Michael Benjamin
New York Post
New York, United States
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Past articles by Michael:
A note to Joe Biden: You ain’t Barack Obama
Biden’s response to Charlamagne saying he welcomed having Biden back to answer more questions fanned flames. → Read More
City Hall still has no timetable for electronic ankle monitoring system
The overhaul package passed last April required that the new electronic monitoring service be operated by a government agency or a not-for-profit. → Read More
Something must be done about the city’s school bus system
Like many parents, I’m incensed that the bus companies can’t get our kids to and from school on time from the start of the school year. It’s not as though they have to start from scratch or have to plot routes by hand using AAA road maps. There’s (gotta be) an app for that. → Read More
Why New Yorkers should vote for a constitutional convention
I’m voting “Yes” on the Nov. 7 ballot proposal to hold a state constitutional convention (or con-con) in 2019, and I urge you to do so as well. Appearing... → Read More
Opinion: Clinton vs. Sanders: She didn’t crack, he wasn’t a crackpot
“We’re not Denmark,” remarked Hillary Clinton as she went nativist in a swipe at European socialism and her Democratic presidential rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, America’s only elected democratic socialist. That dig was one of several cutting remarks meant to separate Clinton from the socialist Brooklyn native hot on her heels. During the first Democratic presidential debate, Sanders fired… → Read More
OPINION: Bound By Laws Forged In Corruption
In the Olympics and pro cycling, athletes suspected of cheating, i.e., using performance-enhancing drugs, are investigated and, if found guilty, are stripped of their medals and championship titles. In New York, however, convicted corrupt lawmakers keep their pensions and the residents are left living with the laws they enacted. This year’s stunning arrests of former top legislative leaders… → Read More
The Bronx Phoenix
Fifty-seven years ago this month I was born at Bronx Hospital on Fulton Avenue in Morrisania. I am a Bronx guy through and through. So is my younger brother, Larry, an expat Bronxite living in Philadelphia. Recently, he sent me a T-shirt emblazoned, “You Can’t Scare Me. I’m From The Bronx.” That says it all. The chip on our shoulder is real and burdensome. We lived through the tumultuous 1960s,… → Read More
Know When To Hold 'Em
Well, I guess Albany insiders now know who Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is. He’s not nearly as taciturn as some believed. He’s very much the steely negotiator that few thought he could be. Many overlooked his successful herding of the cats known as Bronx Democrats during his tenure as county leader. The lessons of 10 years as a backbencher apparently taught him how to deal with a governor whose… → Read More
Welcome, Speaker Heastie
It took six agonizing days for the New York State Assembly Democrats to ditch Sheldon Silver from the speakership. Fortunately, they didn’t have to pry it from his cold, dead hands. And since politics loathes a power vacuum, new leadership stepped forward to keep the whole enterprise from falling apart. I give my former colleagues a lot of credit for not descending into a real life version of… → Read More
The Contradictions of Mario Cuomo
Mario Cuomo was a larger than life Democrat. But in person he was accessible, down to earth and interested in the lives of others. I met him twice. The second time was in 2006, when his son Andrew ran for state attorney general. As usual, he was affable and kind to me even though I was only a two-term assemblyman at the time. Being larger than life and accessible was only one of the… → Read More
Lessons In Handling Garner From Newtown
Two years ago this month, a horrific event unfolded in Newtown, Conn., that sent Americans into an apoplexy about guns in American society: 20 innocent elementary schoolchildren and six adult staff members were viciously gunned down by a deranged teenage killer. In a race to be the first in the nation in responding to this tragedy, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo hastily cobbled together the NY SAFE… → Read More
Whatever Happened To...
The reluctance of Gov. Andrew Cuomo to debate any of his Democratic, Republican or Green Party challengers makes me wistful for the seemingly interminable 2013 New York City mayoral debates. You remember: The host of pols auditioning to succeed Michael Bloomberg seemed like cast-offs from TV’s Survivor. The Apostates tribe was composed of long-shot ex-Democrats Adolfo Carrión, a former Bronx… → Read More
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To A Landslide
A funny thing happened on the way to a landslide re-election. Politics got the better of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “Landslide” Cuomo won City & State’s “Loser of the Week” poll on Aug. 2. His winning percentage and margin of victory broke a previous City & State Winners & Losers record. It’s not exactly what a $35 million campaign war chest is intended to win for you. For three years, Gov. Cuomo enjoyed… → Read More
A state assembly candidate's 'ragged' efforts for 'hope and change'
Michael Blake’s run for a corruption-plagued South Bronx seat in the state Assembly may be turning out to be “historic” for the wrong reasons. A former top operative for Barack... → Read More
Forgotten ethnic factor helped Rangel win
Charlie Rangel won re-election Tuesday, despite the ethical cloud still shrouding him, because all politics is local. Rangel’s censure by Congress in 2012 has been all but forgotten by his... → Read More
Shelly’s Last Legs
“Where’s Shelly?” That’s the name of my parlor game as I peruse newspapers, political websites and TV news broadcasts looking for a glimpse of embattled Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. As I prepared this column, it suddenly occurred to me that Silver was noticeably absent from the Democratic Party unity news conference on behalf of mayoral nominee Bill de Blasio. The event was somewhat hosted… → Read More
End the cellphone ban
It’s time to end the city’s ban on cellphones in schools. The original rationale is clearly outdated, and enforcement is uneven and even discriminatory — and an unjust policy undermines the whole project of education. → Read More