The "Menin Meetup"

The campaign for Manhattan Borough President fields the entire range of geographic diversity, with council members from the Upper East Side, Upper West Side and Harlem all running--or at least mulling doing so--as well as Downtown's Julie Menin. Well, Ms. Menin, a former community board chairwoman, appeared to be reaching into the turf of her Uptown rival, Councilman Robert Jackson, where she held a “Menin Meetup" house party last night hosted by former Community Board 9 Chair Larry English, current CB9 Chair Rev. Georgiette Morgan-Thomas and Matthew Washington, Chair of Community Board 11. Local district leaders Marisol Alcantara and Theresa Freeman were also in attendance.

Ruh roh: Disgraced lobbyist Richard Lipsky, previously convicted of bribing ex-State Senator Carl Kruger, was sentenced to only 3 months after facing a maximum of 10 years. This came after the politically connected Mr. Lipsky started working with federal authorities, presumably naming names. Are indictments of New York elected officials around the corner? Seems like it.

Governor Andrew Cuomo is now headlining fundraisers for President Barack Obama's reelection bid? These are new times we're living in.

Councilman David Greenfield joined his colleague Melissa Mark-Viverito in criticizing his proposed 2013 district, but is doing it even more openly:

Councilman David G. Greenfield today expressed his opposition to the newly proposed “Super Borough Park” City Council district encompassing all of Borough Park. In a stance that is consistent with his position during the debate earlier this year over the new “Super Jewish” State Senate districts, Greenfield argues that including all of Borough Park in a single district will only serve to dilute the community’s power and voice. In a twist, the proposed district is Greenfield’s own in the New York City Council. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” Greenfield said. “I believed during the Senate redistricting that dumping all of the Jewish community into one district was bad. It’s no different in the City Council.”

“You want to maul me,” Assemblyman George Latimer said to his GOP opponent for the State Senate, Bob Cohen, during a contentious radio debate. “You don’t want to talk about issues. You want to duck out of accountability and smack the living daylights out of me.”

Mark Ruffalo, who played the Hulk on-screen, is increasingly playing in politics in real life, most recently a congressional endorsement for Democrat Nate Shinagawa, a candidate for incumbent Rep. Tom Reed seat. Quote Mr. Ruffalo, “It seemed natural for me to back a candidate who has taken the right stance on environmental issues and is up against an opponent who heads the pro-fracking movement in Congress.”

The soda cup debate has officially reached mainstream culture.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn's "go-to lunch spots" list included a lot of areas that would be hard to visit regularly from her home base in Chelsea and City Hall. The 2013 mayoral front-runner's picks reminded us a bit of the president's swing state-tinged NCAA bracket. Anyway, here's a map of Ms. Quinn's standard lunch eatery locations: