Any moment former president Bill Clinton is expected to appear in Albany before an audience of members of the regional economic councils that Andrew Cuomo appointed in order to jump start the state’s economy.
Take a look: Read More
Bill Clinton’s “good-looking rascal” diss of Texas Governor Rick Perry earlier this week reminds WNYC’s Jim O’Grady of the warming the former president gave to Democrats about another guy from Texas.
“[T]he staffer, an acquaintance, said this was the advice he’d heard Clinton giving to various Dems about President Bush: ‘Do not underestimate the guy. He’s a canny pol. We need to beat him like a drum.’”
Rep. Charlie Rangel said Governor Rick Perry’s job creation accomplishments in Texas are nothing to be proud of because they pay such low wages “it’s one stage away from slavery.”
Rangel’s harsh assessment comes the same day a New York Times review of Perry’s record concluded “Texas has one of the highest percentages of workers who are paid the minimum wage and receive no medical benefits.”
It also comes one day after former President Bill Clinton called Perry a “good-looking rascal” whose anti-government platform was “crazy,” during a speech to firemen in midtown Manhattan.
Perry — the longest serving governor in Texas history — formally kicked off his presidential campaign on Saturday, largely on the strength of having created more jobs in Texas since 2009 than any other state in the nation. Read More
2012: “Clinton poked a little light-hearted fun” at Perry. [Newsmax.com]
2012: The firemen who heard Clinton’s remarks laughed. [NY Post]
2012: The story gets picked up by the wires. [AP]
2012: Romney notes only other candidate with private sector experience is Herman Cain. [S.A. Miller / NY Post]
2012: Perry touts “We created more jobs than any other state in the nation – from June of 2009 until present…Nobody in this race can say that.” [Huffington Post]
2012: “I can think of no reason why anyone who, for some unaccountable reason, supports Michele Bachmann will not move over to Perry.” [Richard Cohen / Daily News]
2012: “Republicans have yet to articulate a clear and compelling case for the White House — other than that they’re ‘not Obama.’” [NY Post]
2012: “Both parties’ primary systems give far too much weight to a small coterie of true believers.” [New York Times]
2013: “[Quinn] is unapologetic about her move to the middle, and brushes off her critics as ‘naïve’ ideologues. ‘There’s very few things in life…where there are angels and devils. Everything is usually more complicated than that.’ ” [David Chen / New York Times]
NY-9: Schumer to endorse Weprin. [Celeste Katz / Daily News]
NY-9: Turner defends opposition to Park51 and use of 9/11 imagery. “I’m not even remotely backing off it.” [Michael Saul / WSJ]
NY-9: “[Turner's] campaign is geared around nationalizing the race and winning the support of Democrats who are dissatisfied with the president.” [Alex Isenstadt / Politico]
VP: Biden was in the Hamptons with tech entrepreneur David Bohnett and his partner, Tom Gregory. [Page Six / NY Post]
Transporting Cuomo: “It cost New York about $13,000 to shuttle Gov. Andrew Cuomo on state-owned aircract for six months.” [AP]
Reading Cuomo: He “seemed rudderless when it came to the Port Authority.” [Bill Hamond / Daily News]
County Chairman: “With strong hints from statewide Democrats close to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that his services are no longer required, [Erie County Democratic Chairman Len] Lenihan is quietly slipping out the door.” [Robert McCarthy / Buffalo News]
Ethics: “The new commission will mark the first time an independent body has been in charge of overseeing legislative ethics.” [Jon Campbell / Poughkeepsie Journal]
Labor: CSEA ratifies deal with Cuomo; avoids layoffs. [Democrat and Chronicle]
Labor: Unofficial vote was 60-40 in favor of the contract. [Rick Karlin / Times Union]
Labor: CSEA ratification is a big win for Cuomo. [Erik Kriss / NY Post]
Labor: “[R]atification also goes a long way toward validating Mr. Cuomo’s strategy for dealing with public workers.” [Thomas Kaplan / New York Times]
City Council: Former Councilman Jennings is best-funded challenger to Ruben Wills. [Lisa Colangelo / Daily News]
Taxis: Assemblyman Kellner urges Cuomo to block Bloomberg’s taxi plan until more cabs are handicap accessible. [Ken Lovett / Daily News]
Monroe: Incumbent GOP County Exec seeks unprecedented third term; Dem challenger vows to create integrity office. [Jill Terreri / Democrat and Chronicle]
World Police & Fire Games: No events on Staten Island. [Judy Randall / SI Advance]
Third Party: New SI chairman of Libertarian Party is Dave Narby. [Tom Wrobleski / SI Advance]
Fire: Judge blocks Bloomberg plan to eliminate emergency call boxes. [Benjamin Weiser / New York Times]
Health: State health officials support Oswego County’s decision not to spray insecticides, despite “a dozen positive tests for Eastern equine encephalitis this summer and the death of a 4-year-old girl.” [Teri Weaver / Post-Standard]
Taxes: GOP candidates are proposing “most radically conservative positions of any set of candidates at least since Barry M. Goldwater in 1964.” [Steven Rattner / New York Times]
And Attorney General Schneiderman’s push against a settlement with BofA gets a boost from Nevada’s Attorney General. [David McLaughlin / Business Week]
Here’s some footage of Bill Clinton’s keynote speech at the International Association of Fire Fighters’ conference this morning, where he assailed Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry as a “good-looking rascal” whose anti-government platform was “crazy.”
