Bloomberg's rationale for asking the council to extend term limits was the economy, but he was meeting with the the big three NYC publishers to get them on the term limits train months before Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. Once the economy started tanking, he pounced and exaggerated the risks; stoking the fires already being whipped by the media. This is from a speech he delivered in London in the weeks leading up to the NYC Council's term limits vote:
“Back in America, we’ve heard a lot of comparisons to the Great Depression – and that’s natural, because none of us have ever experienced such a massive breakdown of confidence in the financial system. I certainly hope that the analogy will prove grossly overstated, but regardless, I’m not sure that it provides much in the way of guidance for what should come next. The better analogy to make – at least in terms of how we should be thinking about our next steps – might be to a terrible crisis that is far more recent: The attacks of September 11th."
Next, he made the rounds with the City's power brokers, and the City Council, to dole out favors, promises and pork. Let's see. Manipulate the press. Scare the bejeezits out of the public. And use your position and influence to steamroll over anyone who gets in your way. Sounds like Bush/Rove to me, and look what happened to them.
“Back in America, we’ve heard a lot of comparisons to the Great Depression – and that’s natural, because none of us have ever experienced such a massive breakdown of confidence in the financial system. I certainly hope that the analogy will prove grossly overstated, but regardless, I’m not sure that it provides much in the way of guidance for what should come next. The better analogy to make – at least in terms of how we should be thinking about our next steps – might be to a terrible crisis that is far more recent: The attacks of September 11th."
Next, he made the rounds with the City's power brokers, and the City Council, to dole out favors, promises and pork. Let's see. Manipulate the press. Scare the bejeezits out of the public. And use your position and influence to steamroll over anyone who gets in your way. Sounds like Bush/Rove to me, and look what happened to them.
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