In a city run by a man who likes to rail against unequal treatment, being a friend of Bill sure has its privileges.
We mean Mayor Bill de Blasio — the same guy who spent years demanding transparency from his predecessor and denouncing him for standing by aides tarnished by scandal.
Now it’s de Blasio standing by his wife’s chief of staff, Rachel Noerdlinger, even as fresh outrages confirm she is not fit to hold public office. Not only won’t he hold Noerdlinger accountable, Lord de Blasio won’t even discuss it. “Case closed,” he decrees.
What rank hypocrisy.
The latest mini-bombshell: Noerdlinger and her boyfriend, Hassaun McFarlane (a convicted killer), were caught in her car reeking of pot in 2011. He was driving, and a minor, believed to be her son, was in the back. McFarlane was arrested; Noerdlinger got a summons.
That comes after several troubling news reports, starting with her failure to disclose on a required form that she lives with McFarlane. Then on Thursday we learned she hid a 2011 tax lien on a Conflict of Interest Board filing.
Should anyone be surprised? De Blasio himself failed to disclose rental income from one of his million-dollar properties.
In short, today’s Tale of Two Cities is of a city with one set of rules for the mayor’s privileged pals and another for ordinary Joes.
Nor has he ever been shy about using his influence to ask for special treatment for his circle. Examples include:
- Pressing the Manhattan DA to help a teacher at his daughter’s school, Steve Quester, avoid jail time after being arrested at an anti-Israel protest.
- Intervening with school authorities to help a nephew of Brooklyn Rep. Yvette Clark get into MS 51 in Park Slope.
- Getting Working Families Party boss Dan Cantor’s water bill lowered.
- And, in one of his first acts as mayor, calling the cops to keep a pastor friend out of jail after he’d been arrested. “End of the story,” he said when asked about that, too.
As indefensible as Noerdlinger’s actions have been, the abuse her case highlights is even bigger than her lies. It’s the mayor’s colossal double standard.