I just got off the phone with one of Hillary Clinton’s newly deputized "rapid responders," Assemblyman Joe Morelle. In the spirit of rapid responding, I named a few elected officials and asked him to say the first thing that popped into his head:

Hillary Clinton: “Extraordinary”
Bill Clinton: “Smartest man in any room he‘s in.”
Barack Obama: “Very talented and has a lot of promise.”  read more »

That's how outgoing state Democratic Party chairman Herman "Denny" Farrell just described the state party's condition at the end of his five-year tenure.

In a speech to party leaders at the Sheraton, Farrell noted that since he took over as state chair from Judith Hope on Dec. 3, 2001, the party has picked up five congressional seats and had a "dramatic increase in Democratic enrollment. "Together," he said, "we did it."

This morning, Mark Green pulled out the triple endorsement of David Dinkins, Judith Hope and Marty Markowitz. [In an earlier version, I tied these endorsements to the McCall/Cuomo race in 2002. Many of you were kind enough to let me know that I was wrong to do so. Firstly, Dinkins endorsed Mark for mayor over Freddy and Mark had worked for the Dinkins administration, so they go way back. Secondly, Hope wasn't the state chairman during that primary, as I first wrote. It was, and still is, Herman Denny Farrell. Lastly, it was 4 years ago and some people have moved on.]