The Only Thing In Law Enforcement That Should Be Pushing 90 Is A Dodge Charger*

OK, last time was pushing it but this really would be going too far:

Yes, he is 87 years old. And yes, he is not up for re-election for another three years. But Robert M. Morgenthau, who has been the Manhattan district attorney pretty much since the dawn of time, is gearing up for 2009.

Next Monday, his campaign committee is holding a fund-raising cocktail party, with tickets at $150 to $1,000, and it expects about 75 guests, said Julie S. Nadel, who was a coordinator for Mr. Morgenthau in the Democratic primary last year.

The invitation notes that the party will occur on National Boss Day, a nod to the fact that Mr. Morgenthau has been known as “the Boss” to hundreds of lawyers who have worked for him in the past 45 years: he had been United States attorney in Manhattan before becoming district attorney.

Mr. Morgenthau has not publicly announced whether he intends to run again at age 90, and he did not respond to a request for comment left with his office.

*Leslie Crocker Snyder has our permission to use this slogan on her ’09 campaign bumper stickers. (And in case you forgot about Dodge Chargers.)

Not To Sound Too Skeptical, But Name The Last Nasal-Voiced, Short, Jewish Mayor Unaffiliated With Any Political Party To Become President . . .

Bloomberg ’08 passes an important, important first hurdle — apropos of nothing in particular, somehow convincing the Observer editorial board to print a fawning endorsement of a bizarre pipe dream to see Hizzoner in the White House*:

When Mike Bloomberg came into office in January 2002, downtown New York was in ruins, and the city’s financial and emotional health were precarious at best. Mr. Bloomberg, new to the business of governing, immediately grasped what needed to be done. He came to grips with the city’s finances, made public education his personal crusade, vowed to build on the anti-crime successes of his predecessor, and reached out to New Yorkers in all five boroughs.

. . .

He has presided over the transformation of the New York Police Department into a world-class counterintelligence agency. Amazingly, even as that transformation has taken place, the NYPD continues to win the battle against more conventional street crime.

That is a record that commands attention. That is the record of a Presidential contender.

. . .

As a businessman, Mr. Bloomberg simply went out and did what he had to do. And he succeeded.

As a Presidential candidate, he has a chance to do the same. He ought to think about it.

Here’s a wonderful possibility: Mr. Bloomberg runs as an independent, Mr. Giuliani wins the Republican nomination, and Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee. Can he beat those two in a three-way race? You bet he can.

No country in the world deserves that last part.

*Is this an example of New Yorkers being incredibly insular or just shamelessly, totally un-self-aware?

If It Looks Like A Perot And Sounds Like A Perot, It Must Be A Perot

Even though he has no plans to run, everybody he meets around the country wants him to run, and his advisers want him to run but he has no plans to run, “at least not yet”:

Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey noted the mayor has raised his national profile during a slew of trips around the country — and now he wants Hizzoner to reconsider his vow not to run.

“I hope he changes his mind,” said Sheekey, a key player in both of Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns.

“Are his views going to change? I don’t know. Time will tell.”

. . .

So far this year, Bloomberg has traveled to Washington eight times as well as making two trips to Chicago and visits to Atlanta, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

And the mayor is headed to Boston on Thursday for yet another event in his crusade against illegal guns.

Sheekey said the flurry of recent trips is not designed to be the groundwork for a White House bid. “It’s not the intent, at least not yet,” he said.

. . .

Asked about the mayor’s recent travel, George Arzt, a Democratic political consultant who served as press secretary to former Mayor Ed Koch, said it’s clear “there is a tasting of the presidency.”

“Despite his announcements that he’s not interested in running for President, it seems that there’s some sort of national agenda involved here,” Arzt said.

Did We Mention That This Would Probably Be A Tough Sell?*

A super-secret poll commissioned by Council Speaker Christine Quinn confirms what should have been obvious — voters don’t want the City Council to self-servingly overturn term limits:

The poll showed that only four in 10 New Yorkers favor having the council members stay longer than the current limit of two four-year terms.

Following months of speculation, the lawmakers were briefed yesterday on the results of a survey of 700 registered voters that the council speaker, Christine Quinn, commissioned in the spring. A consulting firm, Kiley & Co., asked voters whether they supported an extension of term limits: 40% responded that they did, while 57% were opposed, according to several council sources with knowledge of the poll results. The speaker paid for the poll with campaign funds.

The results appeared to confirm that Ms. Quinn and her colleagues would be igniting a political firestorm if they decided to take on term limits. Mayor Bloomberg is opposed to changing the law, and the businessman who originally championed the term limits initiative, Ronald Lauder, has vowed to fight an effort to overturn the law.

There are many reasons to get rid of term limits — the instability of revolving doors, the need for an institutional memory, the potential for increased grandstanding — but this is the best reason:

A Brooklyn council member, Kendall Stewart, said voters were “disenfranchised” in the earlier referenda because Mr. Lauder spent so much money, about $4 million, in support of term limits.

Huh.

*Why, yes we did.

But Is That Brevity or Physicality?

On his recent trip to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Collie-fornia, Hizzoner receives rave reviews:

“I just think he’s refreshing,” said Preston Butcher, a real-estate developer who attended the first fund-raiser, at a hotel in East Palo Alto. “He doesn’t talk out of both sides of his mouth. He’s more interested in people than he is in the party.”

Katherine Alden, a hotel owner, said: “His answers are honest, direct, balanced. I was very, very impressed.”

. . .

Don Troppmann, another guest [at a fund-raising dinner at the Stockton estate of Alex Spanos], offered this succinct comment on the mayor: “He was great. He was short.”