For nation, and on LI, mysteries abound

Let us savor the moment's political mysteries -- specifically, three separate and distinct sources of civic suspense that have kept the talking heads talking and the blog posters posting.

First up -- and surely the fastest to fade -- is the short-lived flirtation of billionaire Donald Trump with a presidential run. Clearly the real estate man loved the windfall of attention. The mystery is what he, in combination with the media storm around him, may have accomplished with this exercise.

He did prove he could make a speech with curse words in it. He showed his poll numbers could drop with a spike in exposure. He established that he could create a ripple by suggesting that President Barack Obama wasn't qualified to attend Columbia and Harvard, and by claiming credit for the release of Obama's long-form birth certificate.

One senior Republican operative from New York, who'd kept to the conventional thinking that Trump would not run, spoke privately of an advantage for Republicans overall. Slamming Obama the way Trump did revived the "what-do-we-really-know-about-this-man" question when serious GOP contenders could not, the operative argued.

But there lies another mystery -- and not those written by truthers and birthers. The serious puzzle is, even after Obama has served a full term in office, how many Americans -- those who like him and those who do not -- would still really think of him as an enigma.

Locally, the teaser of the week involves the question of how a new Islanders hockey arena can be financed with Nassau borrowing $400 million -- without the risk of leaving county taxpayers on the hook if any of the grand plan's moving parts don't work.

Brian Nevin, spokesman for County Executive Ed Mangano, said the proposed August referendum "would ask residents if they would like to partner with the county, Islanders and minor league ballpark by providing the financing for capital improvements to the Hub."

As Nevin tells it, the Islanders would compensate the public with a share of each dollar generated, with compensation also coming from contracts to run county-owned facilities in the Hub. Revenue sharing, plus sales tax income, will exceed financing requirements, he contends.

Skepticism abounds. The unanswered question, sports economist Andrew Zimbalist told Newsday last week, is whether it is realistic to believe "they are going to generate enough revenue from the sharing agreement" to cover the taxpayers' borrowing.

Another source of suspense is what the future holds for state courts. In Albany, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office faced off with Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman's office in a budget drama that led to $170 million slashed from the system. Hours have been shortened and various expenses cut.

Posturing is to be expected when it comes to cuts, particularly in the judiciary budget. But one prominent Long Island lawyer Tuesday spoke of having to "play beat the clock" with important cases that needed resolution.

On a handful of occasions in the past two weeks, court business closed abruptly at 4:30 p.m. Before the cuts, a matter could have been finished through court employee overtime, the attorney said. Combine that with a lack of raises for judges, and an exodus of top talent follows, he said.

For the judicial system, the unknown element is whether deeper cuts come next year, and how bearable the results might be.