Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Eliot Spitzer’s Inaugural Address: A Preview?

By

It was a forceful and moving address, and as I listened I couldn’t help but think that if you changed his references from “New York” to “Massachusetts” it was a speech that we might have expected to hear on Thursday in Boston as Governor Patrick takes office.

It will be interesting to see how closely Patrick’s talk mirrors that of Spitzer. Let’s hope that our two states will work together and learn from each other; it could be a very powerful alliance.

UPDATE(3): From the AP’s coverage:

Excerpts from the speech were provided Sunday by the governor-elect’s staff.

The excerpts left no doubt Spitzer felt change was in order after years of Republican rule.

“Over the last decade, we have seen what can happen when our government stands still in the face of great challenge and inevitable change,” he planned to tell New Yorkers. “We’ve seen it in the burdensome property taxes and the health care we can’t afford; in the jobs that have disappeared from our upstate cities and the schools that keep failing our children; in a government that works for those who hold office – not those who put them there.”

“The reform we seek is substantial in size and historic in scope,” Spitzer said. “It will require a new brand of politics, a break from the days when progress was measured by the partisan points scored or the opponents defeated. No longer can we afford merely to tinker at the margins of the status quo or play the politics of pitting one group against another.”

Already being talked up by some Democrats as a potential future national candidate, Spitzer’s speech evoked the memory of President Kennedy’s famous inaugural address.

“What is needed now more than ever is a politics that binds us together, a politics that looks to the future, a politics that asks not what is in it for me, but always what is in it for us?” Spitzer said.

Meanwhile, a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR to all BMGers!

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0

Comments

  1. Nice comparison, MFW.  Now check this out….

    <

    p>
    From New York Magazine:

    <

    p>

    The scariest problem in Albany is the pair of guys who are staying (the House Speaker and Senate Leader)….

    So Spitzer will try stroking at first. But if that doesn’t succeed, he’s preparing to use his electoral mandate as a wedge to separate Joe Bruno and Shelly Silver from their usually lockstep followers, and his popularity as a shield against the army of lobbyists.

    Bruno and Silver were both elected to the State Legislature exactly three decades ago. In 1995, thanks to a Pataki putsch, Bruno became majority leader of the Republican-controlled State Senate; one year earlier, Silver rose to the top of the Democrat-dominated State Assembly. Though they differ in political philosophy and style, Bruno and Silver are blood brothers in self-preservation, using a combination of pork and fear to maintain discipline in their ranks…..

    Spitzer sees the tar pit that will swallow him if he doesn’t hit Albany at a dead sprint.

    Last week, he staged a press conference to announce new ethics and fund-raising rules that he can implement unilaterally (Bruno swiftly dismissed it as grandstanding).

    He also showed he’s ready to go over the heads of leadership. “I spent five hours talking to the entire Assembly caucus-all of them,” Spitzer says. “Shelly was there, obviously. But he knows I’m dealing with his members. I’ve met with Joe. But I’ve spoken to lots of members of the Senate too.”

    • The New York Senate has ALWAYS been Republican.
      The New York Assembly has ALWAYS been Democratic.

      <

      p>
      I was born and raised in New York, and that never changed.  The Assembly and Senate leadership were always solid for preserving the other party’s majority in the other house.  Strong Democrats in the Assembly were discouraged from taking on Republicans in the Senate.  This is starting to break down, and if trends continue the NY Senate could go blue in 2008.

      <

      p>
      And unlike our legislature, where the government is in the media center of the state, New York’s legislature meets in obscurity just a few miles west of MFW’s Alford home.

Archives