Democratic Droolings

New York Press ^ | Russ Smith

[GHOST WRITER]

Democratic Droolings

Newsday’s Jimmy Breslin wrote an exceptionally strange column on Sept. 26, one that can’t be simply traced to his genetic bitterness, bigotry or rage that a younger generation of vacuous pundits has shoved him out of the box seats.

Breslin’s a mean windbag and insufferably self-righteous, but he’s not stupid.

So his piece "City Set Up for Slaughter" gets the terrorism crisis half-right. He begins: "I am walking in a silent city. There is supposed to be noise that does not stop but there is none now. We are, here in New York, the only place in the world that terrorists want to blow up. They’ll take Washington as a second choice, but New York is the prize, the place Arabs will die for...

"The Psalm-singing Bush people want the thrill of the first-day invasion in Iraq without ever having to care about the catastrophe in New York that is sure to follow. If not today, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then anytime they get here. They do not need some huge device. A body bomb on Fifth Avenue is all they need. That body bomb and all the others on all the streets after it, and the disease tossed into the subways... Washington is sure that it can do anything it wants in the Middle East because the only place that will be hurt over here is New York and New York does not count." Talk about psycho. Of course Breslin is correct that the main target in the United States for rogue nations and its hired hands is New York City, and that’s because of the population density and the potentially fatal damage it would wreak on the world economy. But Breslin’s blind hatred for Bush and his suspicion and disgust for the remaining 49 states in the country prevent him from seeing beyond his own block.

The man who was once a Manhattan institution, with his table at Elaine’s, legendary drinking binges, the ’69 goof of running for City Council president with fellow cut-up Norman Mailer as the mayoral candidate, and Son of Sam prominence, now lives in the past, as washed-up journalists are wont to do. But Newsday’s editors ought to recognize Breslin’s paranoia and affix a note at the beginning of each column, admitting, "We only print Breslin because he’s still somewhat of a trophy writer, a commodity we’re short on, but don’t take his words at face value. We don’t."

Breslin claims that President Bush and his administration don’t care if New York blows up because the state didn’t vote for him in 2000 and probably won’t in 2004. And people thought Donald Manes was nuts.

Why does Breslin think that Bush is pursuing Saddam Hussein with the singlemindedness that he is? It’s fools like Al Gore, John Kerry, Teddy Kennedy and Tom Daschle the columnist ought to excoriate. They’re the blind partisans, far more interested in the midterm elections or their own presidential aspirations to understand that New York could be the scene of a massive disaster literally any moment now. And every day that slips by without dismantling the Iraqi regime is another roll of the dice for residents here. Bush is as political a president as they come, but Breslin’s absurd statement that "New York does not count" to the current administration is just silly.

Given his well-founded concern for the city’s safety, why doesn’t Breslin direct his bile at local pols like Charlie Rangel, Mayor Bloomberg, Jerrold Nadler, Hillary Clinton and George Pataki, all of whom haven’t lifted a finger to stave off another massacre? Breslin might ask these elected officials why there isn’t a visible National Guard presence in New York City. He could also suggest that Bush move 1000 of the U.S. soldiers in Germany–spending American currency in an ungrateful country–to targets like the Lincoln Tunnel, Grand Central Station, the Brooklyn Bridge and Yankee Stadium.

But that would require the paperback writer to support the administration’s war against terrorism, and Breslin can’t get it up for such a stand. Because Bush is from Texas, and that’s a "low I.Q." state.

Breslin continues: "I still remember standing in the crowd on Broadway for the parade celebrating the great victory over Iraq in 1991. I remember thinking, ‘They’ll do something back to us.’ That was hardly an original thought. What was it, two years later, just a couple of blocks over, on West Street, a huge bomb went off in the garage under the World Trade Center."

The ’93 attack, because of bumbling terrorists, wasn’t nearly as calamitous as planned, although that’s small comfort to the victims’ families. Breslin doesn’t mention that Bill Clinton didn’t even visit the WTC site, and ignored the obvious conclusion that this wasn’t a random event.

Breslin muddles on, fast-tracking to 2001: "Of course they would try again. This group was different. They were willing to die, and die they did to blow up the trade center. Government agents and agencies costing billions of dollars said they didn’t know it was coming. Why, then, is Bush nervous about talking about it, and seeks war in Iraq to distract? Did somebody tell him something and he, too, discounted it because it was New York, and, jeez, he didn’t get a vote out of New York."

Is Breslin angling for the veep slot on Cynthia McKinney’s purported Green Party presidential campaign in 2004?

Anyone who believes that Saddam Hussein–who pays $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers–had no communication with bin Laden and Al Qaeda is drinking from a bad bottle of rye. The lack of a "smoking gun" that connects Iraq and Sept. 11 is the thread that peaceniks hang onto, citing that the CIA and FBI have no evidence to corroborate what Bush, Rumsfeld, Powell and Cheney know to be true. Why they’re putting any credence in these U.S. intelligence agencies, which were completely in the dark last year, is beyond me. One of Bush’s key mistakes–and he’s made several–in prosecuting this war on terrorism was the failure to immediately dismantle the FBI and CIA, and replace the politically correct infrastructure with the nasty, down-and-dirty agents who could actually infiltrate the enemy’s camp.

[Arkinsaw]

Breslin made the case that we should do nothing because our enemy is scary. He made the case that if we just hide our heads sheepishly that our enemies will leave us alone. He made the case that New York City will be safe if we just turn our heads and do absolutely nothing.

And they pay him for these observations.

[Mo1]

"Does She Scare You?"

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