When The Pot Calls The Kettle Black

Dumb And Dumber At The New Nassau County Legislature

Forget, for the moment, that, come January, when the GOP regains control of the County Legislature, it will be, literally, back to the past. The same regime, if not the very same people, who brought Nassau to the brink of bankruptcy, rubber-stamped Tom Gulotta's budgets, borrowed with abandon (to avoid raising taxes), bloated County government and those corrupt and wasteful special districts with highly paid patronage hacks, will be riding into town -- on mules, no doubt.

No, that's page 16 news.

Front and center? Peter "full of" Schmitt calling Diane Yatauro, the outgoing Majority leader, "dumb."

Now, we never figured Yatauro to be the brightest bulb -- her lowest moment on the Legislature coming when she nixed the selection of the County's first poet laureate -- but Schmitt calling someone "dumb?"

Why, that's akin to Peter King calling Muslims "nice, decent, peace-loving human beings."

Schmitt's remarks were uncalled for, and sophomoric, at best. But that's Peter Schmitt. Right out of the mold of speak before you think. Then again, thinking was never a strong suit for Schmitt, was it?

On the other side of the aisle, was it really necessary for Yatauro to call a news conference to ask Schmitt to apologize? That's a waste even of Sid Cassese's valuable time.

And, tell us, what would you call Democrat Yatauro's act of advertising for a new legislative budget director -- one that will serve the Republican-dominated body? Premature?

What was Diane thinking? What was Peter thin.... Oh, never mind.

At least Schmitt didn't call Yatauro "fat," ala Corzine's chiding of Chris Christie. ["I know you are, but what am I?"]

Frankly, this is what should make the voters angry (it certainly does us). Blatant stupidity!

The legislature has so many critical issues on the table, and all its ranking members can do is, well, rank on one another.

Juvenile, if not just plain dumb. [And don't bother calling a news conference to demand an apology from The Community Alliance. It ain't happening...]

That we should send Schmitt and Yatauro, and the whole lot of 'em at the County Seat, to their respective corners -- dunce caps and all -- should go without saying.

That voters return these mindless wonders to office year after year, ping ponging back and forth between the hapless Dems and the hopeless GOP, is, well, to borrow the word, DUMB!
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So, now that the Republicans will hold an 11-8 edge in the Nassau County Legislature, and, quite possibly, if the recount numbers hold in Ed Mangano's favor, the Executive's office as well, what can we expect from County government?

For starters, a repeal of the County's 2.5% Energy Tax. Money back in our pocket, which, to fill the gap, will likely have to be picked out of the other pocket.

What else?

Uh. Um. Well. Don't think the GOP has really given it all that much thought, beyond hiking salaries of their own, rebuilding the County's patronage infrastructure, and ushering in the triumphant return of the old Nassau. Could the portrait of Joe Mondello tapping Tom Gulotta on the back be far behind.

Should Mangano outcast Suozzi, becoming the next County Executive, will he call for the dismantling of special taxing districts, as Suozzi has done, and was poised to actually do under the State's new consolidation law? We wouldn't count on it. [And with George Maragos as County Comptroller, doubtful anyone in County government -- except, perhaps, the District Attorney -- will be riding roughshod over the local government shenanigans.]

What of Tom Suozzi's ambitious "New Suburbia," the 90/10 Coalition to rebuild a County that is built out, and in dire need of a seismic jolt in its infrastructural arm? Oh, that can wait, along with the Lighthouse, as darkness descends once again over the blighted brownfields that once were the Hempstead Plains. [Cue the tumbleweeds.]

Will they "freeze" the assessment, as the GOP in absentia has been calling for, declaring a hollow Mission Accomplished to our tax woes?

And what do you suppose the party of bimbo, Limbaugh, and dumbo -- you have your pick for the former and the latter -- will do about the infamous property tax? Tea party? Tax revolt?

Just watch that bottom line, folks. "Dumb" is actually much closer than it appears in the rear view mirror.
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From Newsday:

Yatauro calls Schmitt's remark 'inexcusable'
by SID CASSESE / sid.cassese@newsday.com

An angry Diane Yatauro, the departing Democratic presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, demanded an apology Thursday from her presumptive January replacement, Republican Peter Schmitt of Massapequa, who earlier this week called her "dumb."

"It was inexcusable," she said.

"I'm a lot of things, but I'm always professional," Yatauro, of Glen Cove, said at a news conference she called at the State Supreme Court Building in Mineola.

The brouhaha followed Newsday's questioning of Schmitt, current minority leader, on Yatauro's apparent effort to hire a new legislative budget director before Republicans take over the legislature in January.

That move is an apparent violation of the county charter, which says "the budget review committee," which includes the presiding officer and minority leader, must publish a notice of the vacancy and interview potential candidates for the job.

Instead, Yatauro placed an ad for the job and asked that all resumes be sent to her.

"Even for her, that's a new level of dumb," Schmitt said Tuesday.

Following Yatauro's news conference - supported by various groups and female leaders, as well as Assemb. Charles Lavine of Glen Cove - Schmitt sent out another comment to Newsday. "I did say that lame-duck Majority Leader Diane Yatauro's efforts to hire a new independent budget review director was the dumbest thing I had heard," Schmitt said. "But I was wrong. Her news conference today is by far the dumbest thing I have ever heard of."