Not So Fast Newsday

Back in April, I made fun of Mondello's brilliant strategy to wait for Governor Spitzer to "self-destruct." Since then, Mondello as state GOP chairman has done as much for the state party as he did for the county organization. Today in Newsday, Dan Janison brings up Mondello's quote in the context of the "scandal" around tracking State Sen. Bruno's use of state aircraft to go to political functions. "Four months ago, before the Eliot Mess, state and Nassau GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello made a prediction. "We have a governor now that's a bully," Mondello told a GOP dinner March 30. "He will self-destruct. You give it a little time and you'll see that he'll be making mistake after mistake. And we'll be there to catch him on it, and we'll be there to make hay." Get that man a Lotto ticket."

I'm not so sure that Mondello will win the Lottery any time soon. The pseudo-scandal is a classic smoke-screen and of course Mondello is making as much "hay" out of this as possible.
Spitzer is very far from self-destructing and even with all the news reports, there is no there there. Of course Mondello wants to try to make as much trouble for Spitzer as possible because not only is Bruno under investigation by the FBI for shady deals, but it turns out Bruno has been breaking campaign finance laws while dragging his heals on reform legislation.
Liz Benjamin in the NY Daily News shifted the subject back to Bruno and his use of state aircraft.
In another Newsday story , next years election and control of the state senate is brought up "The Democratic senators, who were really looking forward to next year's election with glee, are now starting to say ... [taking the majority] is not so sure," said Stanley B. Klein, a political scientist at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University.
"Bruno and the Senate Republicans look like the phoenix that has risen from the flames," said Klein, who also is a GOP committeeman in Dix Hills."
Yes Stanley Klein, this whole lotta nothing issue will make an impact amidst the growing concern over the mortgage meltdown, school funding issues and now rebuilding our aging infrastructure. Plus, when Bruno resigns after being indicted the republicans will have their own headaches. November 2008 is a long ways away.

If Mondello and the republicans think they can ride this so-called scandal to electoral victory in 2008, he is really dreaming.
Mondello's prognostication has never been very good and it's turning out that it still isn't very good.
Mondello has to put out local political fires now with more and more corruption by his lackeys being exposed in the Town of Hempstead.