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Ben Smith

Insatiable Istithmar Plays High-Low in New York City

One of New York’s biggest new real estate investors sees an opportunity in the growing gap between the city’s rich and poor.

“Our focus is the very high end and the very low end,” David Jackson, the CEO of Istithmar, said in an interview. “It’s the middle bracket that we think is a tough Read More

The One That Got Through…

Twenty-two minutes after President George W. Bush introduced Judge Samuel Alito as his nominee to the Supreme Court on Halloween morning, New York Senator Charles Schumer declared war.

In a statement e-mailed to reporters, Mr. Schumer declared it “sad that the President felt he had to pick a nominee likely to divide America,” and warned Read More

In ’06 Election, Clinton Needs To Beat Chuck’s ’04

It was July 11, 2004, and Senator Charles Schumer was at a road race in Utica, N.Y., shaking hand after hand in a re-election contest whose foregone conclusion wouldn’t prevent New York’s senior Senator from visiting every county, spending $12 million, and campaigning as if his life depended on it.

A trim man in Read More

In ’06 Election, Clinton Needs To Beat Chuck’s ’04

It was July 11, 2004, and Senator Charles Schumer was at a road race in Utica, N.Y., shaking hand after hand in a re-election contest whose foregone conclusion wouldn’t prevent New York’s senior Senator from visiting every county, spending $12 million, and campaigning as if his life depended on it.

A trim man in shorts Read More

G.O.Palookas: Pair Spars For Hillary Bout

The former Mayor of Yonkers, John Spencer, raised eyebrows in Republican circles earlier this month when he hinted at a conspiracy. There was something fishy, he said, aboutthe sudden emergence of Kathleen Troia (K.T.) McFarland, like him a Republican seeking to challenge Senator Hillary Clinton.

“The Clintons are pretty slick. They’ll never have any Read More

G.O.Palookas: Pair Spars For Hillary Bout

The former Mayor of Yonkers, John Spencer, raised eyebrows in Republican circles earlier this month when he hinted at a conspiracy. There was something fishy, he said, aboutthe sudden emergence of Kathleen Troia (K.T.) McFarland, like him a Republican seeking to challenge Senator Hillary Clinton.

“The Clintons are pretty slick. They’ll never have any fingerprints Read More

Dubai or Not Dubai: Chuck On Killed Deal

Even by Chuck Schumer standards, there were a lot of cameras set up outside the Farley Post Office in midtown, where he and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer were expected to denounce illegally mailed cigarettes. As Mr. Spitzer and the press pack waited for the Senator to arrive, Mr. Schumer’s press secretary, Risa Heller, fielded a Read More

Ex-Schumer Rumor, Governor; New One, President Chuck!

We should have known it: It turns out that Senator Charles Schumer was never really interested in the thing he calls, with a burst of Yiddish syntax, “The great between-Spitzer-Schumer blah-blah-blah.”

“If I was running for Governor, I would have run a whole different race,” the newly re-elected Senator told The Observer in a telephone Read More

Dubai or Not Dubai: Chuck On Killed Deal

Even by Chuck Schumer standards, there were a lot of cameras set up outside the Farley Post Office in midtown, where he and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer were expected to denounce illegally mailed cigarettes. As Mr. Spitzer and the press pack waited for the Senator to arrive, Mr. Schumer’s press secretary, Risa Heller, fielded a Read More

Da Hillary Code

Back in the autumn of 2002, as pundits were portraying Hillary Clinton as a surprisingly moderate U.S. Senator, Carl Limbacher got an unexpected call.

It was from an editor at a division of Crown Publishing. He wanted a book about Hillary Clinton from Mr. Limbacher, an Oyster Bay printer who moonlights as a writer for Read More