Spin Cycle

The latest less-than-subtle mark of the increasingly-far-fetched keep-Bloomberg-relevant campaign -- brought to you by his highly-compensated spin butlers -- comes in today's New York Sun, where a story states "The city's leading champion of term limits is privately signaling a new openness to a third term for Mayor Bloomberg," which of course goes against the two-term-limit law that the mayor has repeatedly said should not be changed.

If indeed Ron Lauder, the cosmetics heir who financed the first successful term-limits referendum campaign back in 1993 -- and subsequent defenses of the law -- has even had a nanosecond's second thought, you would never know it from the firm public statements of Lauder's longtime spokesman Nelson Warfield. In the tenth paragraph of the Sun story he states:

"These un-named business leaders should leave impressions to comedians. They are totally off-base," Warfield wrote. "Mr. Lauder will defend the voters' choice of a two-term limit for city politicians as-is. And the in-depth polling we have done shows voters won't tolerate any tinkering with the law. Do these people really think voters want to reward the distinguished public servants who gave us the City Council slush fund scandal with more time in office?"

Sorry, the claim of "private signalling" makes no sense once Lauder's man has stated what he did so definitively. Similar stories elsewhere have already made Bloomberg the next president, the next New York governor, and the next vice-president. Hizzoner is many things, but he is none of those. And he is leaving office at the end of next year, and there will be an election -- no matter how uncomfortable it makes certain members of the municipal oligarchy.