22 March 2005
Spectator
Giambra's meltdown, Naples' nosedive, Griffin's flight, Reynolds' betrayal, Bush's theft—and the Senate screws veterans (again). Whadda week!
Joel Giambra's meltdown and Bruce Fisher's explanationThe Spectator senses some sure fissures in the facade of the Giambra Administration as Bruce Almighty Fisher is starting to tell anyone who will listen (and many who won't) that the reason the county's fiscal ship is sinking is because Giambra isn't listening to him. Fisher was hired to promote Joel Giambra politically. He did that. But the idiocy of making the political advisor the fiscal policy-maker is now apparent. Fisher and Giambra got a free ride from the Buffalo News during Giambra's ascendancy to county executive because Stan Lipsey and his Buffalo Partnership cabal liked the idea of metropolitan government. Giambra was a loud, if not precise, proponent of "consolidation." Giambra traveled around the county spouting the mantra of "less government means lower costs." He even told one unsuspecting luncheon gathering that fire protection service in Erie County should be "consolidated," a claim duly reported in the pages of the Buffalo News. Not included in the article, however, was any mention of how you might actually go about "consolidating" volunteers and paid fire fighters. With Fisher turning the TeleprompTer and the News refusing to ask tough questions about the mechanics of metro government, Giambra was free to don the mantle of savior of the region. The Spectator previously pointed out the irony in the fact that Giambra's abysmal failure should effectively doom further discussions about consolidation. The real face of consolidation was revealed in the disastrous cuts in health care in the region's poorest communities and the end of the school nurse program in city schools. Does any city resident want their fate in the hands of the likes of Barry Weinstein and Elise Cusak? Having Al DeBenedetti is bad enough. Jim Ostrowski has recently started talking about consolidation in reverse: dissolving county government and its hulking bureaucracy overloaded with political patronage. Ostrowski would "devolve" operations to the level of government most responsive to the people - the local level. Let Orchard Park take care of Chestnut Ridge and Lancaster manage Como Park. Use the regional resource of the sales tax to fund those operations but let the locals handle the details. It certainly couldn't be any worse than the current situation.
"No Handout, No Bailout" Giambra is on the road again today to talk to Suffolk and Nassau counties about the evils of Medicaid. Giambra says the political contributions of the SEIU is the reason that no meaningful reform of Medicaid is possible. This is coming from a guy who not only paid his campaign treasurer 20% over retail for office furniture but who also found time in his busy day to make phone calls telling other local executives to buy from the same guy. Giambra also ignores the fact that his political soul mate, George Pataki, was the one who made the deal with the union devil in the first place - a deal that Tom Golisano rightly predicted would cripple counties.
Nancy Naples continues to tankSpeaking of "worse," has any political star fallen faster than that of Nancy Naples? Five months ago, she was the epitome of governmental efficiency and on the verge of election to Congress. Boy, did we dodge a bullet there! Naples and her bloated staff of accountants were impotent to impact the looming crisis, unable to point out the magnitude of what was about to occur, and still can't get a solid number for the budget gap. What it is we pay her for? She blew a borrowing opportunity and cost the county another million dollars it doesn't have. She didn't pay vendors and now toilet paper has to be donated. She spent the summer campaigning for Congress while Giambra was kindled the fire that consumed the county.
Tom Reynolds sticks it to Buffalo
Had Naples been elected to Congress, she could have learned about compassionate conservatism from Tom Reynolds. Reynolds never misses an opportunity to promote himself politically. He is being touted as a "can't miss" for higher leadership in the House of Representatives. Adlai Stevenson once said that the true test of political leadership is not in getting elected, but in governing. That's a test that Reynolds fails. Last week, he voted along party lines to emasculate the community development block grant program that has been the single most important federal program in cities like Buffalo. If Reynolds gets his way, the block grant program will be cut in half. That would mean a loss of more than $10 million for Buffalo alone. Cities like Niagara Falls, Rochester, and Dunkirk would be losers too. But a guy's got to earn his spurs with the likes of Tom DeLay and the other rapscallions running the House, so Reynolds deserted his constituency to vote with the majority. That's not leadership, Tom. That's pandering. It's also hypocritical. Reynolds is a big supporter of a FEMA grant to pay for repairs to sinking homes in Amherst but health care on Buffalo's West Side, or housing rehab for senior citizens, or in-fill housing to help stabilize urban neighborhoods? Hell no, Reynolds ain't paying for that. That's another suburban face on consolidation that should scare the hell out of city residents.Gimmee Jimme quits
Add "quitter" to the legacy and resume of Jimmy Griffin. Gimmee Jimmee has decided "it's time to go" from his most recent spot on the public payroll. The Spectator wonders how many of the people who threw out Mary Martino would have voted for Griffin if they had known he was just running for laughs. That Griffin has some sense of humor. First, he refused to come downtown and use the City Hall office reserved for the South District. Instead, he got the Mayor to spend $20,000 to build him an office in a community center in South Buffalo to save Griffin the ten minute commute to downtown. Now, he's bored with city government, so he's going to quit. And he has the gonads to recommend his chief lackey to replace him. Like Griffin's judgment has always been so good, right? Griffin was the guy who let the county walk away with the billion-dollar slush fund that was the extra penny of sales tax. If Lenihan goes along with Griffin's recommendation for a successor, he should not only be thrown out as Democratic chair, he should be expelled from the Party.
Bush steals the creditA constant stream of Republicans have been making the rounds of the weekend talk shows telling the American people democracy is on the march in the Middle East thanks to George Bush. If I hear one more Republican congressman conjure up the image of the blue stained index finger of courageous Iraqi votes, I'll barf on my keyboard. A more appropriate image would be the brown stained heads of those very congressman indicating where their heads have been. Republicans like to talk about the Iraqi elections as the great Bush triumph. They would like you to forget, however, that if they had their way there would have been no elections. Bush-appointee Paul Brermer said it was too soon for elections and that the American protectorate should continue for at least another year. The driving force behind Iraqi elections was not any American, but rather the Grand Ayatollah who demanded the elections take place sooner rather than later. Another example of the Bush-inspired march to freedom is the emergence of Lebanon from the shadow of Syria. Unless we were the ones that killed the former Lebanese prime minister, then George Bush had nothing to do with Lebanon's call for Syrian withdrawal. That assassination was the straw that broke the camel's back (no pun intended) in Lebanon. George Bush loves to take credit for the rainbow but is quick to assign blame for the rain.
The Senate screws veterans one more timeLast week included the second anniversary of Bush's war in Iraq. It was fitting that the week also included a Senate vote to increase funding for veterans health care. With car magnets in such proliferation and the patriotism of the nation never higher, it could be expected that the Senate would have an easy time approving the increasing in the health budget of those who have gone to war. But the Senate was much too focused on Terry Schiavo to help out veterans. The bill to increase funding for veterans was defeated along - you guessed it - party lines.
The Spectator grudgingly concedes that the Republicans sure do know how to play the game. Having passed a passel of new tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, having rejected the aforementioned improvement in health care for veterans, getting the collective asses kicked on the manufactured crisis of Social Security, and with the House Majority Leader under even more scrutiny for his ethical lapses, the Republicans did the politically correct thing : they turned national attention to a non-issue like Terry Schiavo and claimed to be on the side of the angels. The Senate Majority Leader even had the balls to discount the medical diagnosis of the scores of doctors who said their patient was in a persistent vegetative state. He said that his "review of the videotapes" led him to a different conclusion than the neurologists treating Ms. Schiavo. How's that for chutzpah? You gotta love them Republicans, don't ya?
TCopyright 2005 by Buffalo Report, Inc.