Edwards Saddled With Toussaint EndorsementYesterday, John Edwards “won” the support of the New York Chapter of the Transit Workers Union. He even showed up in the city to rejoice with Roger Toussaint, who represents up to 34,000 union votes in the region. We can’t help but think, though, that this public display of affection might not have been the best idea. In a city where Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton already have an edge — why affiliate yourself with a shyster who is most famous for inconveniencing millions of New Yorkers for no legitimate reason with the illegal transit strike in 2005? Hillary’s lucky she dodged this bullet. Edwards probably assumed that New Yorkers who feel good about unions outnumber those who are still irritated about the strike, forgetting, of course, that we city people are like elephants. We have long memories, and we think it’s a real bitch to walk from the Upper East Side to Wall Street.
Transit Union’s N.Y. Local Endorses Edwards [NYS]
the morning line
Remembering 587
• A new memorial to American 587’s crash, the second-deadliest air disaster in U.S. history, was dedicated Sunday in Belle Harbor. It’s a curved granite wall with the victims’ names and a line from a poem in Spanish (most of the 265 victims were Dominicans heading to Santo Domingo). On the crash site itself, residential construction is in full swing. [NYT]
• If you lived through the transit strike last year, you kind of hated union boss Roger Toussaint. And that was before you knew he had a secret deal with the MTA while the strike was still going on, as the Daily News reveals today. What a guy. [NYDN]
• A high-powered Manhattan lawyer was found dead near his abandoned BMW in an upstate bird sanctuary — an apparent suicide; the man was out on $225,000 bail on a rape charge he vehemently denied. [NYP]
• The flap over Charlie Rangel’s already-infamous “Who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?” continues, with local newspapers there alternately asking the feisty congressman to come visit their fair state and heaving invective on New York. [Gotham Gazette]
• And what’s the Post’s headline of the day? There are plenty of contenders, from “Mick Jagger Rocks On in Grief” to “Bearied!” but we’ll go with Egg Foo Gun, about a handgun smuggled into a hospital in a Chinese-food carton. Well done, Post. [NYP]
the morning line
Alan Alone
• In an all-too-logical development, gubernatorial shoo-in Eliot Spitzer is set to withdraw his support of Alan Hevesi, the subject of yesterday’s scathing 26-page Ethics Commission report. The question at this point is not Hevesi’s survival — he’s done — but whether he can nick Spitzer on the way down. [Newsday]
• You didn’t expect an election involving Roger Toussaint to ease down a civil, sportsmanlike high road, did you? If you did, however, you’ll be shocked to hear that both sides in the race for the transit-union presidency are now accusing each other of outright fraud — quadruplicate petition signatures and such. [amNY]
• The FBI is searching a Greenwich church for child pornography. The alleged culprit is one Robert Tate, the church’s musical director, but what lends the story an extra frisson — and, these days, you need one to stand out from all the other church-pedophilia scandals — is Christ Church’s boldface-name-heavy flock. Not only does it include the Bushes, but George W. was reportedly baptized there. [WNBC]
• Michel Gondry is filming in Passaic, New Jersey, and the Times pulls out some jaw-droppingly patronizing prose for the occasion (“Real movie stars … Nothing like this had probably ever happened in Passaic … nothing like this might ever happen again.”) You promise? [NYT]
• And Apple is cementing its hold on New York by announcing it will launch its third Manhattan store, on one of the city’s dullest retail stretches: West 34th between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Here’s hoping for a giant glass pyramid, or an army of holographic Steve Jobses, or something. [Reuters]