By Dee Richard
Ever since his failure to get re-elected as Queens chairman, he seems to have been compelled to discredit the organization. The main thrust of his complaints were about Dr. Leonora Fulani's written remarks in 1989 some 16 years ago. When we inquired about the intensity of his position at this time, he stated that as a Jew he was offended by her anti-Semitic remarks and he was equally offended by her refusal to retract them.Logically, our next question to him was “how come you were not offended by her remarks when you accepted the Queens chairmanship a number of years ago?” We also noted that he was equally not offended when he subsequently sought re-election. Since her remarks, that he deemed anti-Semitic, did not offend him then, why now?Both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman sought and successfully obtained the Independence Line in their campaigns. The last time we read their bios, they were both listed as being Jewish and supporters of Israel. Apparently, Fulani's remarks were considered by them to be her personal opinion and not a true reflection of the entire New York Chapter of the Independence Party.Again, we wonder why these much belated objections by a former Queens chairman? This is America and believe it or not, people are free to make politically incorrect and or offensive statements, no matter how despicable these remarks may be to the people offended by them. Remember the old chant from your childhood: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me!” It would appear that children have more wisdom than adults.In your haste to destroy Dr. Fulani's and Dr. Newman's credibility you only manage to make them and their ideology more prominent and therefore more important. Again, remember the old showbiz bromide: “It doesn't matter what you say about me, as long as you spell my name right,” indicating that even bad publicity is better than no publicity. May we respectfully suggest that you accept your rejection from the Independence Party and get on with your life rather than waste it tilting at windmills.In reading the Times article, we felt the story to be both fair and unbiased. To quote: “Fulani and Newman have found many of the state's political leaders eager to court the support of the Independence Party of New York. He further commented that Governor George Pataki, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and United States Senator Charles Schumer have all courted the Independence Party support, not too shabby a group.”The article also reported that the Independence Party has emerged as a powerful vote-getter in many state and local races, knocking the Conservative Party off of the third line on the ballot. Enough said! Next subject, please.On Thursday, June 2, the Queens Museum of Art held its Annual Gala at the museum itself. The evening's three honorees were former Forest Hills resident Art Garfunkel of Simon & Garfunkel fame, Jean Barrett, formerly of Woodside and the executive director of the Long Island City-based Metropolitan Taxi Cab Board of Trade, and former Queens resident Alan Suna, the CEO of Silvercup Studios in Long Island City.The museum had better hurry up with its expansion plans, as at this year's gala they were bursting at the seams and would be hard pressed to try and find room for one more table.While pursuing our eternal quest for photo ops, our camera lens focused on many of their prestigious guests. These included Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Borough President Helen Marshall and her husband Don, former Borough President Claire Schulman, first vice president of New York Community Bank Georgiana Reese, Terry Osbourne, assistant commissioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation Estelle Cooper, former Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik, City Councilman Eric Gioia, director of Queens public affairs for Con Edison Carol Conslato, Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski, vice president of Roslyn Bank Dan Murphy, Steve Chen of Crystal Windows and Door Systems, Domenick and Rose Ciampa, and the list goes on and on.On Friday, June 3, in the morning the Queens County Republican Organization held an early breakfast at Roma View in Howard Beech. The purpose of the breakfast was to introduce Ed Cox to the Queens County Republican district leaders. Ed is the son-in-law of former President Richard M. Nixon and is married to Nixon's daughter Patricia. They have one son, Christopher.Ed was testing the waters to see if a run against U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton is feasible. As of this moment he is the prospective 2006 Republican/Conservative United States senatorial candidate. He was quite impressive and has many admirable qualifications. He will be a rather formidable candidate. This will be the kind of race we political junkies salivate over. We love tough competitive races. Shooting fish in a barrel is not our idea of fun. As we see it, if candidates aspire to high office, let us see them work for it. We can't wait for the games to begin.Here we are again, at the end of our space allocation and as usual we have so much more to tell you about, but it will have to wait till next week.Don't forget our voice mail at 718-767-6484, our fax at 718-746-0066 or if you prefer our e-mail at deerrichard@aol.com.Till next week,Dee.
