‘This is a brand new day in Brooklyn!” declared the man Kings County Democrats selected Wednesday to lead them following the epic fall of serial groper Vito Lopez.
And who is this new sterling knight to usher in a bright shining dawn?
That would be one Frank Seddio — a long-time Lopez toady.
A former assemblyman and surrogate court judge, Seddio’s a pure product of the machine — and thus, perfectly suited to succeed Lopez as county chairman.
In 2007, Seddio’s “career” as a surrogate judge came to an abrupt end little more than two months into what would’ve been a 14-year term.
He quit amid an inquiry by the Commission on Judicial Conduct into whether he inappropriately distributed thousands of dollars in campaign cash to political pals.
Surrogate’s Court, which essentially oversees the execution of wills, is a fetid patronage swamp under the best of circumstances.
So if Seddio is too grimy for that gig, he must be really grimy.
But now, as party chairman, he has an iron grip on judicial selection in Brooklyn.
Set a hack to pick a hack, we guess.
Meanwhile, Seddio’s other best buddy in politics is ex-Sen. Carl Kruger — convicted last year on numerous federal bribery and corruption charges.
Not that the Seddio selection defies Brooklyn tradition.
There is Lopez, of course.
And Lopez’s predecessor was Clarence Norman — himself convicted of, yes, misappropriating campaign funds for personal use.
New day?
Doesn’t seem that way: Despite his shady past, Seddio won by a vote of 36 county committee members to 2.
Worse, what does it say about Brooklyn politics that the only members who think that there might be something just a little bit wrong with this picture — are the odious Councilman Charles Barron and his wife?
As the song goes: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”