Report from near Wall Street: The ever-volatile Bloomberg speculation industry seems to be shifting its marketing strategy toward a possible challenge to Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2010. Those of us who sat through the will-he-or-won't-he's of recent years might be tempted to say "Wake me when it's over." But Mike has been known to operate in a stealthy manner and he loves to pop surprises. As long as the press pays attention to anything other than Joel Klein's secretive handling of the public schools the mayor's holdings will be stable...
Documents filed by Rudolph Giuliani as mayor show he made contributions to Planned Parenthood in conjunction with his former wife -- proving what the public already knew. That is, despite his recent concoctions about "personal" opposition, Giuliani displayed no problem with abortion during his mayoralty. The man was pro-choice when he was in power despite his "I'm OK either way" pandering during the recent debate.
But as long as cases emerge like this bust of six men planning an attack on Fort Dix, allegedly in the name of Islam, the abortion issue will go on the back burner and keep Giuliani's political stock high. Giuliani haters on all sides don't like hearing that, but it's true.
The national storm over illegal immigration, meanwhile, stirs local emotions again as a group of Assembly members take a public whack at Suffolk Executive Steve Levy.
Dan Janison
In Albany, there seems to be some confusion about who is investigating what aspect of what used to be going on in the comptroller's office. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, local District Attorney David Soares and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli all seem to be eyeing different aspects of how the ousted Alan Hevesi and his former aides Jack Chartier and Hank Morris did business.
Cuomo is following in the footsteps of now-Gov. Eliot Spitzer's roaring challenges to longstanding conflicts of interest in various places, and DiNapoli is looking to keep his predecessor's practices from reflecting on him. It's a pretty safe bet that this leads in the coming months and years to an effort to make the trustees of the pension system into a board rather than an all-powerful comptroller. What better time than when you have an incumbent who was not elected by the voters?