From The New York Post…
Baloney on a bagel
City Councilman Larry Seabrook — you know, the guy who eats $177 bagels — must take New Yorkers for rank fools.
What else could explain his outrageously cynical appearance on NY1 Tuesday, portraying himself as a victim of run-amok prosecutors leveling spurious allegations?
Seabrook thinks folks will believe that he and those many friends and relatives of his who got jobs at taxpayer-funded nonprofits are no different than, say, John and Robert Kennedy or ex-Gov. Hugh Carey and his kin — even Mario Cuomo and son Andrew, the current governor.
“I think there was a president named John Kennedy, and he hired his brother, named Robert Kennedy,” Seabrook noted, contemptuously. “I think there was a governor named Mario Cuomo, and there was a son that ran his campaign and also ran a nonprofit,” he hissed. “I think he’s the governor now.”
Never mind that the decades-old appointments Seabrook cites bear absolutely no resemblance to the kind of corruption he’s accused of.
Never mind that Seabrook is facing a new trial, after a jury deadlocked on a mile-long list of charges against him — some with sentences as long as 20 years.
This is the guy, recall, with the $177 deli receipt — for a bagel and a Snapple! — that he used for an expense reimbursement.
(Guess he was trying to schmear New Yorkers then — just as he was Tuesday.)
And that’s just the tip of the whitefish spread: Seabrook’s charged with funneling more than $1.2 million in taxpayer cash to nonprofits where his mistress and relatives got more than $600,000. He’s also accused of squeezing a contractor for $40,000.
And the fact that his trial ended in a hung jury by no means vindicates him.
“We fully intend to retry the case and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the councilman criminally exploited his official position in order to enrich his friends, his family and himself,” insists Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara.
Best of luck to him.
And when he’s finished with Seabrook, there will be plenty of work remaining.
Fact is, city and state statutes practically beg pols to see what they can get away with.
Legislators get millions each year to butter their own bagels; they use the dough to buy political backing or enrich themselves and others — a sorry state of affairs indeed.
As long as the pols refuse to outlaw the underlying temptations and make it truly difficult for each other to steal from taxpayers, New Yorkers, alas, will continue to see more Larry Seabrooks.
And $177 bagels.
