Shelly's Shot Across the Bow

In this morning's NY Daily News, Liz Benjamin reports that Shelly Silver is warning Mayor Mike-who curiously never phoned him on his big victory last week-not to override the will of the people on term limits: "Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has a warning for Mayor Bloomberg: Change term limits at your own risk. "I think people will be angry at him ... and his approval ratings will go down," Silver said. "But he's got to make that determination, not me." "I'm opposed to term limits," he continued. "But the people still voted for them twice."

If the mayor and his band of merry men and women on the other side of city hall ignore Silver it could lead to four years of fierce fighting-beginning with the mayoral control of the schools issue that will come to a head as the current law sunsets in June of 09. Bloomberg can anticipate a fierce grilling and major changes to the current governance system should he go ahead and extend the term limits law in this fashion.

As Liz reminds us: "If the mayor does a deal with the City Council to extend term limits and then runs and wins in 2009, he would be facing four more years of wrangling with Silver - the very man who has stymied high-profile Bloomberg legacy projects like the West Side stadium and congestion pricing."