Remove That Stain!

The NY Daily News is reporting that Greg Meeks is up to his old habits-playing fast and loose with the ethics laws: "Queens congressman Gregory Meeks appears to have turned to a major Democratic fund-raiser to help him settle a secret $40,000 loan after the FBI began probing the deal. Last month, Meeks borrowed $59,650 from a Westchester-based investment firm owned by Dennis Mehiel, a businessman and one-time candidate for New York lieutenant governor. Days later, he paid $59,000 to Ed Ahmad, a Queens businessman from whom he borrowed $40,000 in 2007. The additional cash was meant to cover interest Meeks said he owed on the first loan."

Now we have already commented on the selective outrage being directed at Pedro Espada by the NY State Democratic Party, but the Meeks contretemps dramatizes the extent to which the Bronx pol is being treated by a double standard. Put simply-as we have remarked-when it comes to scandal, the politicians of both parties in New York are the classic target rich environment. But to single out Espada within this fish in a barrel atmosphere reeks of inequity-the last we looked, the illustrious Queens congressman hadn't yet given out a flu shot to a sick youngster, as Espada's health clinics do thousands of times a year.

But maybe Meeks is too busy using his federal piggy bank to succor (sucker?) the victims of Hurricane Katrina? Whatever. You all get the point. It seems that without the double standard, the NY State Dems have no standards at all.