Hypocrisy Watch

David Shuster Strikes Again… David’s “Hypocrisy Watch” segment on MSNBC every weekday at 4:45 PM is refreshing because he doesn’t seem to be afraid to go after inconsistent politics wherever he finds them — on either side of the aisle and as high as they go. His comments here on Mayor Bloomberg’s WTC Summit are vintage Shuster.

He points out that the ongoing problems at Ground Zero are insulting and that for the Mayor to brag about transparency and accountability in his administration as he determines the fate of Ground Zero in secret “is hypocrisy — and it’s wrong.” Meanwhile, it was reported that Speaker Sheldon Silver is hinting that the Summiteers, who are supposed to announce their decision following another meeting on June 11th, are going to come out in favor of building all the Silverstein towers.

Silverstein’s people are trying to spin the argument to say that they are not asking for public money, just guarantees. But public money that is collateralizing Silverstein’s buildings is money that the Port Authority will not have available to invest on the public’s behalf elsewhere — so the secret meetings and their findings are highly improper. The misappropriation of the World Trade Center is nothing less than official grand larceny so we are resurrecting an image that was posted on the site some time ago, which is now more appropriate than ever.

The summer before 9/11, the following teaser appeared in theaters, promoting the 2002 release of Spider-Man. The scene, which was cut before the picture was released, showed Spider-Man thwarting a bank robbery in Lower Manhattan — with the help of the Twin Towers.

As the thieves jump into their getaway helicopter one of them boasts that the heist was “like [taking] candy from a baby…” — just before they got the shock of their lives. The same sort of disdain and arrogance characterizes the way the current plan for the World Trade Center was forced on the rest of us. Those who think that power trumps reason are so sure they are going to get away with it. Where is that Spider-Man when we need him?