Mayor Bloomberg certainly did not expect the amount of opposition to his political trickery while the focus is on the 2008 elections. He wants to run again in 2009, but did not want to ask the people to rescind term limits and instead is offering the Council a deal to stay another term as long as he can too. Now that the public outcry is growing ever louder, he is trying to get enough of the Council to support his backroom deal. According to one source, Bloomberg is putting down the intelligence and the memory skill of the voters in order to get the twelve votes he needs to pass this.
From The NY Times:
Mr. Bloomberg, who usually delegates the details of the legislative process to aides, personally tried to corral the 26 votes needed in the 51-member Council to pass the measure. He has started calling wavering members to press his case, arguing that the economic trouble requires “continuity of government.” A person who was briefed on one of the conversations said the mayor told members fearful of a backlash that if they voted to allow themselves a third term, “people do forget about things like this.”As one of those people Mr. Bloomberg, I'd like to personally say "Go Cheney yourself!" I, among many will most certainly remember this "thing" and will make it my personal mission to tell as many people as possible. If you can trick and cajole the Council into passing this shameful piece of legislation, the fight will just have begun.
There are so many hurdles from the Assembly, the soon to be Democratic State Senate, the Justice Dept (under an Obama Administration hopefully at that point) and as of a couple days ago even Senator Clinton will be against you Mr. Mayor. You may think you're smarter than the rest of us with all of those billions you've made (many of them while in office, thanks to boom and bust Wall St.) but that pride and ego has blinded any good sense you have left.
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