Jeb Bush, Michael Bloomberg Speak at Snooty, Exclusive Club


At an education-themed event today hosted by the Manhattan Institute featuring Jeb Bush and Michael Bloomberg, something happened.

There’s probably more to say. But despite the fact that the event was on the mayor’s public schedule, and that the Manhattan Institute called around to invite reporters to watch, the press wasn’t actually welcome. Read More

Murdoch's NY Forecast Calls for Rain

Rupert Murdoch thinks New York State is headed for a crisis, he explained during a speech last night at Cipriani, where he and former Mayor Ed Koch were honored by the conservative Manhattan Institute.

Murdoch said that the Manhattan Institute's ideas about governance had helped improve public policy. “But," he said, "I think the storm Read More

Spitzer on Regulation

More on the potential conflict between the corporate watchdog role Eliot Spitzer has played for the last eight years and the economic cheerleader role he’s about to take on:

Here’s a clip of Spitzer wearing his attorney general hat, defending the tough corporate accountability rules that Congress passed in the wake of his Read More

Rudy at 90 Percent

Steve Malanga, senior fellow at Giuliani’s preferred think tank, the Manhattan Institute, thinks that Rudy Giuliani’s formation of a exploratory committee for president was as good as an official declaration. Almost.

“Having talked to some of the people in Rudy’s administration, I think they give it up to 90 percent chance that he will Read More

A Giuliani Conservative Tilts at Religion

Rudolph Giuliani has repeatedly extended the hand of friendship to Christian conservatives in recent months. But a leading member of a think tank closely associated with the former Mayor has just delivered a powerful jab to the face of the same constituency.

Mr. Giuliani, long viewed with suspicion by the religious right because of his Read More

New Republic’s Ivory Tower: Extra Phallic!

Yesterday, The New Republic introduced its readers to The Open University, its “first-of-its-kind blog, featuring America’s top academics on today’s top stories.” As promised, there are lots of big-name professor types–the University of Chicago’s Cass Sunstein, Harvard’s Steven Pinker–and they’ve already taken on such weighty topics as “ideological amplification” and the demise of the Read More

Weld’s Takings

Bill Weld had his audition for the theoretically friendly, in fact polite but unenthusiastic, audience at a Crains New York Business breakfast at the Sheraton this morning.

On the substance, the most striking point was his apparent retreat from his sweeping opposition to emininent domain at the Manhattan Institute not long ago. Read More

Manhattan Institute, California Style

The Manhattan Institute has a well-produced indictment of Albany out today, and a new Web site to go with it.

Their bottom line is that the state taxes and spends too much, and the targets for blame are “the special interests,” identified as teachers unions, public authorities, public employees, public “servants,” and the plaintiffs’ Read More