"Public service, when it’s done honestly, and it’s done well, is the noblest of professions.” Mayor Edward Irving Koch, Dec. 12, 1924-February 1, 2013
February 6, 2013
By: Linda Case Gibbons
Would that we could drop Al Sharpton from the public scene as easily as the "Reverend” dropped God from the Pledge of Allegiance in a recent MSNBC promo spot.
Who are these people and where did they come from – the people who have so many problems with America and think that our country needs so much work?From the time Obama took the public stage, the liberal crazies have been crawling out of the woodwork and America’s faults have been the prevailing theme.
It is a fight being led by the ignorant sounding, arrogantly unprepared, not-able-to-string-two-coherent-words-together-in-a-sentence bunch with Obama in the lead.
Sharpton, Sen. Chuck Hagel and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison stand out in my mind.
Hagel’s testimony during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Forces Committee made Democrats and Republicans alike cringe at both his lack of preparation and knowledge of the business of the Department of Defense.
Heretofore Hagel had been touted as brilliantly intelligent. The reality was a letdown. One pundit commented that Hagel’s performance "made Joe Biden seem rhetorically sure-footed.”
Now it is one thing for Beyonce to blow off rehearsing for singing at a presidential inauguration, but Hagel is auditioning for Secretary of Defense. Think he’d bone up a little on the issues in advance?
But no. During his testimony Hagel managed to misstate, and had to correct, the support for the president’s "strong position on Iran’s nuclear containment;” misstated and had to correct his comment that Iran is an "elected, legitimate government;” and tap-danced around a question regarding his 2009 interview with Al Jazeera wherein he agreed with the description of the U.S. as a "world bully.”
Despite his deplorable performance, the consensus is that he will be confirmed. That’s the way it is done nowadays. His viewpoints are in sync with President Obama and that cancels out any shortcomings the man may have. It is believed Hagel will be in that office simply to reflect those views.
Ironically the nominee for Secretary of Defense, Hagel is not fond of war or of Israel, but is fond of cutting military funding, as is Obama, supporting the view that it will be Obama who will be heading up the Department of Defense and not Hagel.
It all can be traced to the leader of the pack. He provides the example for all the crazies to follow. Like Rep. Keith Ellison
Appearing on Fox Channel’s Cavuto last night with guest host Stuart Varney, Ellison channeled Obama when asked whether it was "fair” that golfer Phil Mickelson should have to pay 63 cents out of every dollar he earned in taxes.
Ellison liberal-spoke his answer. "Compared to what?” he asked.
In the liberal sliding scale of "fairness,” he declared it was "fair” compared to allowing senior citizens to cut home heating oil or to expect a poor family existing on food stamps to survive on less.
Who is this guy? If you recall all Mickelson said publicly was that taxes were too high in California and he was considering moving out of that state.
But Ellison ratcheted it up.
He decided in his role as congressman that he could comment and decide what was appropriate for Mickelson to pay in taxes out of the money Mickelson earns, because Mickelson could afford it.
Winding up his remarks, Ellison said that he was sure Mickelson would be "patriotic” and agree, agree to pay more than half of his salary in taxes to "invest in infrastructure,” for "making sure groundbreaking research and medicine is paid for,” and "college education is affordable.”
Who are these people? Mickelson never said he would not pay federal taxes and it is federal funds which pay for these projects, a fact Ellison missed in his ignorant harangue. A little research would have helped.
But the crazies have a good role model. Just this week Obama sent a video message praising abortion advocate Ilyse Hogue, the new National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, an activist who attacked the Tea Party in her comments at a 2010 conference.
"They’re dangerous. There are some very dangerous elements and when they get racist and when they spit on our congressmen and when they do things that are completely outside the bounds of what we believe our democracy to be about, we have to call them on it.”
She had some equally inaccurate but snide remarks about Mitt Romney, but she will not be called on it. It is what we have come to expect, what we’ve come to accept and it is frightening.
