The Politicker

Barack Obama has stopped talking about Hillary Clinton.

She is still publicly criticizing him, however.

As a "breakaway" strategy, the Obama campaign is apparently looking to win 51 percent of the popular vote.

Obama took the lead in superdelegate support after gaining nine endorsements on Friday and several more on Saturday,

Greg Sargent listened in on a private Clinton campaign conference call, during which a "surprisingly cheerful" Clinton alluded to "back channel talks" with the Obama campaign.

Terry McAuliffe says, on TV, that “something big would have to happen” for Clinton to win.

Clinton releases an ad starring Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame.

The guy John McCain appointed to run the Republican National Convention quit after Newsweek reported that his consulting firm has represented the military junta in Burma.

One thousand, one hundred people paid money to attend a "Mothers Day Fundraising Reception" with Chelsea and Hillary Clinton in Manhattan.

At the event, Charlie Rangel called Clinton's comments about white voters “the dumbest thing she could have said.” Then he staunchly defended her right to fight for the nomination.

The New York Times editorial board thinks Clinton should stop fighting to seat delegates from Michigan and Florida.

Karen Tumulty considers arguments for and against the idea of Obama paying off Clinton's campaign debt.

McCain proposed joint town hall-style campaigning with Obama this summer; Obama said he thinks it's "a great idea."

McCain raised $1 million in South Carolina.

Ben Smith and Avi Zenilman profile Obama's delegate guy, the "unsung hero" of his campaign.

The Seattle Times reports that young evangelicals are defecting from the Republican Party.

Juan Williams thinks Clinton "is right" about white voters.

The Fix writes a list of the top five V.P. choices for both Obama and McCain.

Jill Zuckman outlines the portrait McCain is painting of Obama.

Maureen Dowd says the issue of the fusion ticket is a "sticky wicket" for Obama.

John F. Harris and Jonathan Martin argue that the idea of a joint ticket is "nuts."

And then they argue that it isn't.

Silly Obama said there were 57 states.

One report says that Vito Fossella is expected to resign.

But the Post reports that Fossella has told friends and colleagues that he plans to run again.

Peter King describes the behavior of other Republicans towards Fossella as "putting a knife in the back of a good guy who's made a mistake."

According to the Daily News, neither of Fossella's women are happy with him.

Brooklyn Paper joins the Staten Island Advance in calling for Fossella's resignation.

Democrats are reportedly irked by how Steve Harrison has handled the Fossella debacle.

A Times Union investigation finds that Albany's Legislative Ethics Commission is neither independent nor effective.

David Seifman reports that a program created to combat minority unemployment was "terribly tainted" by interference from City Council members.

Council member Diane Mealy tried unsuccessfully to steer $25,000 in funding to the block association her sister runs.

Dan Jacoby makes the case for abolishing member items.

Diane Cardwell says Christine Quinn inherited the budget problem she's trying to fix, and that although Michael Bloomberg claims he didn't know what was going on, "some mayoral budget aides have understood the practice all along."

Bloomberg's budget cut funds that are needed to hire new police officers.

Kirsten Danis is skeptical of Bloomberg's $2.1 million charter revision commission.

Bloomberg says the Hudson Yards project isn't dead.

In London, Bloomberg offered advice to the city's new mayor.

He sort of got the short end of the stick during the gift exchange, though.

The New York Times editorial board thinks David Paterson "has lost his zeal" for reform.

Bill Thompson skipped out on his divorce hearing to go to Ireland.

St. Vincent's is making a hardship plea to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which recently ruled against the hospital's expansion plan.

Jim Tedisco is pushing a petition to lobby for a gas-tax holiday.

The ferries set sail tomorrow!

From the New York Post:

Defying disgusted constituents and angry Republican leaders, disgraced Rep. Vito Fossella has told pals he plans to seek re-election.

And, shockingly, the Staten Island pol is feeling "pretty good," he confided to friends

"I got every indication that he plans to run again," said Guy Molinari, Fossella's political mentor, who's been in close contact with the embattled 43-year-old politician. Fossella is up for re-election in November.

