"I can run on a laundry ticket and beat these bums"

by Mark Rhoads

It was "The Little Flower," Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia (Mayor of New York 1933-1945) who quoted Gov. Al Smith when he said, "I can run on a laundry ticket and beat these political bums anytime."  Fiorello was not afraid of the people. Today's mayor of New York is Michael Bloomberg, a millionaire Democrat turned Republican in 2001 turned "independent" or something again more recently.  Bloomberg is one of those arrogant notables who believe that rules are for other people.  Twice the voters of the city of New York voted in 1993 and again in 1996 to limit the mayor to two terms in office.  Mike Bloomberg always supported that term limit. "I think it would be an absolute disgrace to go around the public will," he said on Aug. 30, 2005. But wait a minute, now His Imperiousness has decided to throw out the public will he once spoke so hightly of.

Bloomberg just realized as his second term draws to a close that he is just too valuable a person as mayor to let some old campaign promise deprive his subjects of his services.  Flip, flop.  Mayor Bloomberg now wants, and apparently has the votes on the City Council, to repeal the term limit and find a way prevent the voters from getting a chance to vote on the law yet a third time.  What is the first thing that dictators in banana republics do such as Hugo Chavez?  They repeal term limits and make themelves officials for life.  I for one am glad Bloomberg no longer tarnishes the GOP party label. To read more about Bloomberg's blatant dishonesty in the Long Island newspaper, Newsday, CLICK HERE.