Errol Louis

Assemblyman Dov Hikind just emailed me a statement in response to an earlier statement from gay rights activist Alan Van Capelle slamming him for opposing same-sex marriage.

Capelle, responding to a column in the Daily News by Errol Louis, said, “I guess Errol Louis doesn't mind standing with Dov Hikind, and I don't think that's where most people want to stand.”

Hikind’s response: “If we authorize gay marriage in the state of New York, those who want to live and love incestuously will be five steps closer to achieving their goals as well.”

Hikind's full response is after the jump.  read more »

One of the more exciting conversational themes in Albany today is Errol Louis' column in the Daily News about gay marriage. In it, he writes that the effort to legalize gay marriage, which passed the state Assembly this week, has provided a template for efforts around the country to legalize polygamy and incest.

Gay marriage advocates have reacted furiously, with a number of them emailing and calling me to express their outrage.

Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, said, “I found it absolutely disgusting.” Capelle pointed out that the sexual deviants Louis cites in his column are actually all straight people.

“So don't drag us down with the bottom of the heterosexual group,” he said.

Louis, when told of Van Capelle’s comments, emailed me to say, “One possible response is dismissive ‘disgust.’ A more serious strategy would be to craft an argument for why stable, consensual, adult same-sex relationships should be recognized by the state but stable, consensual, adult sibling sexual relationships should not.”

The full Van Capelle-Louis exchange is after the jump.  read more »

Errol Louis has more on the residency problems facing newly elected City Councilman Mathieu Eugene, whose swearing-in ceremony was just postponed. because he lives outside the district.

[UPDATE: Eugene's campaign manager called to say that neither newly elected Council member was sworn in today because the outcomes were not certified by the city's Board of Elections.]

A reader reminds of a certain irony in the fact that Eugene's strongest supporter in this race, former Council member and current Representative Yvette Clarke, lambasted her opponent last year for moving three blocks into the district a year before the race started.

Eugene's campaign manager, Joe Placide, told me yesterday that his candidate is still looking signed a lease February 1 for an apartment.

-- Azi Paybarah

Coverage of yesterday's remarkable exchange between the Clinton and Obama campaigns is here and here.

Hillary may lose the black vote, according to Errol Louis.

Eliot Spitzer has a budget fight on his hands with 1199 SEIU and the Greater New York Hospital Association.

Spitzer may ignore recommendations from a Pataki-controlled committee in deciding who gets the state's horse racing franchise.

There is major under-reporting of crimes in the city's public schools, according to a report by Betsy Gotbaum.

2009 mayoral candidates weigh in on a report that said state and local taxes in New York are higher than in most other major cities.

The student paper at Brooklyn College has removed a story posted its website (and linked here) about Wesley Clark's upcoming memoir and presidential plans.

The Post editorial board's treatment of Hillary continues to trend away from benign. "If she was that close to the levers of power, how is it that she seems to have learned so little of what the responsibilities of office really are?"

And newly City Councilman Mathieu Eugene has to find a home in the district quickly.

-- Azi Paybarah

New York may get earlier presidential primaries.

Eliot Spitzer wants Sheldon Silver to disclose how much money he makes from his second job at a private law firm.

Spitzer won't be helping out donor Richard Fields anytime soon, according to an aide.

Errol Louis sees a problem with the Black, Puerto Rican, Latino and Asian Legislative Caucus not supporting a well-qualified African-American woman for state comptroller.

The Times editorial board wants campaign finance reform for state officials.

The Republicans' last oasis in Albany may be coming to an end, says Jay Gallagher.

Christine Quinn has some well-connected contributors.

Chuck Schumer said that voters might not be ready to elect a ticket that consists of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama because of the need for more balance.

Hillary got mixed reviews in New Hampshire this weekend.

A moment of "political reckoning for social conservatives" has arrived, says Patrick Healy.

The New Republic editors say that no one will save Darfur.

And the state is relaunching an "I Love New York" campaign.

-- Azi Paybarah

Arnold Schwarzenegger on Mike Bloomberg: "He's my soul mate. He's the man."

Errol Louis thinks the mayor needs to "dream bigger, talk louder and invest more political capital" if he wants to solve the city's poverty problem.

The Times looks at whether John Faso left the legislature and then lobbied them on a huge financial deal. His spokesman said it wasn't lobbying, but rather, "advising on how to get the process done."

Faso also wants to cut income taxes for couples earning under $50,000 and individuals earnning under $25,000.

State Comptroller Alan Hevesi had a state employee drive his wife around for three years.

Andrew Cuomo and others rip Jeanine Pirro over the freed Westchester inmate she refused to help while she was D.A.

The number of students reading at grade level drops sharply between fifth and sixth grade, according to a new state report. Students in charter schools did better, according to The Post.

Charles Bagli can hardly believe that, "Now, at long last, finally, for sure, the new framework for rebuilding at ground zero is in place. A firm deal was approved yesterday. Really."

The crowd at this year's Clinton Global Initiative is pledging to do more than last year.

Columbia withdraws its invitation to Iran's President.

Councilman Dan Garodnick gets the Public Lives treatment.

And one Brooklyn brownstone goes hot pink.

-- Azi Paybarah

Hidden behind the NYT Select barricade is a Clyde Haberman's column on 9/11 political etiquette.

"It is fine to trade stocks, and play baseball, and broadcast soap operas and even write a newspaper column. But absolutely forbidden is the normal functioning of our democracy. And they say the terrorists haven't won."

Haberman also notes that next year's primary is on Sept. 11, 2007.

Errol Louis has some 9/11 figures.

"On Sept. 11, 2001, immigration officials were using typewriters, the Federal Aviation Administration had only 12 names on its no-fly anti-terrorist list and the U.S. had just 33 armed air marshals, not one of whom was assigned to protect domestic flights."

