Kevin Sheekey: The African Explorer

Well it looks as if the mayor's majordomo, one Kevin Sheekey, is about to skulk away from the whole Caroline Kennedy boomlet that he did so much to set off; or, in the words of the immortal Captain Spalding: "Hello, I must be going." As the NY Post reports: "Mayor Bloomberg's top political aide is pulling back on his lobbying campaign to propel Caroline Kennedy into the US Senate because "it wasn't working," according to sources. "Everything was backfiring," said one source of the intense behind-the-scenes effort by Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey. "He's not out front anymore."

What we had was a behind the scenes bum rush, orchestrated by the entitled crowd of Bloombergistas, whose only real interest-a special one indeed-is in self perpetuation. And for once, they over reached: "They tried to take everybody else out," said the source. "It didn't work. They were out there way, way too early."

But what really tickles us in all of this is Mike Bloomberg's "um-brage" at the media's harsh critique of Kennedy's weak performance: "Bloomberg's defense of Kennedy yesterday also extended to the criticizing the press corps, which he accused of subjecting her to intense scrutiny not visited on her rivals. "Nobody seems to be asking other particular candidates, 'Tell us what you would do in the situation of world chaos or whatever, a Depression, a world war,' " Bloomberg said."

So, let's get this straight. First Bloomberg orchestrates this media unveiling-a real extravaganza of exposure-and now he's critical of the fact that the other candidates aren't being scrutinized? As the Post points out: "Kevin Wardally, of Bill Lynch Associates, who is representing Rep. Carolyn Maloney in the Senate contest, said Kennedy has "sucked the air out of the room," and his client would welcome scrutiny from the press. "We're barely included," said Wardally. "We are the last sentence in most articles in a list with the other candidates." Wardally said he's spending most of his time "just getting out the fact [Maloney is] delivering for New York."

So now that the whole thing's becoming a fiasco, Bloomberg's looking to avoid being stigmatized as the rich puppet master of the entire charade. As the NY Daily News tells us: "There had been huge missteps in the way [City Hall] constructed this," said a source involved in the Kennedy effort to muzzle Bloomberg operative Kevin Sheekey. "It's just a dialing down of anything that would be harmful to her," the source said. "Anything like very public meetings with people in City Hall or inappropriate calls to labor leaders will no longer take place. He'll still be involved, just not in the same way." Another source said Sheekey was being pushed aside so neither Gov. Paterson nor Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver would think Bloomberg was trying to muscle her into the Senate."

So now it's all a ,"hello I must be going moment," with the front man Sheekey-the real Captain Schnorrer in all this-being relegated to the bullpen. Let no one, and certainly not the governor, be fooled by this maneuver. Caroline's candidacy has no substance, and is only propped up by the hot air pumped in by the self serving mayor and his minions.