Bloomberg Delivers Spirited Defense of Quinn, Again
Michael Bloomberg is continuing to defend his close ally Christine Quinn from the public relations beating she took over the slush fund scandal at the City Council. Speaking at an event hosted by the Conflict of Interest Board this morning, Bloomberg said, according to a transcript forwarded by a reader:
I wanted to say something nice about Christine Quinn- really has, I thought, been unfairly beaten up a little bit in the press. Christine Quinn has tried very hard to open up the processes of how allocations of government funds are made, how contracts are given out. She has added teeth, I think, to the enforcement of lobbying laws and banned all gifts from lobbyists. There are people who think that hasn’t gone far enough, but the this is a democracy and I think Christine Quinn in trying to attack the problem of pay-to-play really has improved the process. We passed a law that makes it harder for those to do business for government to gain undo influence. Some people thought these reforms would never take place. Some people think that we should have included labor unions in those things. Democracy works slowly and it doesn’t work in a revolutionary way. It works in an evolutionary way and I think we should give her the due for taking us in the right direction.
And perhaps down the road we can go even further.
I think she has proven the naysayers wrong that said you can’t do anything about this and the pay-to-play issue.
Bloomberg's defense of Quinn also has the added benefit of insulating himself from similar criticisms.
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
- Spread
- RCP Average
- 46.9
- 43.3
- Obama +3.6
- Candidate
- Favorable
- Unfavorable
- Spread
- Obama
- 52.6
- 34.4
- +18.2
- McCain
- 51.2
- 34.2
- +17.0
Where's the rest of the media on this story? We have council members and the mayor handing out taxpayer money from secret stores of cash. It's appalling the media finds this of such little interest.
I think Bloomberg will think differently about Speaker Quinn after Quinn is indicted by a federal grand jury. The previous Speaker of the Council, Peter Vallone was just subpeoned by a federal grand jury. This is an indication that Speaker Quinn is a target of the federal investigation and that the US attorney's office is closing in on Quinn's criminal activity.
On a side note, please watch the following video because the way this defendant lies reminds me of how Speaker Quinn reacts when the press catches Quinn in her own lies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xwOJKuIn5I
Please also watch the following video of a criminal who got caught in a lie just like Speaker Quinn and her staff got caught in their lies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fri3vepQz4
The mayor is scratching Quinn's back as she has scratched his. They have a joint partnership and wants to continue getting his agenda passed. It won't help. She knew about this and did not care as it served her purposes. Why does she need a car and driver 24/7? Who has access to this service and where does Quinn go that is so important? She has not been elected by the voters as a citywide official. She is a council member for Chelsea. This is all additional costs for the taxpayers!!