Mayor Bloomberg blasts Tea Party, describes it as often irrational, 'not a political movement'

BY Adam Lisberg and Celeste Katz
Daily News Staff Writers
Friday, October 1st 2010, 12:15 PM

Florescu for News

Mayor Bloomberg said on a radio show that he isn't impressed by the Tea Party.

Mayor Bloomberg went on for quite a while about immigration reform, and about Washington's roadblocks to progress http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Washington%2c+DC in general during his WOR-AM radio show with host John Gambling, before turning the topic to the Tea Party. http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/John+Gambling

"The wake-up call, John, is called the Tea Party. That's what the Tea Party is. It's funny, it's not a political movement. They don't, they're not pro-choice or pro-life. They're not pro-gun or anti-gun. They're not pro-gay-rights or anti-gay-rights. They're not with any of the social issues."

And then, Bloomberg, the registered Independent, put the Tea Party in some historical context. "They are a group of people, and you see this every eight, 10 years, there was a Perot boomlet if you remember, and then there's the, there was a McCain boomlet eight, 10 years ago.

"And it's, 'I'm sick of it.' That's what people are saying. 'I don't know what the answer is, your job is to figure it out, Mr. Congressman, Mr. Senator, Miss President, whatever it is. But I'm just telling you, I'm annoyed. I'm not going to do, I don't want to take this anymore."

The billionaire businessman-turned-Big Apple mayor then turned to the "direction" of the Tea Party.

"And so they cast out," he said, and in many cases they, their casting out may be irrational in terms of the direction they go, but there is the
argument that they've listened to both Republicans and Democrats again and again saying, 'If you elect me I'll fix it.'"

Bloomberg, who last week endorsed Democrat Andrew Cuomo in favor or Republican Tea Party favorite Carl Paladino in the New York governor's race, summed it up with the big picture:

"And regardless of which one gets into office -- and we've had Republican presidents and Democratic presidents, we've had Republicans controlling the House and the Senate and Democrats controlling the House and the Senate -- and they, these people who are disaffected, they would say nothing's changed. Now, there are others that say we've made a lot of progress, and there's some truth on both sides of the aisle. But this, there is this massive country-wide -- frustration is a good word -- and if that takes place, then maybe it will force the Republicans and Democrats to come to the table and come together."

As first reported on The Daily Politics blog. http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailyp ... z117Rb4Ty3

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