Your Word Is A Pot Of Gold At The End Of The Rainbow

Connecting with the people is about making promises and sticking to them:

No nationally known political figures graced the ninth annual St. Patrick’s Parade in Sunnyside and Woodside, and even Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave notice he wouldn’t be around this year, though once he had said he’d attend each parade faithfully, even after he had left office.

When In Doubt, Just Say You’ll Cut Library Hours; Public Sympathy Follows

But when no one blinks at across-the-board five percent cuts, you might have to make your threats a little clearer:

Insisting the state budget is shortchanging the city by nearly $750 million, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration is mandating that each city agency cut its upcoming budget by 3 percent, in addition to the 5 percent cuts the mayor laid out earlier this year.

The supplementary cuts, which will affect agencies typically held harmless from the budget ax, such as the Department of Education, stunned City Council members who learned of them yesterday from Mark Page, director of the city Office of Management and Budget.

Page announced the combined 8 percent slash for fiscal year 2009 during his annual budget testimony before the Council’s Finance Committee in City Hall. He delivered scathing remarks about the state’s proposed budget, which he said reduces city funding by $747 million.

And don’t forget to roll out the children:

Council members and education advocates, already reeling from the $100 million cuts hitting the city’s roughly 1,400 public schools last month, slammed the additional reductions.

“This year, with the 2.5 [percent], it’s impacting the schools and it’s hurting the kids. I have literacy programs that aren’t fully supplied with [materials]. These are the things that impact kids,” said Sean Rotkowitz, the Staten Island liaison for the teachers’ union. “At the very least, the classrooms and the schools should be held harmless.”

Duck! Lame!

No sooner than . . . does . . . ugh:

Running for president was always an unlikely next step for Mayor Bloomberg. Running for governor is likely, and becoming more so.

Mr. Bloomberg and Governor Spitzer don’t get along very well. They understand their mutual need to accomplish individual goals while in office, but as individuals they don’t have much in common beyond liking a coffee shop situated near their Upper East Side residences.

Don’t expect to hear much talk from the Bloomberg camp about running for governor. The nonstop talk about running for president was a requirement to make Mr. Bloomberg a viable candidate. The concept of Mr. Bloomberg entering the presidential race seemed absurd when the rumors first began two years ago. A coordinated pre-campaign was required to make plausible a campaign that now is not happening. Convincing voters and opinion makers that Mr. Bloomberg is a reasonable gubernatorial candidate with a reasonable chance of winning isn’t an issue. Polls at this early date — nearly three years before the election — even show Mr. Bloomberg ahead of Mr. Spitzer. So in terms of running for governor, talk would only hurt Mr. Bloomberg’s chances, as it could cause trouble with the current governor.

Yes, The Duck Is Lame, But With 70 Percent Less Grandstanding

Now that Sheekey’s Machine is safely out of commission, the mayor can go back to his true colors — protecting landlord’s rights (“Mr. Bloomberg said the bill, while well-intentioned, prohibited landlords from making sound business decisions and required them to enter into contracts with government agencies that they might otherwise avoid”) and helping State Senate Republicans:

While declaring his commitment to nonpartisanship, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is quietly injecting himself — and his money — into one of the most explosive partisan battles in decades in New York.

Several weeks ago, the mayor wrote a $500,000 check to help keep the dwindling and increasingly imperiled State Senate Republicans from losing their grip on power, according to an official with direct knowledge of the donation.

The Democrats are seeking to gain control of the Senate for the first time in 40 years, and the race is growing personal and bitter.

Right, Just Like Kenya

Why is he starting to sound like he’s running in the Democratic primary? If you say “vice president” or even “president of the World Bank,” I will be upset:

If the Board of Elections isn’t reformed, it’s “not beyond the realm of possibility” that voters will lose confidence in the entire electoral process as they did in Kenya, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.

On his WABC radio show yesterday, Bloomberg went on a tear against the city’s Board of Elections after unofficial tallies in the Democratic presidential primary showed Barack Obama implausibly received no votes in 82 districts.

But the mayor backed off on his charge of election “fraud.”