “but a blemish”! — everything sounds OK. I like it.

“Progress Not Politics” Is Merely Shorthand For “You Are All Just Yahoos Who Must Be Saved From Yourselves”

Tom Robbins details the chronology of the mayor’s Tonkin Gulfing of the democratic system*:

[M]any months before economic disaster struck in September 2008 — the crisis that Bloomberg said prompted his reversal on term limits — the mayor was already pondering the move.

You know, the Seal of the City of New York has the words “Sigillum Civitatis Novi Eboraci” on it. “Sigillum Civitatis Novi Eboraci” just means “Seal of the City of New York” — in other words, grandiose Latin bullshit. Why not change it to “Progressio Non Politics”? It’s got a nice ring to it — like “Ordem e Progresso,” “Gangseong Daeguk,” “Patria y Libertad” or “Allah Is Great.”

*Don’t forget how piqued the mayor became at Azi Paybarah’s “disgraceful” questioning about the state of the economy and the rationale for a third term.