Smith on Stark, Being in the Zone
Here's a snippet of the exchange Smith had with a radio reporter who asked why they're backing Stark.
Smith: "It's a conference decision."
Reporter: "But why is she more qualified than the other two?"
Smith: "Because Martha Stark is the person we voted for."
Reporter: "I didn't ask why, who you voted for. I asked why is she more qualified than the other two?"
Smith: "Did you look at her background?"
Smith wasn't much clearer when addressing the claim that two Republican senators were ready to switch parties, which would give the Democrats control of the Senate and make him majority leader. Citing the theoretical notion of "Zones of Potential Agreement" he said he learned about at a seminar at Harvard, Smith said that some other members of the legislature were "in the zone."
He declined to name names.
-- Azi Paybarah
um. can someone say BLACK?
Smith a racial huckster in the Sharpton mode...he is trying to bring someone in because she is Black and will probably give some business to Smith people and contributors. And how about all his little kiddies with many women? What a scuzzzy sleazy human being.
It makes sense for a supposed Dem who endorsed Mike Bloomberg and George Pataki. Why shouldn't he support Mike's candidate? Who's the real Republican, Bruno or Smith?
"Reverend," anyone who calls Malcolm Smith a "racial huckster" doesn't know his background, and is clearly a bit of a "scuzzzy" "racial huckster" himself. 2:58, you make more sense, except Sen. Smith did not support Pataki, despite false rumors to the contrary.
Correction to above: "...depite false rumors that he did."
Say what you want about his motives, but Shelly did ask Bill Thompson if he wanted the job. If Billy had said yes an AA man would have won today. Billy said no. Let's not hear any yapping about how African Americans still can't get a break in NY.
I can...BLACK!
4:12, since you brought up the topic, it's actually quite true that African Americans still have many barriers yet to break in NY. William Thompson is only one African American. Are you saying there are no African Americans in the Assembly who Sheldon Silver would have considered?
Anonymused, obviously we both know that there are African Americans in the Assembly that are qualified to be comptroller. And Im sure we both know that Billy was offered the job to avoid as much trouble with spitzer as possible. My post was a prebuttal to those (hopefully not you) that will say that Stark didn't win because she is an African American. The fact is that she probably would not have been chosen by the "committee" if she wasn't an AA and she lost because she was Eliot's choice not because she is AA. I hope you agree.
bigj, I disagree with you on two counts: 1) I would think there would be no need for a "prebuttal," as anyone who has followed this matter knows that Ms. Stark's not having been chosen has to do with a battle between the Executive and Legislative branches of State government--the same reasons neither Weitzman nor Mulrow (non-Blacks)were ultimately given the job. To the extent that anyone would say that she didn't prevail because of her race, no response is required or deserved; 2) Martha Stark has done an excellent job as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Finance and has quite an impressive resume. It's highly insulting to say she was chosen by the three-person panel on grounds of her race. (By the way, she's also a lesbian; I'm surprised you didn't single that out as a reason for her selection.) Wow! No disrespect, but your reasoning (as well as that of some others who have posted on this topic) goes to show that no matter how well-qualified an African American is, there will always be those who say they are either considered for or given a position solely because of race. And this is the 21st century, folks!
By the way, I think we all know that between the three committee-chosen candidates, "Eliot's choice" would have been his buddy Mulrow.