Sunday, May 22, 2005

The Olympics-stadium scam: How about a conditional approval?

Mayor Mike (as he chooses to be called) lies and the New York Post swears to it. What a team.

In an editorial yesterday, the Post says:

"The city's Olympic hopes are hanging [on approval of financing for the West-side stadium] in the balance. Yet two of New York's key players [Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno] are actively working to undermine them."

But what, in fact, are Silver and Bruno doing?

According to the Post, "Silver has been defiantly pooh-pooing the idea of quick approval of the stadium citing spurious [according to the Post] lawsuits by its opponents."
"Plus, not only did he claim the city's hopes for the 2012 Olympics are dim, he actually recommended New York begin gearing up to vie for the 2016 Games."
Since almost everyone except Mayor Mike's cohorts believe that Paris is a Heads-on favorite to get the games, this doesn't seem like a bad idea.

But what about Bruno, what crimes has he committed?

"...he said he would kill the plan entirely unless Gov. Pataki answers a detailed list of questions."
Whoa! Wouldn't you think that a Governor could answer a list of questions from a State Senator from his own party to resolve this problem? It seems not. One has to ask, why not?

But the key to all this is that Mayor Mike and his cohorts are using the Olympics to justify a boondoggle for the Jets football team. He also wants to be able to blame his opponents in the mayoral election for "losing the Olympics." Despite the fact that this is nonsense, why not cut the legs out from under this bogus Mayoral argument.

If delaying the vote on the stadium beyond the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s vote on July 6 would jeopardize the city's bid, why not approve it conditionally for the Olympics (if NYC gets the games, it is approved; if it doesn't, which is more likely, then the Jets can high themselves back to New Jersey and Bloomberg can high himself back to his news channel).

Then all the TV commercials now being prepared by the Bloomberg campaign blaming everyone else for "losing the Olympics" can go in the garbage heap of history and we can get back to the real issues of the campaign.

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