Andrew Friedman

Anyone else feel like Hugo Chavez is getting a bad rap?

Andrew Friedman of the Drum Major Institute comes to the defense of the Venezuelan leader, who was called "a barbarian" by Governor George Pataki and "a thug" by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"What, precisely, is thuggish or barbarian about him? Leftist politics or provocative rhetoric do not make a thug. A thug is a thief or a bully. And, in fact, it was the gentile upper class in Venezuela, Chavez's opponents and America's steadfast allies, that tried to steal the presidency from President Chavez by force."

-- Azi Paybarah

Time to hit the blogs:

Bloomberg's voters were wildly outnumbered... by registered voters who didn't cast ballots, laments Andrew Friedman at DMIBlog.

Doug Forrester, the failed Republican candidate for New Jersey governor, blames his defeat on Bush. But over at the New York Young Republican Record, Rick Brownell doesn't buy it. Forrester's finger-pointing, says the blogger, is "infantile." Or at least, um... unoriginal.

In a post titled "NYC Drifts Right...Upstate Drifts Left?" the Daily Gotham suggests that state Dems have showed up the local party. Urban Elephants grabs the first part of the deadline, trumpets with glee.

The secretive scribes of Backroom Deal Breaker look forward to the Speaker's Debate on Wednesday, demand more public participation, offer a can of whoop ass.

Eliot Spitzer surfaced on Comedy Central, where Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report asked him how much it takes to run a gubernatorial campaign these days. "Probably 30, 40 million dollars," Eliot estimated. "It is almost an obscene amount of money...The reason it's not completely obscene is I'm about to do it, so I don't want to say it's obscene," he added with a laugh.  read more »

Yes, this last item was not so bloggy, and the show aired a week ago. But it's funny enough to merit a look and a link.

It's a pretty sleepy Tuesday out there, so I've taken it on myself to stroll the blogosphere in search of sparks for The Politicker's second-ever Blog Stroll. As always, please email me if I seem to have any hotttt blogs in my blind spot. Here we go.... GOP and the City gleefully derides Freddy's suspicious attitude toward Mike's charitable giving, which totalled $139 million last year. Freddy recently referred to the gifts as "strategic charitable contributions" during an interview on Air America...a forum which, the blog notes, may have been an ironic choice to for airing that kind of criticism, considering the radio station's own charity-money scandal.

At the DMI Blog, Andrew Friedman lambasts Madeline Pronvezano for dragging her feet on scheduling a hearing for the Healthy Homes Act. The act would authorize the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development to fix "immediately hazardous" outstanding housing code violations, bypassing negligent landlords and billing them three times the value of the repairs as a penalty. The blog suggests that addressing complex issues like lead paint (is it good? it it evil? is it tasty? such nuance...) is too much of a political hot button to hit before the election.

The Neighborhood Retail Alliance follows the ongoing food fight over Intro 699, a bill to tighten regulation of city fruit stands that makes vendors want to thow rotten tomatoes at City Hall. They also take a look at the mayor's track record on solid waste management, and suggest that it shows how "being 'above politics'...doesn't automatically translate into astute policy making."

Over at Daily Gotham, Liza high-fives Chuck for tangling with Roche over its Tamiflu patent.  read more »

Joel Rivera wants you to take him seriously as a candidate for Speaker, notes Power Plays. Apparently, last week's display of door-measuring prowess didn't do the trick. Soon, I hope, we'll get reports of the council member sawing down his desk to fit through that hallowed door (saws are louder than tape measures, and therefore more likely to get attention, right?).

And who knew that there was a BlogOn social media summit in New York yesterday? Not us! But Dominic Basulto at Corante's New York blog did. And apparently the McDonald's corporation did, too; nothing says "social media" quite like a Big Mac and fries nestled up against your keyboard.