Last week I wrote a column on my Room Eight New York Politics blog (www.r8ny.com) about Anthony Weiner’s contemporary political problems. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, relative to his claim of being “hacked”. Yesterday, at a hastily arranged press conference, Congressman Weiner admitted that the photo of a man’s pubic area -which went viral on the internet last week- was his. He also admitted texting it to a young female student.  He further admitted to internet- dalliances with at least six female strangers over the past three years. 

I am pissed at Anthony Weiner. I have been for a couple years now. I think he suspects it. I suspect he remembers when I confronted him at the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) meeting two springs ago. I am certain that he reads my column regularly (well, he has told me so a few times now).  When I wrote that he will regret not running against Bloomberg last time out, I guess he thought I was just being obnoxious. I wish he would honestly tell us all, how he now feels in retrospect.

We always need to keep in mind, that there are different types of political activists out there; just as there are different levels of involvement and activities; and there is a co-relation. There are those whose activism has been driven by family heritage: generations of political involvement and community activism from close relatives.

I guess I just can’t win without losing. Anytime I write anything about Barack Obama, the e-mails and phone calls come in trickles. Whether I write something good or bad doesn’t matter.   The man has his sycophants and they are relentless.

In my last column I gave him credit for what I deemed a gutsy call on the Arab-Israeli impasse. Since then he has elaborated on his position(s) via three significant speeches, one intriguing press conference (with England’s PM) in London, and through a few communiqués to the press. 

Last week, President Barack Obama made an unexpected call, which seems to have surprised many in both Israel and the USA.  Relative to the Arab-Israeli impasse, he bluntly and sensibly stated the obvious: it is in Israel’s long-term interest to give back seized-lands, as an opening gesture or kick-off point to reinstalling peace talks with the Palestinians. Of course, those whose interests are way above and beyond peace jumped him like he was being blasphemous. Many of them deliberately ignored some of the specific caveats in his speech: like “agreeable land-swaps”.

Guys like Donald Trump are the kind of people who made 1789 a great year for regular folks like me. Here is a guy born with a gold spoon stuck in his mouth and with a silver spoon protruding from his ass. And yet, he swears he is “all that and a bag of chips”; but he is not. He was born on second base and swears “he hit a double”.

Last December I wrote a column suggesting that Brooklyn’s next borough president should be a woman. I even suggested one: Lori Cintron Knipel.  I feel that it is time to make history in Brooklyn.  It’s time for a woman: case closed.

After I published that column, some people asked:”why not a black, Hispanic or Asian?” I have no qualms with either of those options, since such an election will also be historic.  Anyway, that column brought a little attention, and it was requested that I revisit this topic as soon as I got a chance to. So here I am.

It was one of those defining moments predictable in near every US presidential debate. The moment when a speaker steps out of the crease so to speak, and hits for the boundary (cricket talk). Usually, these moments appear when caution is thrown to the wind; and they often give a deeper insight into a candidate’s true feelings and character. But sometimes these moments are scripted. Sometimes they are exquisitely calculated: especially when the candidate is as cunning and cerebral as Barack Obama. One of these moments came during the last presidential debate-cycle. I remember it well.

I should probably entitle this column “Dismay and I”, since blog fatigue is setting in and I am just about getting tired of all the bullshit here.

Last Thursday night, District Leader Lori Knipel (44AD) and the Brooklyn Independent Democrats (BID) held their 14th annual awards dinner.  It was to the place to be. Many of those in attendance were political heavyweights in NYC politics. Six potential mayoral candidates for 2013 came. So too did the state comptroller, some members of congress, state senators, assembly members, city council members, judges and district leaders.

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