Lizzy Ratner

Jason Horowitz reports on the presidential dreams of Chris Dodd.

Lizzy Ratner and Azi report on the Berger Commission's recommendations for closing and merging New York hospitals and why they are - and aren't - a big deal.

Matthew Schuerman writes about the end of cheap rentals on the Far East Side of Manhattan.

Steve Kornacki explains why the negative effect of Nancy Pelosi's leadership machinations on the Democrats' external public relations is the least of her concerns.

Joe Conason says that the president's evolving language on Iraq doesn't reflect any significant change in his thinking.

-- Josh Benson

With one day to go before the New York State Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century announces which hospitals it thinks should close, there is plenty of speculation about what specifically the commission will recommend.

The New York Sun named six NYC hospitals which may be targeted for closure.

The Observer's Lizzy Ratner tried prying some specifics from Berger himself earlier.

"Would he dare to take on the powerful institutions along, say, Manhattan's Bedpan Alley along First Avenue? Or would he go after small ones with weak boards and poor bank statements?

Mr. Berger was patient with these questions at first, but eventually grew frustrated.

"This is not a closing commission," he said. "The answer is, we understand that it's appropriateness which is important."

Pressed about rumors that he intended to close one major teaching hospital, he answered wryly. "Absolutely! I'm planning to close Presbyterian, Cornell--"

And then he interrupted himself: "Come on! I am not going to talk about any institution."

So, which hospitals might be named tomorrow?

-- Azi Paybarah

Lizzy Ratner has a smart funny piece in the new Observer about Jews who like soccer. Only the timing hurts: the best game today is Germany vs. Poland. I have to say it makes my sportsloving scrotum rather shy and reclusive when I hear a stadium full of Germans booming out nationalistic songs as Schweinsteiger passes to Podolski.

Which raises one likely error in the predictions by Ratner's main character, soccermeister David Hirshey: England, Brazil, Argentina and Italy in the Final four. Has he forgotten the lessons of '98, when France, improbably, won in France? The home court advantage here is positively Reifenstalian.

Last Friday, we solicited your magic eight-ball readings about how the the voting would shake out at the two state conventions starting today in Buffalo and Hempstead. After sifting through the comments and emails (and inevitable campaign season spin), three popular themes seemed to emerge: Faso will win the Republican nomination by a hefty margin, though Weld will still get on the ballot; Cuomo will win the Democratic one; and Joe Bruno will have the best hair. Beyond that, you, our readers, were in less agreement.

Some predicted that Mark Green would get his 25 percent, but at least two suggested that he would fall short of the magical number. A few speculated that the gap between Green and O'Donnell was narrower than generally assumed, and one reader claimed to have heard that Cuomo was actually closer to 40 percent, while Green was around 10 percent but trailing O'Donnell and King in state committee votes than him.

Or maybe we're just deluding ourselves. In the words of one skeptical reader: "Yawn. The convention is pre-ordained."

Please let us know what you're hearing today.

-- Lizzy Ratner

Nearly seven weeks after riots broke out in the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, tempers are still simmering -- and offensive words are still flying. A reader directed us to a website called NYPD Rant, on which police officers complained about the recent transfer (no one seemed to know if it was forced or voluntary) of the sergeant who arrested Arthur Schick , and the talk wasn't pretty.

The first post sets the tone with the declaration, "This is why I hate the Hassid. I fantasize putting them in a steel cage with the terrorists."

-- Lizzy Ratner

The Revolution Will Not Be TelevisedTo the Editor:  read more »

I look at the migration of political power to, of all places, the West Side of Manhattan, while Jason profiles one of the new Manhattan players, Jessica Lappin.

Lizzy Ratner has an undeniable piece on the whiteness of magazines.  read more »

Richard Brookhiser writes on life after Ariel Sharon.

And Joe Conason warns us not to forget the Sago mine tragedy.

Ben digs into Hilary's nuanced stance on the Iraq war amidst the pressure of polarized national politics.

Matt Schuerman assesses the status of Ground Zero in the wake of Mike's LMDC board appointments.  read more »

I dash to D.C. and chat with Congressman Bob Menendez, who seems to be winning a four-way scramble for Jon Corzine's Senate seat.

And don't miss Rebecca Dana and Lizzy Ratner's hard look at media coverage of Iraq which, measured against the benchmark of Vietnam, leaves an eerily faint footprint.

The Voice's Wayne Barrett has what, if Anthony is still around tomorrow, will be next week's story everywhere: That many of the candidate's vaunted policy proposals are impossibly vague or seriously flawed.

From the start, the "man of ideas" thing was more strategy than content. There was a long, serious drumroll of "policy speeches" and a torrent of "ideas." But somehow, the quotation marks never quite departed. Many of the central ideas are paper thin.

In our pox-on-all-your-houses piece a few weeks ago, Lizzy Ratner and I wrote that "it's hard to escape the feeling that Mr. Weiner is little more than Mr. Schumer's skinny Mini Me, a flyweight mimic of the muscular old bruiser. His tax plan, for instance, is a back of the envelope calculation lopping 10 percent off the top of the city's tax rates. At one recent presser an announcement of Mr. Weiner's plans for 'real fiscal responsibility' the would be Mayor made the classic, technical but telling mistake of confusing the capital budget for the expense budget."

