-I believe one problem is that Albany's sympathy for NYC faded even faster -than Middle America's in general. Gov. Pataki hasn't exactly extended -himself or expended any political capital to pull federal money into NYC -post-9/11.
Not sure that's true, although Pataki was particularly politically inept in his "Christmas Tree" approach to asking for every random desire for New York spending under the WTC umbrella. What has hurt in the last month has been Guiliani flatly saying that New York didn't need any more money from the Feds. Whatever good will Guiliani got from me with his admirable actions in the immediate wake of the WTC act have been eliminated with his craven abandonment of NYC folks in pursuit of national GOP pandering.
Luckily, Bloomberg has politely been ignoring Guiliani and lobbying for more aid. Whatever his general policy problems - and folks tell me he has been appointing decently progressive people - having a nominal Republican as mayor may be very useful in kicking the Congressional GOP to shake loose more money.
-- Nathan Newman