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May 12, 2011
Tea’d Off: Lone N.Y.C. GOPer Michael Grimm Feels the Pinch
PolitickerNY
by David Freedlander
"Do-gooder, liberal" Bruce Ratner makes a cameo in the Observer's profile of conservative local Congressman Michael Grimm.
A few days before the New Yorker piece, and before Mr. Grimm met the voters of Brooklyn, and before Republicans pulled the rug from under the backers of the Ryan budget, Mr. Grimm toured Beekman Tower, a still-under construction residential tower in Lower Manhattan, which, when completed, will be the tallest such structure in the city’s history. Mr. Grimm wore a hard hat and blue jeans and chewed gum and was led on the tour by a bunch of similarly outfitted union reps and the project’s developer, Bruce Ratner. The group took a rickety cage of a construction elevator up the side of the building. The whole city seemed to breeze through the bars. “It’s the working people of America that drive this country, Mr. Grimm told the group. “Always has been.”
His presence there illustrated the awkwardness of life as a Republican these days. It is hard to talk about the need to reduce government spending and simultaneously call for more government investment in construction projects.
NoLandGrab: Nobody can reach across the aisle (and into the public pocketbook) like Bruce can! Wonder if Grimm noticed that the building's flat side faces Staten Island?
Posted by eric at May 12, 2011 11:38 AM