It’s fair to to wonder what state Mayor Bloomberg lives in, given his mind-bogglingly out-of-touch comments last week about political ethics in New York.
Even as corruption by several pols continues to make news, Mike was urging weaker ethics laws and a beefed-up pork system: “We’ve changed the ethics laws,” he said Friday, referring to recent restrictions on lawmakers.
“You’ve got to love the unintended consequences,” he added — sarcastically.
Bloomberg suggests that limits on pols’ junkets means that they can’t “get together” and “build relationships.” As a result, “they don’t talk to one another.”
It’s weird logic — but maybe not as strange as his plug for more pork: “The way you manage a legislature is, the leadership doles out [pork],” he said.
No doubt, he missed word that ex-state Sen. Carl Kruger recently drew a seven-year sentence for corruption tied to his official duties.
That ex-Sen. Pedro Espada was awaiting a verdict in his political-corruption trial.
That ex-Sen. Hiram Monserrate pleaded guilty Friday to using city pork for his own personal benefit.
That City Councilman Larry Seabrook will face a re-trial on charges that he, too, abused city funds.
City Council Speaker Chris Quinn may finally understand the need to clamp down. Last week, she told Seabrook: No more pork for you. (Or in his case, cream cheese.)
Quinn said the indicted Bronx pol won’t get his grubby hands on $300,000 in “member item” cash. Recall that in December — less than three weeks after his first corruption trial ended in a hung jury — Quinn said he was still in line for the money.
Her decision then seemed strange, to say the least: Prosecutors had charged the councilman with funneling $1.2 million in city funds to fake nonprofits he secretly controlled, directing much of the cash to his girlfriend and relatives — and, for good measure, seeking $177 in illegal reimbursements for a bagel and a Snapple.
A retrial was all but certain. Yet she was going to give him more taxpayer cash?
Fact is, as we’ve often argued, the member-item system invites abuse.
Yes, historically, “discretionary spending” has been used, in part, to help legislative leaders enforce discipline among their membership. But in New York, it’s become a source of endless scandals.
Has Bloomberg missed those scandals — or does he want to encourage more of them?
Because that’s what taking his advice would surely lead to.