The joke’s on us
New York City used to be a national punchline. If we elect Anthony Weiner, it will be again.
By KYLE SMITH

Anthony Weiner knew he faced a stiff challenge, that he’d be a lightning rod for jokes while getting the shaft from the press. But after blowing a load of money on campaign research, now he’s a big thing. Polling of the electorate shows a rapid rise in his fortunes, he’s still got a huge wad of cash in the bank and New York City voters are starting to say he’s a stand-up guy with an impressive package of ideas. Last week, he exploded in the polls, finishing first in one and a close second in another. Now that he’s officially a member of the political club again, you know he’s got a feeling deep in his loins that it’s time to whip out his true self and act like the cock of the walk on the third leg of his career. If there were anyplace you could smoke anymore, he’d be puffing a Winston and asking New York, “Did you feel the Earth move?”

Sick of such puns? Just wait until Weiner wins — you won’t be able to escape them.

Weiner is starting to look like the tallest guy in Smurfopolis, what with Christine Quinn failing to build any momentum from a huge early lead and the other Democratic mayoral candidates scrambling to offer the most extravagant promises to make the schools worse, the streets more dangerous and the balance sheet insolvent.

Meanwhile, in the Republican ghetto where one in seven voters lives, former Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota holds a lead, but he’s going to need a whole Lhota luck to stand a chance against any well-funded liberal Democrat with an approval rating higher than herpes.

Speaking of sexually transmitted diseases that just won’t go away: That leaves Anthony Weiner with a good chance of being our representative on the world stage.

Weiner would be a grandiose, overreaching mayor. Because the nation’s highest taxes are still far too low, he thinks New York City should give health insurance to 500,000 illegal immigrants — and, presumably, all the others who flow in after them when word gets around — on the pretext that this would lower costs. Taking on health care from City Hall is like trying to solve Syria or global warming.

We shouldn’t be surprised — it’s not like we weren’t warned that Weiner is a reckless and dishonest egomaniac with an absurdly inflated view of his own potency.

Between his policies, his personality and his perversions, a Mayor Weiner would return New York City to where it was before the relative sanity of the 20 years of Giuliani-Bloomberg: national laughingstock.

Image does matter in a city where tourism is one of the leading industries, a place Mayor Bloomberg dubbed (not inaccurately) a luxury good worth the high prices.

Before Rudy Giuliani stormed Godzilla-like through the city breathing fire on the various obstacles to progress, Gotham was for 30 years synonymous with pollution, disorder, crime, dysfunction and general looniness. A nightly onslaught of jokes from the likes of “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson (who moved the show to Burbank in 1972) and lesser punditry drove home the idea that New York was a place best avoided.

(Sample Carson line: “New York is an exciting town where something is happening all the time . . . most unsolved.”)

Weiner thinks he can put his scandal behind him, but the details are too irresistible for anyone to forget. These jokes are from last week alone:

Jimmy Fallon: “A new poll found that former Congressman Anthony Weiner only has a 15% chance of winning the race for New York City mayor. Although in his defense, he’s a grower not a shower.”

Stephen Colbert: “Weiner would be a great New York City mayor. For one thing, we wouldn’t have to worry about a soda ban because we’ve all seen that he puts more than 16 ounces in his cup.”

Jay Leno: “The Wall Street Journal said that Mr. Weiner didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Hey, Anthony Weiner didn’t e-mail or text you back? Consider yourself lucky!”

You think any talk-show host will stop making these jibes one, two, even four years into a Weiner term?

No matter which Democrat wins, we’re probably doomed to a return of the cycle of buying off unions and other interest groups, holding back cops, raising taxes and driving out businesses.

But Weiner’s prominence would magnify his every failure and make it national news, a self-fulfilling prophecy that could reverse the 20-year trend of people and businesses being eager to move here.

We would become a 4-year-long dick joke.

It’s New Yorkers who are to blame, of course. As a city, we’re attracted to outsize personalities, from Ed Koch to Giuliani.

Perhaps Bloomberg protégée Christine Quinn will turn around her sagging poll numbers to cut off Weiner. But Quinn lacks the spotlight-hogging personality that seems to be a necessary attribute to impress easily bored citizens of what Mayor John Lindsay called Fun City.

We demand an entertaining mayor — so we may end up with one who is a clown.

Source: NY Post

Claims focused on ratings of structured finance securities

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller filed a state lawsuit, on behalf of Secretary of State Connie Lawson’s office, against Standard & Poor’s for allegedly putting profits and market share above its objectivity when rating structured finance securities.

