'I See John Liu Here - He's Been the Little Asian Boy Running Around With Us a Long Time'

Can you imagine the uproar if a Republican uttered a racial slur such as this? All hell would break loose, the offender would be drummed out of office and left for dead in a smoldering pile, quivering and trembling, begging the NAACP and any other outraged group for forgiveness.

But in this case, the offender is a vile, nasty NAACP honcho, a woman with a long track record of bigoted, incendiary comments, so it's OK, I guess.

A top civil rights leader called Democratic controller nominee John Liu "the little Asian boy" who's been "running around" with the NAACP for years, as Liu poked a bit of fun at his own heritage on Saturday.

Speaking before the Rev. Al Sharpton's birthday party, Hazel Dukes noted that Liu - elected the city's first Asian-American councilman in 2001 - was on hand for the festivities.

"I see John Liu here - he's been the little Asian boy running around with us a long time [in] the NAACP," Dukes, president of the NAACP New York State Conference, warmly said to laughter during Sharpton's weekly radio broadcast. "But Rev. [Sharpton], he was a good guy, so we said, 'Come on, come on, come on - we can make you what you want to be,'" Dukes continued to more chuckles and applause as Liu, 42, sat on the stage with a bemused smile.

The Taiwan-born, Queens-bred Liu, who came to the United States with his family at age 5, won the Sept. 15 primary and later defeated rival Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) in the Sept. 29 runoff. Liu enjoyed strong support from the Asian-American community and other ethnic minority voters.

However, he has stressed that he never meant to be the first Asian elected to the Council and has reached out to New Yorkers of all backgrounds in his bid to become controller.

Liu apparently was not overly concerned with Dukes' comments. His spokeswoman said he "is a lifetime member of the NAACP. He has a great relationship with its leadership and many other prominent civil rights leaders."

Of course, let's just see how long it takes for Liu, Sharpton and Dukes to cry raaaaacism once he's criticized for his job performance.

It should give New Yorkers pause to consider who Liu has be "running around" with, considering he was basically installed in office by the Working Families Party and ACORN.

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Great News: ACORN Stooges Win NYC Races

Nothing like having a man beholden to ACORN and the hard-left Working Families Party in control of an $80 billion piggybank. Yet that's exactly who the people of New York City have as Comptroller. Also elected was Bill De Blasio as Public Advocate, who wen tout of his way to thank ACORN. Wonderful. The lone silver lining? De Blasio beat the loathsome Mark Green, the ubiquitous candidate for whatever office is open.

John Liu easily won last night's runoff election for city comptroller and Bill de Blasio routed rival Mark Green in the public advocate contest -- victories that handed a major boost to the Working Families Party in its first foray into citywide races.

Both races produced clear winners within 30 minutes of the polls closing at 9 p.m. A mere 228,000 ballots were cast, a record low.

Liu, who will oversee the city's $80 billion pension system, cruised into history as the first Asian-American to win a citywide election, beating Brooklyn Councilman David Yassky, by 56 percent to 44 percent, with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

De Blasio trounced perennial candidate Green, who was trying to reclaim his old job, 63 percent to 37 percent.

"I will be your voice, and whenever your government is not there for you, I will stand up for you," said de Blasio, who thanked members of the WFP and ACORN.

"Thank you so much for this incredible ride . . . We won this election in the streets," said Liu, who held his runoff party at teachers union headquarters and credited the WFP in his victory speech.

The victories give organized labor major toeholds in two of the three citywide offices.

And with both Liu and de Blasio now instant front-line City Hall hopefuls in 2013, Mayor Bloomberg will face two aggressive rivals taking swings at him through a likely third term.

Suitably Flip points out Liu was one of the many recipients of Norman Hsu money, much of which has not been returned.

Of the Hsu-tainted cash Liu got his hands on, he appeared to return just 22% (the contributions made explicitly by Hsu himself), which would suggest there's still cash stolen from Liu's fellow New Yorkers rolling around in his campaign coffers available for November's general election.