"He's not just inclined to run. He plans on running," said Molinari, a former congressman and Staten Island borough president who was succeeded by Fossella as the de facto leader of the borough's GOP.
 

At first glance, the potential (likely?) demise of Vito Fossella's political career makes for a timely boost for Democrats, who are now in prime position to claim the 13th District congressional seat he has held since 1997.

But it may be more trouble than it's worth.

The district certainly is winnable for Democrats, especially if Fossella opts to seek re-election despite the scandals exploding around him. But even if he doesn't – and there is word this afternoon that his resignation is now imminent – either of the Democrats now running, Steve Harrison and Domenic Recchia, would probably have a better-than-even chance against the Republican-to-be-named-later in the fall.

The 13th District is easily the most conservative in New York City and traditionally sends a Republican to Congress, but Democrats actually enjoy a slight partisan advantage. Largely because of 9/11, George W. Bush carried it by 10 points in 2004, but a more accurate expression of the district's leanings can be found in the 2000 election, when Al Gore won it by eight points over Bush. Moreover, the political climate strongly favors Democrats in 2008 (just look at the party's string of special election wins in GOP bastions this year), which figures to boost the Democratic nominee in the 13th by a few potentially pivotal points.  read more »

Saturday

8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Municipal Art Society's annual Livable Neighborhoods Program seminar on community planning; Hunter College, 695 Park Ave., 6th floor.

10 a.m. Caroline Kennedy helps kick off annual Madison Avenue Gallery Walk; Neuhoff Gallery, Fuller Building, 41 East 57th St., 4th floor.

11 a.m. Elected officials announce legislation to reform M.T.A.'s disability service; City Hall Steps.  read more »

Ted Kennedy tells Al Hunt he doesn't "think it's possible'' for Barack Obama to pick Hillary Clinton as a running mate.

Rahm Emanuel's spokeswoman says that it was "selective quoting."

John Edwards says it's tough to make the math work for Clinton.

Obama nets seven superdelegates.

A California superdelegate is selling his vote for $20 million.

A pro-Clinton blogger labels links to what she calls the "Hillary Clinton Defense Fund."

A local education blog moves on to Clinton '12.

Obama says the race isn't over.

Jonathan Martin doesn't think support for Republican candidates other than John McCain is that big a deal.

Here's the R.N.C.'s anti-Obama web site.

Democrats note that, while here, McCain is passing by some New York landmarks he didn't want to fund with federal dollars.

Rasmussen thinks the race is over.

Clinton as the Iraq War?

Obama stands up for the autonomy of the Cherokee Nation.

Jay DeDapper thinks a quick exit by Vito Fossella followed by a special election victory could give Republicans at least one thing to brag about heading into November.

In what The Hill calls Fossella's "only break" so far, he he will not have to be in court on Monday.

The Staten Island Advance is "comparing political bad boys": Eliot Spitzer, Vito Fossella and Bill Clinton.

Commenter mom2weatherkids watches Azi's Fossella video and notes that he is not numerically specific when saying he is "blessed to be the father of some very, very beautiful children."

Kirsten Gillibrand promotes her opposition to Eliot Spitzer's drivers license proposal.

David Soares is raising money.

A pro-development blog takes issue with today's New York Times story about Willets Point.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wrote back to Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito about a proposed giant power line.

Regulated rents are going up.

Con Ed wants to raise rates again.

Richard Brodsky has a new plan for the West Side rail yards.

Mayor Doug Palmer of Trenton, a loyal Hillary Clinton supporter, doesn’t think much of the dust-up over Clinton's comments about how exit polls in Indiana and North Carolina showed Barack Obama's "support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

Palmer, one of Clinton’s highest-profile black supporters in New Jersey, refused any suggestion that she was trying to be manipulative, and said that she was only pointing out a fact that a whole host of pundits and analysts had already observed.

"She doesn't have to say that because people already see it and know it. And her saying it is not going to make it more important," he said, adding. "People need to step back and take a breath."

"She just has gotten a bad rap on this," he added. "You have 92 percent of African American voters going for him. And people said that he has black support."