Today, Wayne takes a look at Weiner's proposed cuts, and notices that they seem likely all to come out of child welfare and other social services -- a fact that won't thrill many Democratic voters.  read more »

Now, thick policy papers can be over-rated. Mike, for example, had the money to buy top experts to do his policy work in 2001. But he hardly memorized them at the time, and was free to ignore major planks -- from school uniforms to the Cross-Harbor tunnel -- later. The "white papers" were a gesture, not a commitment.

Still, Anthony's going to need to add some substance to his "substance" if he makes it past today, either in the form of one big, clear idea or some explanations to accompany his little ones.

Hell to Pay

To the Editor:  read more »

Lizzy

Hell to PayTo the Editor:  read more »

The Transom has forgotten to direct your attention to items of interest in today's paper:

Tom Wolfe, in remembering Nan Kempner in today's Transom, said: "She loved to say that she was the basis of my creature in The Bonfire of the Vanities known as the ‘social X-ray.' In fact, she wasn't. But she loved that so much that I was more than willing to cede it to her."

This The Transom did not know.

Following our fond recollections of Ms. Kempner is a monstrous report from the 4th of July festivities in and around the Hamptons. It features a few of our newest obsessions, who may become recurring characters. But please don't miss the moment in which a Mr. Spielberg orders a tome from Book Hampton.  read more »

Elsewhere in the paper: Lizzy Ratner welcomes us all to Murray Hell, the Manhattan retirement community for the 20-something college graduate. The Transom has actually never set foot in this neighborhood, and it is sickened to hear about these goings-on. Elsewhere, Jennifer Weiner caps on some chick writers. And Jon Stewart has stopped showing his 4-million-dollar West Village home. It is not, unfortunately, because he is letting The Transom snuggle with him all day long. —Choire Sicha

We spend some time with Westchester D.A., and potential Hillary Challenger, Jeanine Pirro. We hope you'll read the whole piece, but people following that race shouldn't miss NARAL's unusual statement (they love Pirro -- for Attorney General) and the White House's rejection of Pirro camp spin.

And Lizzy Ratner takes a look at the New York money primary, and notes that Evan Bayh is pushing hard for 2008.

And Jess Bruder looks at the way the conflict between Eva and Randi is shaping the Manhattan Borough President's race.

And Matt Schuerman handicaps the upcoming stadium vote.  read more »

Plus, lots on Deep Throat.

Now they're taking down the Gates, and we're left with that sense you get when you've been fooled. I mean, we walked around in them, and the park was almost as pretty as it is without them. Meanwhile, there were lots of tourists, meaning lots of money for vendors and hoteliers and stuff, but in cases like this "economic development" often seems to be a politician's last refuge. (If they set the park on fire, lots of tourists would come.)

One passage from Hilton Kramer's scathing rant at the project is really sticking with us:

"For what they signify is New York's surrender to a kind of tourist trade devoid of artistic consequence.... They make our city look more and more like a pushover for provincial charlatans."

And in support of the charlatan theory, the Frequent Questions section of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's website does read like some small-town imagining of what Artists are really like:  read more »

Q: How do you find inspiration and get past creative blocks? A: All our projects come from ideas out of our two hearts, and our two brains, (we never create works coming from other people's ideas).

We at the Politicker make no such claims of originality, and indeed we're willing to give Lizzy Ratner credit for spotting the ridiculous FAQ.

In the Observer this week, Lizzy Ratner captures the texture of Bob Morgenthau's toughest race yet, leading with this scene: Robert Morgenthau, the 85-year-old Manhattan District Attorney, stood in the amber-lit lounge of the Chelsea hot spot XL on a recent Monday evening, clutching a brown T-shirt that said "Look Better Naked." The T-shirt had been given to him moments earlier by the fitness-club guru David Barton as more than 50 gay and lesbian Democrats looked on and applauded. "This is the highest honor I can bestow on anybody I admire," Mr. Barton said.  read more »

Welcome to the New York Observer's political blog, The Politicker.

We'll be posting a few times each day with reporting, tips, links, and observations on New York's political scene. The Mayor's race will be a central thread, but we'll also be looking at Hillary and Chuck, Eliot and George, and the wider scene. As you can see, we've been up and running since November with a handful of readers. We may launch more formally soon, after some technical tweaks, but as of today we're up and running.

Today, we think you'll enjoy Mike Bloomberg's story about his caddy. A couple of other early items still worth a look:

-What Bloomberg's been overheard saying about running for governor. -When Charles Barron plans to pull out of the mayor's race.  read more »

Ben Smith has been doing the blogging. Marcus Baram is editing the Politicker. And Lizzy Ratner will be making her presence felt as well.

Tips, suggestions, criticism, (and did we mention tips?) welcome.

Cuomo family friend Todd Howe tells Lizzy Ratner that Andrew is "aggressively talking to folks across the state."  read more »