Memo to Freddy: Hire Wayne Barrett

In this week's Village Voice, columnist Wayne Barrett unveils a brilliant political-policy speech he has graciously written for Freddy Ferrer. The speech is not only one of substance, hitting as it does on all of the weaknesses in the mayor's record, but it has the kind of passionate style that Freddy needs to adopt if the Barrett-written narrative is to be fully effective.

Everyone should take a look at the piece; it is the kind of writing that makes all of us envious and harkens back to Wayne's seminal work on Giuliani. It was particularly good to see him focus on the property tax issues that the Alliance has stressed but he does so in the context of his discussion of structural poverty. His call for a job development strategy that doesn't give city land away to suburban-style real estate developments was right to the heart of the mega-development toadying that is the hallmark of this administration.

The coup de grace of the piece was Barrett's wicked reminder of the Bloomberg pledge to not repeat his obscene campaign spending of 2001 because it would indicate that he had failed to adequately get his message out to people and convince them, absent another monetary deluge, of his administration's achievements. This reminder, one that should be constantly repeated, is necessary to somehow turn the mayor's campaign spending spree against him.