Past, present, future
Good afternoon and welcome to The Point!
Daily Point
Leadership fight hits home
Rep. Kathleen Rice is drawing national attention as a spokeswoman for a new direction for the Democratic Party. On Sunday, she became the first House Democrat to publicly endorse Rep. Tim Ryan’s leadership challenge to Nancy Pelosi.
After a disappointing election for Democrats, they may need some of what Ryan represents — his close ties to labor, his status as co-founder of the House manufacturing caucus, and his opposition to trade deals he says have harmed Rust Belt cities like his base in Youngstown, Ohio.
But Ryan’s election as House minority leader would represent a huge upset. In response to his challenge, Pelosi has proposed giving more influence to junior lawmakers on congressional committees and within the leadership.
Pelosi, 76, has been the chamber’s Democratic leader since 2002. There’s talk that Ryan’s bid — and Rice’s support — is a stalking horse to raise up Rep. Joseph Crowley of Queens to replace Pelosi. However, if that were the case, more New Yorkers would be joining Rice in her endorsement of Ryan.
Crowley is running for chair of the caucus in a vote scheduled for Nov. 30. If he wins, he would be fourth-highest in the House Democratic leadership.
Anne Michaud
Programming Point
See you next week
The Point will be back in your inboxes Monday. Happy Thanksgiving!
Pencil Point
Toxic table talk
More cartoons about Thanksgiving
Bonus Point
Oh the irony
Given Texas’ importance to the country’s oil and gas industries, perhaps it makes sense Donald Trump would consider former Gov. Rick Perry as his energy secretary. Then again, the Energy Department is one of the three federal agencies Perry said he would eliminate when he ran for president in 2012 — and the one that he famously could not remember during a GOP debate.
As Perry himself said then: Sorry. Oops.
Michael Dobie
Talking Point
The more things change, the more . . .
One Newsday letter-writer complained about the cost of county and village policing. Another carped about the Long Island Rail Road “taking advantage of commuters” who have no other way to get to work. And a third criticized the decision to take down trees for a new building in Mineola.
All in all, a typical group of letters to the editor. Except that they appeared in Newsday’s first Thanksgiving Day edition — in 1940.
The paper was all of 3 months old then. It was being published from a converted car showroom in Hempstead and distributed only in Nassau County. And the letters to the editor were titled “The County Irritant.”
Newsday readers will receive a copy of that edition in their Thanksgiving Day paper on Thursday.
Oh, and the cover story on turkey day 76 years ago?
Controversy over the county executive’s proposed budget.
How times change . . . or don’t.
Michael Dobie
