Leave No Charming, Lilting Accent Behind

People (read: The New York Times) are questioning whether Irish illegal immigrants are getting special attention:

“You’re not just some guy or some woman in the Bronx, you’re part of a movement,” [Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform chairman] Mr. [Niall] O’Dowd told the crowd of construction workers, students and nannies. He was urging them to support a piece of Senate legislation that would let them work legally toward citizenship, rather than punishing them with prison time, as competing bills would.

For months, coalitions of Latino, Asian and African immigrants from 50 countries have been championing the same measure with scant attention, even from New York’s Democratic senators. But the Irish struck out on their own six weeks ago, and as so often before in the history of American immigration policy, they have landed center stage.

Last week, when Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles E. Schumer declared their support for a new path to citizenship, and denounced criminal penalties recently passed by the House of Representatives, they did so not at the large, predominantly Hispanic immigrant march on Washington, but at the much smaller Irish rally held there the following day.

. . .

Juan Carlos Ruiz, the coordinator of the predominantly Hispanic rally of 40,000 held March 7 on Capitol Hill, said that only one senator had shown up there, without speaking: Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. The next day, Mr. Ruiz said, when he and his 14-year-old son stopped by the Irish gathering of about 2,400 and realized that the speakers included Senators Edward M. Kennedy, John McCain, as well as Senators Clinton and Schumer, his son asked, “Why didn’t the senators come to our rally?”

“I was heartbroken,” Mr. Ruiz said. “I needed to explain to him: ‘The immigrants of color, for these senators we are not important enough for them to make a space in their calendar.'”

Still, the idea of a special Irish exception is not unwelcome:

Special visas for the Irish “would be brilliant,” said Valery O’Donnell, a house cleaner and single mother of 7-year-old twins who was at the Rory Dolan’s meeting, and said she had lived in New York illegally for 13 years. “There’s no harm in us. We’re all out here to work hard.”

Backstory: How About Instead We Try Something Along The Lines Of “No Mellifluously Cute Foreign Accent Left Behind”?, Now That’s Better.

Oy Vey, Vot A Power Broker!

The Times profiles Hizzoner’s Karl Rove, and the shady unchecked world of backroom horsetrading that goes on in the upper reaches of city government:

In September, a new sign went up on the Williamsburg Bridge, and it won national notice as another example of New York City’s singularly abrasive charm: “Leaving Brooklyn, Oy Vey!” The sign, the brainchild of the Brooklyn borough president, Marty Markowitz, gained attention in newspapers as far away as Pittsburgh and Kansas City.

But in the intricate dance of New York City politics, the sign was as notable for the timing of its appearance as for what it said. It arrived after two years of resistance from the city’s transportation commissioner, Iris Weinshall, but just shortly before Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was to face re-election. And just after it went up, Mr. Markowitz, a Democrat, crossed party lines to endorse the re-election of Mr. Bloomberg, a Republican.

Though City Hall said the close timing of Ms. Weinshall’s reversal and Mr. Markowitz’s endorsement was coincidental, someone intimately involved in the matter said one person played a crucial role in paving the way for the sign’s placement: Kevin Sheekey, Mr. Bloomberg’s top political strategist.

It was just the sort of finesse — some say deal-making — that Mr. Sheekey, 39, quietly put to work in helping to get the mayor re-elected in a landslide victory in November. And now with that election behind him, Mr. Sheekey has moved over to City Hall, and has quickly gone on a virtual war footing to make sure Mr. Bloomberg pushes through his agenda before the mayor is forced to leave office in 2009 by term limits.

The triangulation! The Rovian brilliance!

Mr. Markowitz acknowledged that he told Mr. Sheekey of his displeasure at not getting his “Oy Vey” sign put up. But he said he had no knowledge that the resolution of the fight was politically motivated, and that it did not prompt his endorsement.

“It wasn’t exactly happening and then it happened,” Mr. Markowitz said of the sign.

Such maneuvering seems distinctly out of character for an administration that had prided itself in shying from raw power politics — or what Mr. Bloomberg had derisively called “horse trading.” But Mr. Sheekey’s tactics have impressed some who worked to defeat the mayor.