This is Obama’s remaking of America along with people who very much dislike the "old” America. This is the very definition of his "new normal.” It defines politics and public servants as we now know them to be, with politicians who are unprepared, malicious, disingenuous and out for themselves.
Never able to make a decision because there is always another election coming up somewhere, legislators today never include the welfare of the country as part of the commentary.
That is why Mayor Ed Koch’s passing was such an eye-opener.
Watching faded, black and white news reels of Koch’s political career in New York City from the 1970s, it told us the story of how politics used to be when politicians worked to be elected, worked to have people follow them, but also worked at their job for the betterment of a country, or city, they dearly loved.
Ed Koch did it with chutzpah and Americans love chutzpah. It was an eye-opener because we had forgotten what that kind of public service looked like.
This mayor was a self-made man and knew how to go to work, selling shoes and working at a deli counter and then joining the Village Independent Democrats to defeat the ruling Democratic political machine known as Tammany Hall.
A World War II veteran, Koch served in Congress for five terms and was elected mayor of New York City in 1977. As mayor, he pulled the Big Apple back from bankruptcy and its own real "Fiscal Cliff.”
"His first order of business was restoring the city’s credit, and he did that by establishing budgetary transparency,” said Jonathan Soffer, author of "Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of NYC.”
He balanced the city’s books in three years, slashing spending and creating jobs.
"People need to remember that he was more than the guy with the quick comment,” said former New York City Mayor David Dinkins. "He is also the man that repaid the loan in the 1980s when the federal government had first said they weren’t going to help us, and he not only repaid it, but paid it early.”
He invested in areas of New York that had suffered from the austerity programs of the 1970s and initiated a $5.4 billion housing program which provided jobs and homes in low income areas.
The man who had walked for civil rights in the South, walked with commuters over the Brooklyn Bridge, cheering them on during the 1980 transit strike.
"I began to yell, ‘Walk over the bridge, walk over the bridge, we’re not going to let these bastards bring us to our knees.’ And people began to applaud. I knew I was onto something,” Koch said.
When corruption erupted during his third term, he tackled it head on in his customary forthright way, not blaming anyone else, although it cost him his re-election.
At the end he was the people’s mayor whose honesty and candor were the hallmarks of his public service to a city he loved, in a job he loved.
He once famously remarked, "I love being mayor. I want to be mayor forever.” And the "man on the street," might have disagreed with him on some issues, but one and all, when asked about his passing, said they respected him.
In the 22 years after leaving Gracie Mansion, he never lost relevance. He wrote books, had a column in The News, made frequent TV appearances and endorsed candidates without regard to party. He even had a bridge named for him, the 59th Street-Queensboro Bridge.
"It’s a workhorse bridge,” Mayor Koch said. "And that’s what I am, I’m a workhorse. Always have been. I feel very compatible with it.”
At his funeral Mayor Bloomberg mentioned in his eulogy that in 2011 after the bridge was named in Mayor Koch’s honor, Koch stood beside the road waving to cars and saying, "Welcome to my bridge!”
What people didn’t know, Bloomberg said, was that after the press left and the cameras were gone, Koch remained for another twenty minutes in the bitter cold, still waving to those crossing "his bridge.”
He was known for spending hours, scrupulously researching any and all topics before making decisions or giving advice. And many sought his advice until the day he died. He himself followed his own advice until the day he died: Just be yourself.
Two months before he passed, Koch told the Daily News in an interview, "I am grateful, most of all, to the people of the City of New York for allowing me to be their mayor.”
When Koch left City Hall in 1989, bagpipes played "Give My Regards to Broadway.”
When he left Temple Emanu-El for the very last time, the strains of "New York, New York" accompanied his exit.
It’s the way he wanted it, his former chief of staff Diane Coffey said lovingly, it was his funeral which Koch, Coffey said, "had been planning since the ‘80s.”
Indeed it was a grand, fitting final farewell with friends and foes gathered to eulogize the man who was bigger than life and who, it was said, is now "survived by New Yorkers.”
It is true, we shall never see his likes again, but he’s a great role model if you’re interested in public service.
Hold the line, America.