Azi Paybarah

David Dinkins' middle-finger to hecklers sums up how Rep. Charles Rangel feels about the ethics probe, the 80-year-old congressman said at a press conference this morning, where he sought to put the investigation behind him as he focuses on winning a twenty-first term in Washington.

One day after appearing at a fundraiser for Rep. Charlie Ranel -- who is facing 13 allegations of breaking congressional ethics rules -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo is out with a new ad.

The topic: Ethics.

"New Yorkers agree, Albany is a mess. It's overrun by lobbyists and special interests. But Andrew Cumo has a tough 20-point plan to clean up Albany, including restricting lobbyist contributions, ending pay to play for powerful for powerful corporations who buy access."

A Cuomo campaign source said there was no connection between the timing of their ethics ad and Rangel's birthday party.

The issue of taking money from lobbyists is, actually, something Cuomo has been criticized for. Also, Cuomo agreed in 2007 to limit campaign contributions to $10,000 -- far below the state's limit. He no longer is abiding by that limit.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.

CNN reruns their footage of David Dinkins giving the middle finger to anti-Rangel hecklers.

Peter Vallone Sr., the former City Council Speaker, was standing next to Dinkins, saw the gesture, and smiled.

Rangel celebrates his birthday, with lots of supporters.

One day after attending Rangel's birthday party, Cuomo unleashes ads about ethics and corruption, in Albany.

Notable absences from Rangel's party: House Democrats.

Haberman: "the officials who didn't attend stood out more than those who did go."

He got Dionne Warwick instead of Aretha Franklin. But in the end, the birthday party fundraiser for embattled Rep. Charles Rangel seemed more like the mandatory roll call for New York...

Liz and I think the most interesting part of the NYT Sunday magazine story on Cuomo is the last line. Referring to the legislature, Cuomo said, “I think I can be their best friend.” 

Emily Miller waits for the NYT Sunday magazine story on Lazio.

Haberman says Rangel is playing to the district, not Congress.

The Epoch Times throws AGNY candidate Sean Coffey a question about protecting Falun Gong members.

Employees of a real estate development company raise money for Christine Quinn.

Kevin Powell claims a court victory against Rep. Towns.

The Assembly may return next week.

Silver backs Genting.

Donovan says he has the same stance as Obama on same-sex marriage.

And Reshma Saujani tells John Harwood, “I’m not pro-Wall Street, I’m not anti-Wall Street. I’m pro-New York.” The background image: Wall Street bull statue.

Anna Lewis is out with a statement explaining how she'd fix the state's budget if she were elected to the state senate -- she'd adjust the taxes levied against co-ops with cheaper taxes levied against condos. There's the obligatory call to reinstate the commuter tax -- which hardly seems like it'll garner support outside the five boroughs.

Lewis said the State Senate needs a more active investigate body to audit the legislature and public programs. Lewis, it should be noted, once worked as the lead attorney to the Assembly's Oversight, Analysis and Investigation Committee.

"The problem that exists in the Senate is that while it has an investigative committee, it isn’t active enough in oversight, and must be strengthened," Lewis said. "It is essential that we more acutely scrutinize how the Senate spends our money, and I have the will to do so."

Lewis is one of six five Democrats running for the State Senate seat in Northern Manhattan being vacated by Eric Schneiderman, who is running for attorney general.

Other candidates include Adriano Espaillat, the local Assemblyman whom Schneiderman has endorsed; Mark Levine, a district leader, teacher and founder of the Barack Obama Democratic Club of Upper Manhattan.

I thought it would be Andrew Cuomo, since the state attorney general has such a huge war chest for his campaign for governor.

Turns out it's cash-starved Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Lazio. According to a NYPIRG analysis, Cuomo has 2,306 donors with New York addresses.

Lazio has 2,867.

So, there's no real bombshell revelation in the NYT Sunday magazine cover story on Andrew Cuomo, but there are some entertaining tidbits about the guy who is likely to be New York's next governor.

Andrew Cuomo "used to call his younger brother, Christopher, who grew up in Albany, 'mansion boy.' "

NYT Magazine contributing writer, Jonathan Mahler, said "it would be a stretch to call 'The New NY Agenda' a policy book."

And at the end of the piece, Cuomo downplays the notion he's going to Albany to wage war agains the legislature (which his predecessor had done). Cuomo is quoted saying, "The legislature doesn't want trouble. They want good news from a P.R. point of view. They need redemption" and "I think I can be their best friend."

Being Albany's "best friend" is obviously said with an eye towards politics after election day (i.e. governing Albany), but I can imagine someone using that line in a Web ad in about five minutes.

