Now, candidates are beating up on economics-as-usual

All through the 2008 presidential race, in stump speeches and slogans, the candidates attacked politics-as-usual. Whatever the phrase told you, it was supposed to mean something foul.

This year, amid deep worry over jobs and taxes, economics-as-usual becomes the trendy verbal punching bag.

But the key to economics-as-usual is how you define it. Are the forces of the fiscal status quo driven by public-sector unions, nonprofit institutions, businesses, real-estate bigs, Wall Street? All of them? Some of them?

Whatever your view, don't expect our mainstream statewide candidates from either major party to be pointing pitchforks at Wall Street. The established goal seems to be salvaging the financial sector and the many jobs it creates. And, there are campaign contributions.

Democratic Gov. David A. Paterson said in December: "If you want the money to come back to the public, you have to allow the profit-taking in Wall Street and then the taxes to come back to New York. . . . The public that thinks they are exacting some retribution on Wall Street by holding down bonuses is hurting itself in the end." Tax revenues, of course, depend heavily on the bonuses.

Republican Rick Lazio, the former Suffolk congressman, touts his recent stint at JP Morgan Chase as a plus in his plan to become governor.

As attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, Paterson's putative Democratic primary challenger, has generated national attention on bonuses. But he's been careful to emphasize that he strictly targets excessive bonuses wrongly subsidized by taxpayers.

Cuomo filed a lawsuit in that vein Thursday, charging that Bank of America misled shareholders and the government about its merger with Merrill Lynch.

Speaking of Merrill Lynch: That's where former Rep. Harry Ford Jr. settled and became a vice chairman after departing Tennessee three years ago. He recently took leave to explore a Democratic challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand - a one-time corporate lawyer. Taunting Ford in a news release Thursday, Gillibrand's campaign followed his name with (I-Merrill Lynch). They are jockeying for support from financial bigs.

Underdog labor activist Jonathan Tasini, also a declared Democratic candidate, said: "There is a fight under way for the soul of the Democratic Party between Wall Street Democrats and the people."

But Tasini's is an isolated voice. Senior Sen. Charles Schumer, who's raised lots of Wall Street campaign cash over the years, has a balancing act. A spokesman said last year: "The financial services industry is a vital part of New York's economy, but he doesn't hesitate to go after the institutions when they are wrong, such as with credit cards, corporate governance and overdraft fees."

As a Republican hopeful against Gillibrand, Bruce Blakeman, former presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, blasted President Barack Obama's bank-tax proposal.

Last week, Blakeman visited the trading room of John Thomas Financial in lower Manhattan as its chief executive's guest. He vowed to be an outspoken advocate for "our most important industry."

"The hostility emanating from Washington, aimed at this industry - why is the financial industry being singled out?" Blakeman demanded.

So for New York's political class, a 2010 version of the 1773 Boston Tea Party might consist not of throwing the overtaxed product into the harbor but of stashing it in a ministorage - then selling shares in an exotic financial instrument of unknown value that brokers pretend to understand.

Only one question: Would the cargo be moved by the International Longshoremen's Association or a subcontractor hiring lower-paid, undocumented immigrants?

Maybe that's not much of a protest. But it would fit today's style.