Bloomberg, Koch clash over Occupy Wall St.

In a clash of city mayors past and present, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Mayor Edward I. Koch took opposing sides at a panel discussion Tuesday over the Occupy Wall Street protests -- with Bloomberg coming to the defense of banks and Koch angrily calling for criminal prosecutions of corporate executives.

"It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress," said Bloomberg, himself a former executive of a financial information company, at the event for business leaders.

Koch responded by noting major banks have been fined hundreds of millions of dollars.

"What do you think they got fined for? Schmutz on the sidewalk?" he asked in his signature New York twang, using a Yiddish term for dirt.

Calling himself enormously angry, Koch called for the criminal prosecution of a chief executive or chief financial officer of a major corporation.

"They beggared the people in this country," he said. "There's something wrong with a kid who steals a bike going to jail, and someone who steals millions paying a fine."

Bloomberg dismissed the Wall Street encampment now entering its seventh week, saying "it's fun and it's cathartic" to complain, "but it doesn't do anything for the future."

"Catharsis is good," Koch responded. Former Mayor David Dinkins, also on the panel, said he would leave it to the experts to debate fiscal matters.

Despite any disagreements, the discussion moderated by PBS host Charlie Rose remained cordial, with the three mayors reminiscing about their terms.

Bloomberg, in the midst of a rough third term in which his poll numbers have dipped, said that he's not as inured to the public's opinion as he might seem. "You just have to keep a straight upper lip and never let anybody know that they're getting to you," he said.

Asked about his proudest successes as mayor, Bloomberg cited his takeover of the school system, the better life expectancy among residents, and economic diversification. Dinkins said he was proudest of keeping the city's libraries open six days a week amid tight budgets, keeping the U.S. Open tennis championship in New York, public safety programs, and hosting Nelson Mandela.

Koch, who was mayor from 1978 to 1989, said he treasured the memory of going to the Brooklyn Bridge to urge commuters to cross by foot during the 1980 transit strike.