“I think they ran a flawless campaign,” said Howard Wolfson, a strategist with the New York State Democratic Committee. Though he said he could not discount the more than $80 million Mr. Bloomberg spent on his campaign, he said he considered Mr. Sheekey “probably the best political operator” of Mr. Sheekey’s generation, citing “pure politics, cutting deals and making things happen.” [Emph. added to underscore a wonderfully backhanded compliment]

Pish De Chuss En De Yom!

Struggling with reconciling support for your party and the tenets of Leviticus? Simply sneak out to take a leak:

City Councilman Simcha Felder may have given new meaning to “chutzpah” . . .

Felder, a Democrat and Orthodox Jew who represents Borough Park, actively supported Christine Quinn in her successful bid to become speaker of the City Council.

Yet, he took a convenient powder during the Jan. 4 voice vote that elected Quinn, who is openly gay, so as not to offend some of his more conservative Hasidic and Orthodox constituents, who are said to view homosexuality as “a grave sin” that is forbidden by Jewish rabbinic law.

Felder made a well-timed visit to the men’s room at the rear of the Council Chambers during the actual vote for speaker to avoid being recorded as having voted or abstained, according to a report published last week by The Jewish Week.

So who does Felder invite to be one of the VIP speakers tomorrow night at his third-term Council inauguration celebration at Brooklyn Borough Hall?

You guessed it — Quinn. Now that is chutzpah.

Not only that, but Quinn has accepted the invitation, according to a spokeswoman.

And if that’s not chutzpah enough, several Council insiders report that Felder is in line to be tapped by Quinn to be chairman of a committee dealing with mental health, mental retardation, alcoholism, drug abuse and disability services.

Bonus: How to swear, insult, cuss and curse in Yiddish!

It’s Good To Be King

The Post reports that Jeanine Pirro’s campaign manager was fired, possibly because he was paying himself $16,000 a month. (You may be asking yourself, “Campaign manager for what?” No matter.):

The 29-year-old manager of Jeanine Pirro’s now-defunct Senate campaign was fired amid revelations he paid himself $16,000 a month, a source close to Pirro told The Post yesterday.

Brian Donohue, a former Republican National Committee operative who was recruited by Pirro campaign consultant Kieran Mahoney, was let go last week as the former Westchester district attorney began a new campaign for attorney general, the source said.

“Jeanine herself made the decision to let him go,” said the source.

“He was clearly [in] over his head, inexperienced and inept — and the whole time, he’s paying himself $16,000 a month, while Jeanine was having trouble raising money.

“People were stunned when they learned the figure.”

In response, Donohue told The Post he wasn’t fired and said Pirro had asked him to stay.

He contended Pirro would soon call The Post to confirm his claim, but she didn’t.

. . .

He confirmed paying himself $16,000-a-month, noting that Pirro might not have been aware of his huge salary.

“I decided [the salary] with other folks in the campaign,” said Donohue, who repeatedly refused to name the “other folks” involved.

Of course, Mr. Donohue could argue that his salary was actually in the ballpark of other campaign salaries — at least if you’re part of Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign . . .

*Big Money

The numbers are in and it turns out Hizzoner spent $103 per vote on his winning mayoral campaign for a total of $77.9 million — so far:

It’s official: There’s a new record for the most money ever spent on a political campaign in the city.

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday reported doling out $77.9 million of his own money on his re-election effort –smashing the previous high mark of $74 million he spent four years ago.

Bloomberg’s megaspending works out to more than $103 per vote. The figures released yesterday were not a final tally, and the number is expected to grow by several million.

The Mayor spent most of his money on television advertising, effectively subsidizing Sam Champion’s salary:

In the race’s last five weeks alone, Bloomberg spent nearly $6 million on a blizzard of commercials and hefty payments to consultants.

Overall, TV stations and consultants added a staggering $45 million to their coffers courtesy of Hizzoner, nearly five times the amount Bloomberg’s opponent, Fernando Ferrer, spent on his entire race.

All of which amounts to a sum the Mayor himself once said would be obscene:

While Bloomberg denied that the gigantic dollar amounts subverted the democratic process, he once said that spending anything close to the $74 million he paid out in 2001 would be “obscene.”

The question now is whether, instead of being one of the most successful Republican mayors ever, Bloomberg’s victory will come with an asterisk . . . which isn’t to excuse Fernando Ferrer, of course. He’s still a big whiner.