While Crazy Joe Arpaio ponders the move from Sheriff of Maricopa County to the lesser position of governor, New Yorkers have their own version. It would have burst on the scene over the weekend, but for some crazy who put a fizzled car bomb in Times Square. A potential dark cloud with a bit of a silver lining. Only a bit, since they still have the balloons and wazoos to be used for the announcement once we get over our fear and loathing.
The announcement will come as no surprise. Via Newsday (which you won’t be able to access unless you buy Jim Dolan’s cable, unlike real newspapers):
Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice Sunday delayed the expected announcement of her bid to become state attorney general.
“As a law enforcement official, and given the situation unfolding in New York City, the DA didn’t believe it was the right time for politics,” said Eric Phillips, Rice’s spokesman.
Phillips said Rice is monitoring the situation and will announce when it’s appropriate.
Translation: You won’t notice me. I want you to notice me. Notice me, dammit! That Rice would be running for AG was crystal clear from the outset of her last election for DA. She’s everything you could want in an AG, self-serving, fear-mongering and cut-throat ambitious. The prosecutors in her own office despise her. The public loves her. She’s got red hair and prosecutes drunk drivers under the murder statute, because the state’s vehicular homicide laws won’t get her big enough headlines.
Her credentials for the Attorney General job were laid bare:
William Cunningham, a Democratic consultant and former top adviser to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said Rice has several advantages.
“One is her resume, one is her gender and one is her geography,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham explained that prosecutors appeal to the electorate, and Rice benefits from being the only woman now in the field. Though Rice once worked in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, she was elected in Nassau and Cunningham said that will help her draw suburban voters.
Larry Levy, who heads the Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, added that not only is Rice’s gender a plus, but her Irish Catholic background will help with the suburban vote.
Levy said Rice has something else important working for her.
“She’s got the fire in the belly, too. There is no doubt about that,” Levy said. “This is something that she really, really wants.”
Notice that there’s nothing in there about ability, intelligence, fairness, any of that pap? But when it comes to pandering, she’s a winner. She knows how to play the masses like nobody’s business. Plus, she’s got red hair. Then there’s the screw up last year, when she cut a break to the woman who lied about being gang raped at Hofstra. So what if she was pandering to women and playing the feminist myth that if you hold women accountable for crime, that will chill their coming forward in the future to commit new crimes.
The post of AG has been a major jumping off point for major league politicians in New York. Consider Eliot Spitzer, who was anointed Emperor of the Empire State from the position. Now Cuomo hopes to do the same, if Spitzer doesn’t set him up on a blind date.
Either way, this leaves an ambition gap in state government, and there’s no one with as much ambition to fill it as Kathleen Rice. Of course, there’s a huge integrity gap as well. Unfortunately, there’s no one to fill that void. Nobody’s even interested.
Update: Apparently, the news cycle is over for the Times Square bomb, so Rice has announced she’s running . Woo hoo.
In her recorded announcement, Rice, noting the importance of the role of attorney general, said: “This year is even more unusual. We face unprecedented challenges in our cities, our state capital and our nation that are borne of uncertain times and an uncertain economy and are brought home in rising rates of violent crime.”
Maybe somebody should tell her that the AG doesn’t fight violent crime? No matter. It’s not like anybody cares.
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A local politician once told me that Rice had done the impossible: she united the bench, the cops, and the defense bar. All hate her.
As a defense attorney, I sometimes like the fact that the kids opposing me are clueless, as well as leaderless. As a former prosecutor, I am appalled at what happens in that office. As a resident of Nassau, I sometimes fear for my safety and that of my loved ones.
There is one small silver lining. Should she become Attorney General, Ms. Rice will no longer be the District Attorney. Maybe we can get a real lawyer in there.
Finally, one should note that no downstate DA has gone on to higher office [except judicial office] since William O’Dwyer became mayor of New York in the 1950s. Santucci, Holtzman, a bunch of others, have tried, without success. Kathleen has been warned.
The strongest argument for voting for Rice, to get her out of Nassau County and into a job where she can’t as much harm.
I have decided not to vote anymore because nothing gets better. They are out for themselves generally speaking and if they are not they get coopted or run out on a rail, especially here in NYS. Kathleen Maura Rice typifies my reasons because the content of her character is not good. Is it?
It’s unclear whether anyone can see the content of her character, given that her every action and utterance are for public consumption to further her political ambitions. The oddest part is that she will run as a Democrat, as if there is any political/philosophical perspective is involved with her screaming “off with their heads.”
You’re making me laugh again, stop it.