Watching Gov. Hochul stumble from one blunder to a different, I’m reminded of Casey Stengel’s exasperated query in regards to the hapless 1962 Mets: “Can’t anybody here play this game?”
Because it was with the Mets, the reply in Hochul’s case is a powerful no.
Greater than three years after she took workplace, the unintended governor remains to be afraid to take off the coaching wheels.
She’s not working Albany.
Albany is working her.
The Legislature, far-left activists and the forms are in cost.
The state and metropolis are in apparent decline, however she hasn’t delivered a single reform sufficiently big to make an actual distinction.
Excessive crime, public dysfunction, the migrant explosion, inferior colleges and outrageous taxes are driving households out of New York.
Antisemitism is on the rise on practically each school campus within the state, together with within the SUNY and CUNY techniques Hochul controls, but she says little and does much less.
The larger the issue, the smaller she seems.
On her greatest days, she’s a caretaker for the established order.
And now she’s compounded the catastrophe with a silly effort to play hide-and-seek video games with Donald Trump.
This could’t finish nicely for her or New York.
The latest head-scratching conduct started along with her pre-election declare that any New Yorker who voted for any Republican was anti-woman and anti-American.
It was a dumb factor to say beneath any circumstance, and particularly so given {that a} September ballot discovered that state voters have been extra sad along with her job efficiency than ever and gave Trump increased marks than she.
A wiser politician would have gotten the purpose that she’s offsides with many citizens, which was confirmed when Trump gained the presidency with an Electoral School landslide and acquired a startling 44% of the turnout in deep blue New York.
Outrageous alliance
Hochul’s speedy response was to select an pointless struggle with him.
She and Legal professional Basic Letitia James held a nasty press convention the place they took turns warning Trump they’d come after him with hammer and tong if he screwed with their priorities.
It was juvenile showboating, and Hochul’s determination to staff up with James was doubly dumb given the AG’s outrageous civil fraud swimsuit in opposition to Trump, his household and his companies.
Until, after all, Hochul additionally believes that political opponents must be focused and the courts used to punish them over manufactured violations.
Maybe realizing she had gone too far, the following day Hochul spoke out of the opposite aspect of her mouth by saying she had a “productive” telephone name with Trump and pledged to work with him on massive capital initiatives.
Trump reportedly responded in type as a result of he loves his hometown and has typically mentioned he would do no matter he might to assist town and state the place he and his household made their fortune.
Congestion tax slap
The story ought to have ended there, in an excellent place for New York beneath a brand new president with a ardour for getting massive issues carried out.
However, because it typically does, the plain level escaped Hochul.
She was secretly taking part in yet one more angle, with aides quickly telling leftist media she was going to shortly impose the congestion pricing tax she had paused in June earlier than Trump takes workplace so he couldn’t cease it.
Even workplace politics doesn’t get any dumber.
Or maybe Hochul has mistaken Trump for a piñata and New Yorkers for fools.
To threat a budding relationship with the president whose celebration controls each homes of Congress is a type of malpractice past comprehension.
In case Hochul missed the opposite a part of the election, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries at the moment are the minority leaders of their chambers.
Meaning they’ve little to no energy, so in relation to favors, Trump is the one sport in Washington.
Furthermore, the congestion tax represents a singular case of political dynamite.
Hochul had pushed it as a solution to the MTA’s continual funding points, so her sudden pause was a thriller.
That’s, till experiences surfaced that Jeffries requested her to cease it as a result of it was so unpopular within the suburbs that passage threatened Dem Home candidates.
Hochul denies any strain, however there isn’t any denying that the timing conveniently took the problem off the desk earlier than voters weighed in.
And now presto — it’s again in play even earlier than all of the votes are counted.
Pay extra to dwell right here
She is alleged to be contemplating a $9 tax for automobiles as a substitute of the deliberate $15, however it’s the final word cynical ploy at any value, one exacerbated by her daffy try to bypass Trump.
The MTA’s funds are an evergreen mess, with out-of-control labor prices a recurring theme.
A more moderen drawback is fare-beating, with the company estimating it has misplaced as a lot as $750 million yearly from riders refusing to pay.
On some bus routes, as many as 50% of passengers journey without cost, but Hochul desires to pour extra money into the leaking bucket and let the MTA management off the hook.
There’s loads of cash within the state’s huge $237 billion funds, however as a substitute of utilizing a number of the billions recklessly thrown on the migrant surge and requiring the MTA to tighten its spending, Hochul did what Albany at all times does: demand that New Yorkers pay extra for the privilege of dwelling and dealing right here.
Including yet one more tax solely offers commuters another excuse to keep away from town, which suggests they gained’t be spending cash procuring, going to the theater or consuming in eating places.
If nothing else, the timing of Hochul’s clumsy dealing with of the Trump relationship serves as the newest proof that destiny has a humorousness.
GOP candidate Lee Zeldin practically pulled off an upset in opposition to her two years in the past, and he’s now Trump’s choose to go the Environmental Safety Company.
It’s a clever selection and Zeldin’s choice is America’s acquire, whereas New Yorkers are left to surprise what may need been if he have been calling the pictures in Albany.
New York Slimes vs. prez-elect
Anti-Trump headlines from the New York Occasions homepage on Tuesday reveals the Grey Woman remains to be in marketing campaign mode:
“Europe Braces for Trump: ‘Worst Economic Nightmare Has Come True’ ”
“The U.S. is the biggest trading partner for the European Union and Britain, whose economies could be at risk because of President-elect Trump’s policies.”
“Doubts Grow Over the Booming Trump Trade, and Trumponomics”
“Trump’s Tariffs Could Deal a Blow to Mexico’s Car Factories”
And the No. 1 dumbest instance of all:
“Trump Starts to Fill Out Cabinet With Loyal Defenders”
So he ought to choose a disloyal Cupboard?