Newsday, the Long Island daily which has struggled to convince many of its reader to pay for the content now behind a paywall, says it's expanding.

An internal memo sent out today, and pased along to me by a helpful reader, says the Long Island paper will hire 34 journalists in the next six months, and expand their news and opinion pages by 2,600 pages annually.

The focus is to drill down locally and mine -- if it's possible -- more local news out of their catch basin.

They're also, "cross-training staff to enable them to cover news in both text and video."

Technical note: I'll have the memo posted shortly, once I figure out why it's not working on scribd.

A spokesman for Andrew Cuomo's campaign confirms this report that he's attending Charlie Rangel's birthday party fund-raiser tonight. The report also says Senators Schumer and Gilibrand will be there.

Anyway, I'll now go back to reading the 8,000 word NYT Sunday magazine cover story on Cuomo. So far, my favorite part: "[Andrew] Cuomo used to call his younger brother, Christopher, who grew up in Albany, 'mansion boy.' "

Bob Hennelly and Azi Paybarah, both WNYC reporters, talk about the upcoming primary votes in New York and who's on the ballot, which was released yesterday. Plus, what to make of Rangel's rant.

Joe Scarborough, a former GOP congressman, doesn’t buy Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner’s explanation why the 9/11 health care bill was put up for a vote under rules requiring a 2/3 majority vote, instead of a simple majority.

Despite the volume, Scarborough and Weiner actually get into the substantive parts of the debate.

Scarborough's main complaint is that Weiner challenged Repubilcans for not supporting the legislation, but didn't act similarly to Blue Dog Democrats, or Hispanic Democratic members, who threatened to vote aganist the bill if it veered into the area of immigration.

The 14.33 minute segment is worth a watch.

Watch the video.

Here’s part of a flier that’s going around parts of northern Manhattan, which features a photograph of Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell and the word “vote” right above it. It was passed to me by an interested reader working on one of the congressional campaigns in the 15^th district, where Powell is one of five candidates seeking to oust the incumbent, Rep. Charles Rangel.

I haven’t seen the whole flier, but at fist glance, it looks like a piece of campaign literature, asking readers to vote for Powell.

It’s actually a voter registration form, Powell’s campaign manager, Danny Serrano, told me when I asked him about it. He said it was sent by Powell’s Assembly office, and that similar fliers were sent by many other state legislators.

“The point is not to say we’re trying to get people to vote our way,” said Serrano. The flier is meant to “make it easier for people to register to vote.”

Young Obama voters may sit on the sidelines.

AP: "All hail inexperience  - the less familiarity with politics the better, no matter the party or state."
 
New voting machines in NY could be problematic, says Saul.

Goodwin: Hillary as VP hurts Obama's 2012 chances.

Rep. John Lewis on Rangel: "If I was in his shoes and know what I know, I would have been quiet."

Expect a D'Amato and Rangel photo tomorrow.

Rangel won’t resign.

Lochhead: “Rep. Charlie Rangel had a captive House squirming in its seats.”

Ambinder’s not sure Rangel helped or hurt his cause.

Rangel’s tone: “wistful.”

Morais hangs out with Next Generation for Rangel.

Bloomberg, below 50 percent.

Chris Cox gets a boost from Berntsen.

Paterson’s offer to help relocate the Islamic center may not be constitutional.

Paladino’s campaign does not lack modesty.

De Blasio lets his guard down.

Sampson gets behind Genting bid for Aqueduct.

Here's Gawker’s take on Gibbs and the professional left.

Debunking the Wyclef presidency.

What is Rep. Jose Serrano doing behind Bloomberg's back?

Lazio's latest video about the Islamic center includes this message at the bottom of the screen: "Call Attorney General Cuomo."

"All Things Harlem" talks to folks about Rangel.

And Rangel, in his own words.

 

The day before today’s CT GOP Senate primary, Linda McMahon mailed this piece to voters hitting Democratic nominee Dick Blumenthal, the state’s AG, for his inaccurate statements about serving in Vietnam. The testimonials inside the mailer are particularly...dour.

Just in case you thought that issue had gone away.

This should make for some fun reading this weekend. From the NYT's publicity department: "In this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, contributing writer Jonathan Mahler interviews And...

New York Congressman Charles Rangel delivered a twenty-minute speech on the floor of Congress Monday afternoon, defending himself against thirteen charges of violating ethics rules. He told colleagues he won't resign just to make them feel better.

He rambled. He challenged. He even said death may come sooner than he’d like. But Rep. Charles Rangel’s 30-minute speech on the House floor today was the most detailed and passionate defense he’s offered since being engulfed in alleged ethics violations two years ago.