KENNEDY VS. CUOMO: WILL THE REAL O.G. PLEASE STAND UP?
It's looking like Robert Kennedy Jr. may finally step up and run for New York State Attorney General. Elliot Spitzer has made the job semi-glamorous, but a man of Kennedy's pedigree could easily be a senator. A Kennedy run for attorney general would seem like revenge on Andrew Cuomo Jr.
If Kennedy does run, the Democratic primary will be good and ugly. The tabloids are playing up the fact that Kennedy is running against Cuomo due to Cuomo's ugly divorce from Kennedy's sister Kerry, and that may be true, but this goes deeper than that. Much deeper. If Kennedy enters the ring, he will do so armed with revenge instincts based on century-old ethnic hatred.
The Irish were the O.G.s of the early 1900s. Considered a sordid lot by the Knickerbockers that ran New York at the time, the city's Irish ran the bricklaying industry. As construction started to boom, Irish bricklayers were making $2 a day-a decent salary back then. The rich WASP builders, sick of paying all that gelt to the Irish, began hearing about Italians that would come to America and gladly lay bricks for $1 a day. Soon the southern Europeans were shipped in. The Irish were fired and the war was on.
Along with bricklaying, the Italians began cutting in on Irish organized crime. Since the biggest Irish gang at the time was the NYPD, they got a state legislator named "Big" Tim Sullivan to pass a law making it illegal to carry a handgun in New York. The Sullivan law stands today.
Irish cops would roust Italians and bag them for carrying, while most Irish criminals were given a pass. Even if an Italian didn't have a gun on him, some cops would plant one in his coat pocket, pull it out and arrest the man. The Italians got wise to this and began tailoring their suits with sewn pockets.
As the century developed, the rivalry lessened. Both groups began fighting with Jews, Blacks and Latinos. But the old animosity was never completely forgotten or forgiven.
This Kennedy-Cuomo thing is old school New York. The O.G.s are going after the Italians, who also claim to be New York's O.G.s.
The best thing about Kennedy's candidacy is that no one is going to ask him if he ever smoked marijuana. The man was arrested for heroin in the 1980s, so you don't even have to ask if he was banging it. Cuomo's bad temper is another wild card. He was a cuckold so you know he has to get out there and prove his manhood. This race is like the Westies meeting the Sopranos. It's very possible a fistfight will break out.
My prediction? Kennedy is tough-tougher than Cuomo. The Irish O.G.'s are going to win this one and Kennedy will take names as attorney general.
-C.J. Sullivan