Quinn Caves For Her Man Bloomberg

So much for representing Chelsea or even guiding the City Council in a respectable, reform-minded fashion, Christine Quinn is officially in the bag for Mayor Bloomberg and his push to make an end-run around democracy. Yesterday she finally decided to stop hemming and hawing over the inevitable and announced she'd support an extension of term limits for the Mayor and the current Council members only.

From The Gothamist:

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is currently holding a press conference declaring her support for the mayor's proposal to extend term limits. Her announcement ends Quinn's remaining mum on her official stance since Mayor Bloomberg announced his intentions to maneuver for a third term bid almost two weeks ago. It also reverses the vow she made last year to uphold the two voter referendums in support of term limits.

Quinn had originally intended to make a run for mayor herself next year, but backed out of the race when her close political ally Bloomberg finally threw his hat in the ring after months of speculation. The mayor's decision to run gave Quinn an easy out of a campaign that looked like it would be an uphill battle after what has been a scandalous year for the Speaker.

Opponents to the mayor's plan are not surprised at Quinn backing it. To them this is just the inevitable next step in what they see as a series of handshake deals and back room agreements, including Ronald Lauder dropping his opposition of extensions and the mayor secretly going to the heads of the Big Three city papers looking for their support. "It's been carefully choreographed from the get-go," said Councilman John Liu.

Quinn probably figured that she didn't have enough support to run for Mayor herself, so perhaps she thinks that this public bow in deference of Bloomberg will give her a leg up in 2013 (that is, if Bloomberg doesn't want another term then). Liu is right, it is all theater for her and nothing about principles or respecting the voters. Another observer that is right on target is Dan Jacoby, who believes we need to impeach Christine Quinn for reneging on multiple promises to New York. All I have to say to that is, "where do I sign up?"