Among his prospective duties as comptroller, Liu would be responsible for the management of an $85 billion portfolio of public assets. Let's hope his apparent nonchalance about campaign finance law, investor swindling, and money laundering sheds no light on his fiduciary diligence.

Great News for NYC: Labor Stooge Set to Become Comptroller

It may be a much more low-profile position that the mayor, but do New Yorkers realize they may soon have a man who is beholden to the hard-left Working Families Party and ACORN controlling the city's purse strings?

Well, unless they wake up and have a good look as John Liu, that's exactly what's in store for them.

Councilman John Liu, the leading contender for comptroller, is so tight with the Working Families Party that some insiders fear his election would hand the left-wing party and the unions backing it the run of the city's second most important office -- and access to big bucks from the pension fund.

"I would certainly be troubled by someone that closely associated with the unions," said one former top official in the comptroller's office.

Supporters of Mayor Bloomberg are known to be concerned about the possibility of a Liu victory.

The race for comptroller will for all practical purposes be decided in a runoff Tuesday between Liu (D-Queens) and fellow Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn).

Liu is considered the heavy favorite because he finished first in last week's four-way, low-turnout Democratic primary and because he has the backing of the well-organized Working Families Party.

The party has a close relationship with the disgraced ACORN group and has been accused of trying to circumvent campaign finance rules.

Veteran political analyst Jerry Skurnick estimated that as few as 150,000 to 175,000 voters -- a dismal 5 percent of the Democratic electorate -- will turn out for the runoff.

That would make the clout of the WFP more critical than ever -- and Liu's debt to it as large as could be.

A former city official said there's good reason for voters to have doubts that Liu would safeguard the public purse.
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The comptroller's responsibilities range from oversight of an $85 billion pension portfolio to setting "prevailing wage" rates for city employees in trades that have counterparts in the private sector.

The comptroller also has to approve all contracts, including those for consultants that one major union -- District Council 37 -- has charged are taking jobs away from their members at the Department of Education.

Oh, when we say hard-left, we're not stretching it, since they are viewed favorably by the Communist Party.

In the meantime, we support many efforts to build alternative political formations (see FAQs about "Third Parties" such as the Green Party, the Labor Party, the Working Families Party, etc.). We work to build the political strength of the labor movement. We work to support candidates within the two-party system who offer real alternatives to the ultra-right, such as Paul Wellstone did. And we are working to build our Party in size, experience, and strength.

By the way, you might remember the WFP from their infamous trip to Connecticut to harass AIG executives last March when the media outnumbered protesters.

This NY Post editorial sends out the warning flare.

Big Labor may be about to score a huge -- and dangerous -- victory by installing its puppet, Queens Councilman John Liu, in the enormously powerful job of city comptroller.

Heaven help New York if it works.

City unions -- acting through the shadowy Working Families Party -- have lined up squarely behind Liu in Tuesday's Democratic runoff election for comptroller.

And, as The Post's David Seifman reports today, union and WFP support could well put Liu over the top, given expected low turnout -- leaving him all the more in their debt.

A Liu victory would be a huge coup for labor and WFP-types: The comptroller, as the city's chief financial officer, oversees the city's $85 billion pension fund and must sign off on all city contracts.

Imagine what they could do with that pot of gold.

"I would certainly be troubled by someone that closely associated with the unions," a former top official in the comptroller's office told Seifman.

Liu wants to use the fund to invest in "affordable housing" -- a field dominated by scandal-scarred housing giant ACORN, which is bolstered by unions and joined at the hip to the WFP. And with the power to OK contracts, he'd be able to hold up outlays that don't contain enough public-employee goodies.

Big Labor has even more reason to be so gung-ho for Liu: He's dead-set against reining in crippling public-employee pension perks. And he's backed just about every proposed tax-and-spend scheme to keep the money flowing to his union friends -- even, at one point, a dangerous stock-transfer tax that today would drive the city's struggling financial sector straight out of town.

Just what New York needs during a recession: A business stampede out of town.