Speaker Problems?

According to Liz, there may be some problems ahead for Speaker Quinn should the term limits extension go through, and Quinn returns to office in 2010. Her continued leadership is not a certainty : "At one point, it seemed the mayor would be going to bat for Quinn. His people were reportedly calling around to make her continued speakership part of any term limits deal.
But those calls have fallen off as of late, according to another insider, who said discussion of the speaker's future appears to be "off the table" - at least for the moment. "Some Council members are really unhappy with her," the insider said. "(Bloomberg allies) may have found that out in their phone calls and decided, 'We're not carrying a dead weight here; we've got our own problems.'"


Well, that's pretty strong stuff, and a great deal can happen in a year; but the unsettled leadership fight in the Bronx, and Vito Lopez's uncertain outlook on this as well, could spell some trouble for the speaker: "Until the term limits bombshell shook up the mayoral race, Lopez wasn't shy about sharing his preference for Comptroller Bill Thompson. Lopez isn't ready to say yet whether he and the 16-member Brooklyn delegation will be supporting Quinn, but he did tell Azi he's anxious to have the city clerk matter settled. The Brooklyn delegation was unusually united when it came to the clerk's post, voting as a block against the Bronx candidate, Hector Diaz, who stepped down this summer after less than six months on the job."

Our view is that talk is cheap; and when push comes to shove, it's always smart to bet on the incumbent-and against a coup that usually amounts to a lot of posturing from disgruntled members. Still, anything could happen in the Topsy Turvey political world that we're entering.