Rose Colored Glasses

Wayne Barrett continues his awe inspiring crusade against all things hypocritically Bloomberg-this time he's all over Bloomberg muñeco Charlie Rose for an embarrassing interview he held with retiring senator Evan Bayh: "​Charlie Rose turned his hour-long Public Broadcasting interview Monday with Indiana Senator Evan Bayh into a commercial for his show's number one backer, Mike Bloomberg, virtually fashioning his own Bloomberg/Bayh 2012 ticket on the air without a whisper of honest disclosure."

As it turns out, Rose is one of those wholly owned Bloomberg subsidiaries: "Rose is a Bloomberg acquisition. Bayh, whorecently announced this would be his last year in the Senate, may be on his way to becoming one. From Bloomberg's studio, where the Rose show has been shot for a decade and a half, Rose steered Bayh into a protracted, and largely favorable, discussion about Bloomberg's upcoming presidential race. Rose did not mention that Bloomberg has supplied Rose with a free office and studio virtually since the show began, or that Bloomberg L.P. is a financial underwriter of the show and agreed last year to pay to rebroadcast it nightly on Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Radio. When Bloomberg L.P. recently bought Business Week, it added "columnist" to Rose's resume. Rose's sometime companion, Amanda Burden, is Bloomberg's planning commissioner."

Why, that's almost as obsequious as Morticia's news platform for Bloomberg. But we can't let a few of Rose's whoppers go unchallenged. In selling his jefe, Rose leads with the following observation for the malleable Bayh about Bloomberg's supposedly protean appeal: "And an appeal to both Democrats and Republicans because of some positions he has which are Democratic, some -- certainly on fiscal issues, some positions that are conservative."

Rose is clearly one toke over the line. Mike Bloomberg is as fiscally conservative as the late John Lindsay-and he only draws the tax line when the levies are directed at his own Wall Stret cohort. And his nanny state mentality would drive independents-not to mention Republicans-batty. But this reality check doesn't stop Rose from fantasizing: "So that's the profile of somebody, a lot of money and an appeal to independents. And it's in your judgment, knowing politics, doable if certain convergences take place?"

Oh, please! But as Barrett points out, the easily distracted Bloomberg has big ideas for 2012: "While Bayh was in town, Kevin Sheekey, the Deputy Mayor for Politics who ran Bloomberg's last presidential campaign, announced he was leaving to work at Bloomberg L.P. As serious as the 2008 exploration was, and there is no doubt that Bloomberg spent a small fortune assessing it, Sheekey did it all from a public perch. The fact that he is leaving suggests that they are far more serious this time."

All of which encourages us to hope that the mayor really gets cracking-oh, and yes, and resigns early to pick up his quixotic lance. The idea that Bloomberg's capable of leading this country off of his mediocre NYC performance is laughable-and we can't wait for the Obama loving media to go after his record here and his over inflated pretensions for national leadership as well.

Once a truly critical lens is put to the Bloomberg performance, the king will be seen in the "altogether:" A naked example of naked ambition-with few leadership abilities to lead this country.