After a singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" to show they are not partisan, Republicans and Democrats began "squabbling over the wording of a Sept. 11 resolution..."

Ben Smith thinks Hillary Clinton's "increasingly partisan, confrontational stance on national issues" is back in action, thanks to a new piece of campaign literature.

Eliot Spitzer hopes a big win in the polls will help create "a significant foundation for reform."

And Joseph Goldstein reports on a federal judge's decision to overturn a case of affirmative action because "white male employees would be the first to lose their jobs."

-- Azi Paybarah

For anyone interested in who's representing us in Washington, Charles Barron and Roger Green are on WNYC right now poking holes in incumbent Rep. Ed Towns, who has declined to show up for what is, according to his challengers, their twelfth debate so far.

Barron just told Errol Louis - who is managing the impressive feat this week of filling in for both Brian Lehrer and Ben Smith - that Towns' absence is "disrespectful," while Green said it shows "contempt for the democratic process itself."

Green also noted that Towns owns one of the worst attendance records in Congress and called him a "Republicrat" for supporting the CAFTA and for not holding the Democratic Party line the repeal of the estate tax.

Barron also attacked Towns, but offered a spirited defense of this guy.

So far, Towns hasn't called in to respond. Which kind of fits.

-- Josh Benson

The (pro-Ratner) Errol Louis reveals Stop Yassky's identity to Ben Smith: a Fort Greene resident named Lucy Koteen.

Funny though. Had she really wanted to remain anonymous, she could have.

-Matthew Schuerman UPDATE: Koteen called us and said she was not the one behind the Stop Yassky blog. She said she did choose the name, apparently as a Blogger "identity," when she was trying to post a comment on Norman Oder's blog, which is how Errol Louis found her name. Ben Smith has since issued an update saying that the profile page did not prove Koteen was behind the website.

In the Daily News, Errol Louis writes about Cory Booker.

AP reports that Denise O'Donnell has received the endorsement of Janet Reno.

The Post reports that Joe Bruno is courting the gay vote.

In the Times, Tom Suozzi plans housing in Garden City, and Eliot Spitzer is investigating ties between ING and the New York State United Teachers.

—Nicole Brydson

In other Brooklyn news, an insider tells the Politicker they believe it will be difficult for Roger Green and Kevin Powell to make it past the petitioning process in the 10th congressional district race against incumbent Ed Towns.

The reasoning: Powell, a newcomer to politics, is having trouble with a history of violent behavior. (Errol Louis recently quoted his memoir Who's Gonna Take the Weight? "He cites two college incidents, 'one where I hit a female student in the head with a stapler during the course of an argument, and the other where I got into a punch-throwing exchange with a female student I had sexed and then discarded like an old pair of shoes.'")

There's also been erosion of Roger Green's base of support since he resigned his assembly seat in 2004 (although he was re-elected that year). The source seems to believe that Charles Barron may be the most formidable candidate against Towns.

Towns has run into his own problems though, on his vote for CAFTA for instance, which might hurt him.

—Nicole Brydson

The Times reports some lawmakers the city wants to change the film tax credit because it works too well.

Don't worry though. The plan to give money to people right before they vote worked so well for Mike, Joe Bruno is copying the idea, reports The Post. [UPDATE: A reader points out we should really give credit for this novel plan to Governor Pataki.]

The plan to send Lt. Governor Mary Donohue to the bench has foundered on the shoals of Chuck, Fred Dicker reports in The Post.

Finally, Errol Louis in the Daily News asks a Brooklyn congressional candidate an old question: "When did you stop beating your wife?"

Writing in Our Time Press, a black Brooklyn paper, Daily News columnist Errol Louis fires back at some of the Atlantic Yards critics. (Louis, by incidentally, is a sometime co-conspirator of Mark Winston Griffith, whose thoughts on the opposite side of the same project drew some attention recently.)

Here's the nut: A project opponent "is pretending to be concerned that the minority businesses getting in on Atlantic Yards happen not to be based in Brooklyn. In reality, opponents of Atlantic Yards have demonstrated that they couldn't care less about black businesses or black economic empowerment in Brooklyn or anywhere else.  read more »

"Last year, for instance, on the busiest shopping day of the year, a group of misguided ministers joined Councilwoman Tish James in an attempted one-day boycott of stores in Atlantic Terminal Mall, which is run by the same developer behind the Atlantic Yards Project. The boycott flopped, but if it had succeeded it might have harmed local residents: of the 1,688 employees who worked in the mall at the time, 81% lived within 5 miles of Atlantic Terminal and 48% within 2 miles.

"The pro-boycott people didn't mind putting other people's jobs at risk."

Here's a footnote to our wall-to-wall coverage of John Sampson's visit to Gaza, which Errol Louis picked up on in the News today.

The guy who runs WorldNetDaily, where Sampson was originally quoted, Joseph Farah, emailed Louis to object to being called "conservative."

"WorldNetDaily is not a 'conservative website,'" he wrote. "It is the largest independent news source on the Internet. I ought to know. I founded it. And since I'm not a 'conservative' and am actually quite offended by the use of that term, I think it's unfair and inaccurate to describe the labor of eight years of my life in such terms."

Having received angry emails this week for describing News Corp. as "right-of-center" in the Observer, we enjoyed Louis's response:

"Mr. Farah:

"I may have been thrown off by your commentary lineup (Malkin, Coulter, Buchanan, Falwell, Williams, Schlesinger et al), and the ads you run on the site from rightwingconspiracy.com and the conservative book club. I guess your contributors and advertisers have got you all wrong.  read more »

"Thanks for the chuckle."

Oh, and by the way, here's a WorldNetDaily Exclusive headline from today: Regulators dragged feet on 'cannibal abortionist.'