Weigh-in on NY mayor elections?

[Carl Remick]

>The NYC Dem party has a serious problem. Sorry to quote the NYT twice
>in one quote, but here's what Dennis Rivera had to say in this
>morning's paper:
>
>>With an absence of obvious leaders, a surfeit of issues to quarrel
>>about, and the obvious success of a new political mold started by
>>Mr. Giuliani and picked up by Mr. Bloomberg, the distress in
>>Democratic circles yesterday was as palpable as the celebration in
>>Mr. Bloomberg's camp. Dennis Rivera, the head of the influential
>>health care workers union, and a supporter of Mr. Ferrer, said there
>>was "an incredible crisis in the Democratic Party."
>>
>>"For a city that is five Democrats for every one Republican, and for
>>the Democrats to have lost the last three elections, it's basically
>>an indictment of the Democratic Party," he said. Mr. Rivera called
>>the outcome "a rude awakening to the Democratic Party," and said
>>much of that had to do with the way it treated minority voters in
>>this campaign.
>>
>>"It's almost a battered woman syndrome - no it doesn't matter what I
>>do to you, you have to be with me," Mr. Rivera said.
>
>Doug

I just saw this prize quote in the NYT and was about to post it to the list 
when I saw you had beaten me to the punch.  What an amazing pack of fuckups 
NYC Dems are today.  AFAIC, the Bloomberg victory also stands as a stunning 
indictment of the centrist strategy the Dems continue to pursue in the 
national arena.

Ed Koch is not normally a guy I quote with reverence, but I thought he made 
an excellent point in that NYT article that contained the above Rivera 
quote, viz:

"Mayor Edward I. Koch, a Democrat who supported three mayoral candidates, 
including Mr. Bloomberg, stopped short when asked to name the future leaders 
of his party, or even who might run in four years. 'I don't think that Mark 
Green — he probably thinks of himself as the nominal leader of the 
Democratic Party,' Mr. Koch said, and then burst out laughing. 'Ha, ha, ha, 
ha! Like Al Gore thinks of himself as the nominal leader nationally. Neither 
one is true.'"

Carl

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