I emailed a Perry campaign spokesman this afternoon for response and will update when it comes in.
City Comptroller John Liu — who worked out with New York City firemen Saturday yesterday and donned a helmet at their conference today – got a standing ovation when he vowed to protect union pension benefits.
Liu, who is likely to run for mayor in 2013, told the audience gathered at the Hilton this morning, “There are some people in New York City and across the country who have talked about how we can’t uphold the deal we made with our workers.” Read More
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made an unflattering cameo in a video created by the International Association of Fire Fighters that was shown at the group’s Health and Safety Conference this morning.
Before Bill Clinton’s keynote speech — where he called Texas Governor Rick Perry a “good-looking rascal” whose anti-government rants were “crazy” — the union showed an eight and a half minute video, criticizing lawmakers who are cutting fire department budgets.
Footage of Christie appears just before the 3:00 mark, when a narrator says the union is exposing politicians “as phonies with an extremist political agenda.” Read More
Bill Clinton said newly announced presidential candidate, Republican Governor Rick of Texas was a “good-looking rascal” whose railings against the federal government were nonsense.
Speaking at a fire fighter’s conference in midtown Manhattan this morning, Clinton said, “I got tickled by watching Governor Perry announce for governor, for president. He’s a good looking rascal.”
The audience — members of the International Association of Fire Fighters from across the United States and Canada — laughed. Read More
2012: Presidential primary in NY moved to April 24. [Joe Spector / Democrat and Chronicle]
NY9: Weprin says he’s not a placeholder. [Alec Hamilton / WNYC]
NY9: Independence Party backs Weprin. [Erik Ortiz / amNew York]
Redistricting: Editors urge Cuomo to stand firm against lawmakers. [Daily News]
Staffing Cuomo: Cuomo promotion of Larry Schwartz raises ire of investigators who say Schwartz’s denial in AEG scandal not credible. [Fred Dicker / NY Post]
Opening Wal-Mart: “The retail giant — angling to open in a planned East New York development — has now cozied up to Markowitz by becoming a corporate sponsor of his summer Martin Luther King Jr. concert series.” [Rich Calder and Sally Goldenberg / NY Post]
Opinion: Editors demand Bill Clinton apologize for comparing GOP rules in Florida to Jim Crow. [NY Post]
Pay Day: “average total compensation package for a state authority worker is $70,600.” [Ken Lovett / Daily News]
Community Service: “[Andrew Stein] became upset when told he didn’t appear to be working very hard… ‘That’s bull—-’ he said.” [Alex Katz and Erin Einhorn / Daily News]
Manhattan DA: “[I]nformation used to vilify Vance actually demonstrates that his office has conducted itself admirably.” [Daniel French / Daily News]
Albany: State Senate may return to Capital once Cuomo settles negotiations with unions. [Jimmy Vielkind / Times Unions]
Anthony and Huma: “Weiner made himself invaluable. Huma had no time. Traveling. Busy. Always needed. Always on the go. She required what every busy professional lady could use — a wife. He became her wife. She relied on him. He made things easy.” [Cindy Adams / NY Post]
Anthony and Huma: Anniversary dinner in Miami. [Page Six / NY Post]
The company that hired away a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg, Jason Post, will have Tony Blair and Bill Clinton serving on its advisory board.
Here’s the email Post is sending to friends and colleagues about his new gig at Teneo.
Update: A reader notes one of the company’s co-founders, Doug Band, is a longtime Clinton aide (and star of an infamous Clinton video). Read More
