Intelligencer

Intelligencer

April 2, 2008

King for Governor Bid?

LONG Island Congressman Peter King, 63, is very likely to be a contender for governor of New York in 2010 according to a report in The New York Times.

Such a move was predicted in this column about a year ago. King is one of the few Republicans holding a national profile left in New York. He also knows Democrats have been weakened by the Eliot Spitzer scandal and its aftermath.

The math is simple for King. He is unlikely to be part of a Republican majority in Congress for the remainder of his time there.

All expectations are that the party will lose further seats in the November election. King was once head of the subcommittee on homeland security but is now merely an opposition figure, a lonely place in Congress.

Given that reality, King is making a smart move to position himself for the job of governor in two years. He is a white ethnic Catholic, following on the George Pataki model, and he has a wide public presence through his many appearances on political talk shows and his maverick image.

As a product of the Long Island political machine King certainly knows all the major players and is a close associate of both Rudy Giuliani, who he backed for president, and Al D’Amato, who was his political mentor.

The Republican nomination might well be worth having by 2010. Just a few months ago it seemed certain that Spitzer was in situ for at least two elections.

His downfall and successor David Paterson’s early problems on the job make it clear that the Democratic nominee may have to endure a bruising primary battle as Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is certainly ambitious for his father’s old job.

That may mean that the Republicans have a chance to recapture the governor’s mansion. King will certainly be a front-runner on that side if he agrees to run.

Demolition Derby

YOUR columnist/publisher was in Ireland last week and did an interview with the Marian Finucane Show on RTE Radio, which touched on many subjects, including the presidential campaign.

I have helped organize fundraisers for Senator Hillary Clinton, and I made some negative but hardly earth shattering comments about Senator Barack Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. It is an example of how hard fought this presidential campaign is that a few hours later the comments were widely distributed on the web by Obama supporters and later appeared in The Wall Street Journal as well as Associated Press and You Tube where they garnered over 6,000 hits.

The background, of course, is the game of gotcha being played by both campaigns for president. Whenever anyone linked to either campaign says anything remotely negative there is a groundswell to try and get that person in trouble.

Samantha Power, an Obama campaign aide born in Ireland, left the campaign after her comments about Clinton being a monster. It is all a complete overreaction by the hyped up media which is treating the Democratic race as a demolition derby.

Clinton to Speak at Forum

IT now seems certain that Senator Hillary Clinton will appear at the Irish presidential forum on Wednesday, April 9 in New York.

At press time, it was 90% certain that Clinton would appear at the John Dearie-led event, thus becoming the first presidential candidate to agree.

Meanwhile, nice move by Brian O’Dwyer, head of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, to get Bill Clinton on Wednesday, April 9, close to the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Clinton will appear at Gallagher’s Steak House off Broadway at a special 10th anniversary celebration of his role in the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

Clinton was originally set for Belfast where a celebration of the 10th anniversary will also be held, but he cancelled because of campaign pressures.

Now he will be guest of honor at the O’Dwyer event, which will be a nice acknowledgement of his major role in the final days of the negotiations surrounding the agreement.

It took many late night phone calls from Clinton to help win over the divided parties as the debate over whether to sign or not to sign went down to the wire. Clinton refers to the issue often on the campaign trail as an example of what can be achieved by American diplomacy.

The event is open to the public. See ad on the back page of this issue for details.

Squinter Steps Back

A SLEW of stories surfaced in the Irish media last week about a column in the Andersonstown News anonymously written, that took issue with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and hinted he was not doing enough for his constituents as an MP.

The column by “Squinter,” who most believe is well-known journalist Robin Livingstone, caused quite a stir in West Belfast where Adams is a demi-god among the locals.

Squinter’s complains were mainly about the rising crime and social misbehavior, and a plea for Adams to do more about it. At the center of it was the brutal murder of a former Republican, beaten to death by young thugs.

By this week the paper had apologized to Adams, saying the comments were “in appropriate and unnecessary.”

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