Hold the Coronation

In this morning's NY Daily News, Errol Louis underscores the point we made earlier-there just may be a strong public backlash brewing on the mayor's power grab: "Mayor Bloomberg may end up surprised by the depth and intensity of opposition that sprouts to block his bid to overturn the city's term limits law and claim a currently illegal third term. He shouldn't be. New Yorkers have a deep attachment to two ideas at the root of our democracy: equality under law, and government limited by a system of checks and balances."

Louis doesn't believe that even Mike Bloombeg's money can overcome the public's distaste for this display of pure arrogance: "As Bloomberg discovered when he wasted millions trying to persuade voters to approve nonparty elections - a referendum that voters rejected, 70% to 30% - even a rich man can't simply purchase the electorate on some core issues. This is one of those cases."

And, as he points out, lets not forget how strongly the speaker has spoken out against this: "Just last December, Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said publicly: "I will neither support legislation nor will I seek or support a new referendum eliminating or altering term limits. ... I believe that overruling the will of New Yorkers - who have voted twice in favor of term limits - would be anti-democratic and anti-reform."

All of which would further inflame the public should this extension get approved in an insider deal. So, as we said before, stay tuned here-we haven't seen the end game on all this just yet.