He argued Obama's "bitter" comments were worse because they were made in a San Francisco fund-raiser. By contrast, with Clinton, he said, "It was not like she was saying something behind closed doors. She said it to the media."  read more »

Here’s some clarification on what exactly happened to the tape that Assemblyman Karim Camara told me was destroyed.

According to a spokeswoman for Albany County District Attorney David Soares, Albany police did not “preserve” the videotape--according to Camara "crucial" evidence in the D.U.I. case against him--that showed Camara refusing to take a breathalyser test at the police station.

Spokeswoman Heather Orth told me that, as in all D.U.I. cases, the D.A. requested a copy of the tape from the police. But, she said, they never received it. After an unspecified amount of time, the D.A.’s office made a second request for it. It was only then that they were informed by Albany police officials that the recording had been taped over.

Because of that, the judge has thrown out one charge against Camara, but the initial D.U.I. charge against him is still being prosecuted, she told me, and the videotape is not needed for that.

Camara’s next court appearance is sometime in June, according to Orth.

It seems that Christine Quinn has two important factions to please. On one side are the 50 other members of the City Council. On the other are good-government groups and, particularly, The New York Times editorial board.

When Quinn began discussing the slush fund scandal at the City Council, The Times editorial board--a big voice in Democratic primaries for offices like, say, mayor--held out hope that Quinn could set things straight, writing, "[her] reformist zeal is still needed."

The first package of reforms Quinn announced, on April 11, would have stripped the City Council of the ability to determine how $20 million in discretionary money from the council speaker's office is spent, giving that power instead to the mayor's agencies. The Times called it "sensible" but added, "[S]he must do a lot more."

Then, council members objected. Loudly. Strongly.

So this week, Quinn unveiled another set of reforms that are more palatable to her members.

The major difference between Quinn's old plan and new plan is that the new plan leaves a majority of decision-making power with council members. The Times was not pleased:  read more »

Representative Anthony Weiner, a devout Hillary Clinton supporter, recalls for News Forum host Jay DeDapper what it was like meeting Barack Obama on the floor of Congress the other day:

From a transcript sent over by the studio:

Weiner: He—we had a funny circumstance. I was right in the back of the room as he walked in, and I have—I've developed something of a reputation for being a Hillary partisan on the floor. And so some of my buddies said, 'Hey, we got someone you want to meet,' and brought him over to say hello, and he—we exchange—I told him I was like that skinny Chinese kid in Tiananmen Square standing in front of the tank, I might be the last one.

On a different topic later in the interview, Weiner said he wasn’t impressed with the budget reforms introduced by his likely mayoral rival, Christine Quinn.

When asked if her reforms are “good enough,” Weiner said, “I think, frankly, that they’re not,” adding that he thinks the money should be doled out not by council members, but rather through “some other mechanism.”

What mechanism?

Weiner suggests money should allocated “through mayoral agencies” with “the advice of the City Council.”

Weiner, a former councilman, seems to be making the argument that The New York Times editorial board wants to hear, which is one way to curry favor with the paper after opposing congestion pricing, a favorite topic at the Times.

The Brooklyn Democrats for Change, a reform club in Bay Ridge, held their endorsement meeting last night to decide which Democrat to endorse against Republican Vito Fossella.

The club’s decision was an even split.

According to a political operative who attended the meeting but is not actively working for either campaign, there were 25 votes for each of the two declared Democratic candidates, attorney Steve Harrison and City Councilman Domenic Recchia.

(It should be noted that there were 54 votes casts, but two were for "no endorsement" and two additional ones were invalidated because of some error made by the voter that disqualified their ballot, according to my source.)

It’s unclear what the club will do at the moment. But my source says it’s a defeat of sorts for Harrison. Recchia never spoke to the club and, although he was invited twice, couldn’t attend meetings because of (legitimate) scheduling conflicts.

It’s also worth noting that the club is located in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and not in Recchia’s council district. So, for not having shown up and the vote not being in his backyard, Recchia demonstrated some ground-level support—or at least, with superior funding even to Fossella, is considered the favorite to win.