Clout: Guv skirts the issue on series bet
MEMO to the New York Post: Yo, yank this up your skirts! Rupert Murdoch's rag took a cheap shot at the reigning World Series champions this week, mocking them as the "Frillies" with a poorly doctored photo of Shane Victorino in a skirt.
MEMO to the
New York Post
: Yo, yank this up your skirts!
Rupert Murdoch's rag took a cheap shot at the reigning World Series champions this week, mocking them as the "Frillies" with a poorly doctored photo of Shane Victorino in a skirt.
New York Gov. David Paterson then told another Murdoch outlet, Fox News, that he would wear a Phillies skirt if the Yankees are vanquished.
Gov. Rendell, who has a bet with Paterson that the losing World Series city will host two residents from the winning state for a four-day visit, rejected the dare to wear a Yankees skirt.
"Based on the fact that I don't think the people of the commonwealth are ready to see my legs in a skirt," said Rendell while predicting a Phillies repeat championship in six games.
That prompted a reporter from the New York Observer to ask if Rendell was chicken.
"I've been a baseball fan all my life and I know strange things happen," the governor replied. "The best team doesn't always win."
Then Rendell shared what really made him reluctant to skirt up "in the unlikely event of a Yankees win." He told reporters about the time then-Mayor W. Wilson Goode donned a pair of Mickey Mouse ears in 1988 for a Disney promotion. A picture of Goode made the front page the next day.
That's one kind of repeat Rendell doesn't want to see.
Dredging up the VP politics
Rendell and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter on Monday praised the Army Corps of Engineers for pressing forward with plans to dredge the Delaware River, despite protests from New Jersey and Delaware.
Specter, facing a tough Democratic primary challenge in May from U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, was eager to stress how the project will create 130,000 jobs in the region. He twice told reporters that his contacts with the White House were "very helpful."
Rendell quickly added that the decision was based on the merits, not any "political favor to Pennsylvania" from the White House.
Specter came back with this: "We argued it on the merits. But to argue it on the merits, you have to have access. Access is indispensable to get to the merits."
Asked if he had lobbied Vice President Joe Biden, a former senator from Delaware, Specter decided he had said plenty.
"Those were confidential communications," he concluded.
File under political pandering
City Controller Alan Butkovitz, who faces a general election challenge Tuesday from Republican Al Schmidt, announced yesterday that he would release a report today "that showcases Philadelphia as an affordable alternative for New Yorkers and the financial benefits of migrating to the City of Brotherly Love."
Rendell and Trump reconcile
Rendell was a guest at the wedding Saturday of Ivanka Trump to Jared Kushner at a New Jersey golf club owned by her father, Donald Trump. Before last fall, that would not have been a surprise, since Rendell and Trump often have said very nice things about each other. Trump even gave Rendell $32,000 in campaign contributions from 2001 to 2003.
Then Trump failed in 2006 to win a state casino license in Philadelphia. Trump lashed out at Rendell in September 2008, saying, "You have to be a friend of the governor to get a casino." Trump also declared: "I think he's doing a lousy job as governor."
Rendell this week said he and Trump are again buddies.
"Obviously, since I was invited to the wedding," Rendell added. "We battle publicly but we're always friends privately."
Quotable:
"Nobody would shave their heads with me. None of them New York people had any guts."
- U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, who offered to shave his thick head of hair if the Yankees won the World Series. U.S. Rep. John Hall, a bald Democrat from New York, finally agreed to the bet.
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