As we opined shortly after Election Day, 2006, Day One might take a while. Read, "Day One, Everything Changes. . .".
So here we are, not quite at Day 365 -- but darned near close enough -- still waiting for something to change.
Sure. Eliot shot himself in the foot with his own six-gun on the driver's licenses for illegal immigrants thing. [He was right, even if politically incorrect in this anti-immigrant, "send 'em back to Mexico", climate we live in. Wasn't there a time we were clamoring to send those micks, wops, chinks and kikes back to Ireland, Italy, China, and eastern Europe? Maybe one day we'll figure out that there are no "illegal" people, only undocumented people, yearning to breathe free.]
Anyway, we digress.
The Governor, right or wrong, finds himself in quite a quandry as his second year in office is set to unfold.
"Choppergate" (under the misnomer of "Troopergate") still hovers above the Executive Mansion, just as Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno continues to board planes and helicopters at taxpayer expense, whisked away to another fundraiser, or to collect a hefty paycheck from this corporation or that on whose board he sits.
We digress, yet again.
What were we talking about? Oh, yes, the business of the people. Do you think we could get on with it? Any of it?
No question Eliot spent much of his first year as Gov trying to steamroll and bully, still stuck on the idea that he's the new sheriff in town.
By year's end, a certain humilty had crept into bed with the Governor -- or so we hope -- dressed in the night-garb of popularity past.
There's been some good starts, too, we must say, like ongoing efforts to bring universal health care to New Yorkers through the Partnership for Coverage, and the recently rolled out Project Sunlight, but these hallmarks have been few and far between.
If the honeymoon in Albany ended much too quickly (roses from Bruno notwithstanding), and the marriage of those three men in the broom closet on shaky ground as 2007 winds down (with friends like Assembly Speaker Sheldon "King of the Universe" Silver, you don't really need enemies), perhaps it is time for Mr. Spitzer to take on a new role -- that of benevolent consensus reacher.
Call it what you will, but clearly, Eliot can't win the war on the ground by unleashing his weapons of mass hysteria or manhandling all the other players on the team.If he has any chance of letting other people have his way, the Governor must achieve this by means of diplomacy.
Might we suggest an Albany summit (the conference can take place in neutral territory, say Cohoes), where, if not a meeting of the three minds, then at least a tête-à-tête where the Big (if only in their own minds) Three can agree not to disagree on everything.
Here's the deal: The Gov gets to put his top three agenda items on the table, as do Mssrs. Bruno and Silver.
"Gentlemen," says Spitzer, "between us we have nine initiatives." [probably less, as one would hope that there would be a mutual consensus where all three men had placed property taxes, education reform, and affordable housing on the table.] "Let's seal the deal here today, putting personal differences and longstanding animosities aside, to get these measures into law before the 2008 session is over."
What a Win (Spitzer) -- Win (Bruno) -- Win (Silver) -- Win (New Yorkers) situation that would be!
Yeah, right. Like that will ever happen. Well, it could.
All it takes is for the Governor to understand that Day One delayed, is the people's work denied, and, upon reflection, to realize that while there is always next year, Day One of Year Two is but twenty-four days away.
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Suozzi Issues Challenge To Spitzer, Senate
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Today is Pearl Harbor Day. Do you think Rudy Giuliani can work 12-7 into his act?
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