July 6, 2009 @ 8:50 am
Video: Bloomberg’s Arrogance at Press Conferences
We have had sixteen long years of Republican rule in New York City. Rudy Giuliani’s contempt for civil liberties and the gleeful abandon with which he stoked racial fires are the lasting images of the Giuliani years. The police officer who sodomized Abner Louima with a broomstick, the undercover police gangs who gunned down innocent black citizens and were praised by Giuliani are indelible memories for many New Yorkers. The officer who was said to have announced to his victim that “It’s Giuliani time” never said it — but neither did Gerald Ford say “Drop Dead” to New York. Both remarks captured essential truths.
Rudy Crew, a former New York City school chancellor whom Giuliani forced out, expressed what many New Yorkers felt when he remarked, “There’s something very deeply pathological about Rudy’s humanity; he was barren, completely emotionally barren, on the issue of race.”
Michael Bloomberg’s bland and bloodless public persona has created the false impression that he is less angry, more judicious than his predecessor. Maybe so, but like Crew, those who have been the target of Bloomberg’s anger think otherwise. Take a look.
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Posted by Joan
July 6, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
It’s distressing to see the craven politicians surrounding Bloomberg at the podium, craning their necks to get into camera range. It doesn’t seem to matter what the man does or what he stands for.
We expect it from the likes of Quinn, and even from the accidental governor who is grateful that Bloomberg doesn’t appear to want to live in Albany, and who doesn’t want the billionaire supporting his opponent, or maybe wants some of that cash for his own campaign, but when we see people like Jerry Nadler, the upper west side congressman and chair of the subcomittee on civil liberties right there with the rest of the gang, it makes one wonder whether the political system can be repaired. At the very least, it should give pause to the Obama critics on the left who feel he isn’t moving fast enough. Look what he’s up against within his own party, let alone the criminal conspirators on the right.
Joan
Posted by Hissy Fit
July 6, 2009 @ 5:59 pm
GOD FORBID Bloomberg not take an answer from a reporter (Gasp!) when walking to his car.
“This will air tonight!!!”
Oh no!
The airing of that didn’t seem to make much impact.
The sense of entitlement from reporters shocks the conscience at times.
Posted by Mike
July 6, 2009 @ 6:24 pm
Sure — Bloomberg didn’t have to take a question from the TV reporter, but it’s his long and imperious reaction to Reporter Michael Harris, the wheelchair-bound journalist who accidentally dropped his voice recorder out of reach that, for me, feels the most outrageous (the next day, Newsday’s amNew York had a cover that read, “Have a Heart, Mike”).
When President Obama was interrupted at a press conference by a quacking ringtone, he simply laughed off the disruption before continuing with his speech (See: “Duck Ringtone Interrupts President” 06/29/09).