As the lawyer for state government, Zoeller filed the action in Marion County on behalf of the Indiana Secretary of State’s office and Securities Commissioner Chris Naylor. This lawsuit is part of a joint effort by more than a dozen states and the U.S. Department of Justice, all of which have filed complaints against S&P for alleged misconduct involving its analysis of toxic mortgage-backed securities.

“Investment banks, investors and regulators look to the nation’s credit rating agencies to independently rate the risks of financial products,” Zoeller said. “Leading up to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Standard and Poor’s made promises of objectivity but misled investors into purchasing financial products – like mortgage-backed securities – that they might not otherwise have invested in. The State, through its securities enforcement statutes, is committed to taking strong legal action against those that wrongfully mislead investors.”

Zoeller said S&P is paid lucrative fees for rating its clients’ securities which are packaged and sold on Wall Street. The complaint alleges that S&P adjusted its analytical models for rating residential mortgage-backed securities and other structured finance securities to achieve the ratings that its clients desired.

Indiana’s complaint does not challenge S&P’s ratings of Indiana’s state and municipal securities. The complaint alleges McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. and its subsidiary Standard & Poor’s Financial Services, LLC violated the Indiana Uniform Securities Act by misrepresenting the objectivity and independence of its rating process with respect to certain structured-finance securities. The lawsuit primarily seeks injunctive relief to force S&P to comply with Indiana securities laws and civil penalties.

“I believe S&P intentionally misled the marketplace at a time when our country needed accurate information the most,” Lawson said. “Through enforcing Indiana’s securities law, we plan to hold S&P accountable for its actions. Both retail and institutional investors deserve accurate, independent and objective ratings when investing and we cannot have companies defrauding the marketplace in the pursuit of ill-gotten gains.”

According to the lawsuit, the company intentionally misrepresented that its analysis of structured finance securities was objective, independent and not influenced by its clients’ financial interests from about 2004 to 2012. However, by 2001 the company’s “…desire to maximize revenue and market share by rating as many structured finance deals as possible led S&P to cater to the preferences of large investment banks and other repeat issuers of structured finance securities that dominated S&P’s revenue base.”

Zoeller said other states may also file lawsuits against the company for misleading investors while emphasizing its independent and objective ratings process.

Zoeller and Lawson thanked Deputy Attorney General Lisa Wolf and Securities Division Litigation Counsel Matthew Allen for their work on this case.

INDIANAPOLIS – Now that the 2013 session of the Indiana General Assembly has come to a close, state lawmakers will begin preparing for the 2014 legislative session by continuing their work in interim study committees.

Referred to as “the interim,” the period between sessions provides legislators with an opportunity to review issues in greater depth and determine whether to proceed with legislation when we return next year.

A few weeks back, leaders met to decide what topics would be discussed this summer. Committees will start meeting soon and most should have their work done by the middle of fall.

There are two types of study committees that meet.

Some are created for the interim to look at a variety of topics under a general heading. Others have been created through state law and meet every year to conduct ongoing work on topics.

I am very fortunate this year to have been appointed to four legislative interim workgroups that will be studying issues of great interest to the Indiana House District 77 citizens I represent at the Statehouse in Indianapolis:

•Commission on Improving the Status of Children in Indiana
•Child Services Oversight Committee
•Interim Study Committee on Driver Education
•Council on Evansville State Hospitals
Let’s take a look at some other topics we’ll be studying this year:

The Interim Study Committee on Common Core Educational Standards will examine how Indiana measures achievement in relation to the national Common Core standards. Members will consider the best ways to implement standards by talking to teachers and other local school officials, as well as the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The School Safety Interim Study Committee will consider what can be done to protect our children in the wake of recent tragedies in places like Newtown, Conn.

The recent breakdowns on ISTEP testing will be examined in greater detail by the Commission on Education. Other topics for this group will include non-public school scholarships, teacher preparation programs, changes to the length of the school year, and safety issues for student athletes.

We will continue to look at the feasibility of mass transit transportation across Indiana through the work of two groups: the Central Indiana Transit Study Committee and the Joint Study Committee on Infrastructure Assessment & Solutions.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a legislative interim without looking at taxes and budgets. The Commission on State Tax & Financing Policy will handle most of that work this summer, including an examination of the use of land banks in the buying and selling of abandoned properties. This issue has gained attention in recent days after two Indianapolis city employees were indicted by the federal government and charged with taking kickbacks.

In the weeks to come, assignments to these committee will be parceled out. I will keep you posted about the work I will do, then talk about these issues in greater details throughout the summer.

State Representative Gail Riecken
Indiana House District 77