For The Record

Our two finalists for last week's Politicians Say the Darnedest Things Award are Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the early favorite for the yearly prize as well.

Ms. Gotbaum last week chose to rain on the Bloomberg administration's parade after it received the Broad Prize, which is awarded to the nation's most improved school district as judged by a panel of 14 education experts.

She issued a statement whose sardonic bite summoned memories of her husband Victor during his tenure running District Council 37. Given the problems that remain in the city school system, Ms. Gotbaum said, "If we are No. 1 in terms of achievement, it's pretty sad news for the rest of the nation." Hang that on your wall, Mr. Mayor.

It may be fitting that Ms. Gotbaum's main competition is a man who had an even lower opinion of the city public schools, which was particularly remarkable since he was the guy overseeing them at the time. (We know, we know: Rudy didn't control the system; he just had the power to make its Chancellors' lives miserable.)

Mr. Giuliani, who interrupted his domestic campaigning for President to meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and a couple of his predecessors in London, was apparently so thrilled by the Yankees' recent surge that he indulged in a Reggie Jackson Magnitude of Me moment.

Speaking to reporters, the ex-Mayor declared, "I'm probably one of the four or five best-known Americans in the world."

As if to put that boast in perspective, the Daily News ran the story deeper in the paper than its coverage of two individuals who would be among the Mayor's competition for that distinction: Britney Spears and O.J. Simpson.

***

Mayor Bloomberg was in a good mood when he returned from Washington Sept. 18 after accepting a national award for having the most-improved school system and greeted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, who got a tour of the Department of Education.

Ms. Dixon told reporters that she had just persuaded her City Council to pass a bill tightening gun registration regulations "that's patterned after New York."

She said that she was impressed that the city had set up a charter school, the Ross Global Academy, within DOE headquarters in the old Tweed Courthouse. Mr. Bloomberg regaled her with some of the place's history, noting that it was built by the old master of Tammany Hall, William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, at great expense, not to mention great profit for his contractor friends.

"He had an unlimited budget and exceeded it," Mr. Bloomberg said, reworking a line that has been used by a football general manager about his coach and by several politicians about our Mayor's campaign spending.

When the two Mayors visited a seventh-grade classroom, Teacher Bryan Rosenberg had his students recite Langston Hughes's poem, "Dreams."

"I held on to my dreams," Mayor Dixon told the students. "I wanted to be a schoolteacher, I wanted to travel around the world." Hard work and determination allowed her to do so, she said, adding, "Hold on to that formula."

***

The Public Employees Federation last week presented Governor Spitzer with an anti-privatization award.

The Governor was honored at the union's annual convention held this year in Manhattan. The state budget added 411 workers to the Department of Transportation and 109 to the Department of Environmental Conservation.

"The Governor has taken a great first step by replacing hundreds of costly private engineering contractors in DOT with state workers," PEF President Ken Brynien said in a statement. "The move has saved millions in taxpayer dollars."

Through PEF's Go Public campaign, Mr. Brynien continued, the union has worked to draw attention to the millions of dollars wasted by the state each year when it hires costly private workers.

"When we go public, we're doing it for the public good to create a safer, smarter, better New York," Mr. Spitzer told PEF's 900 delegates. "We don't believe in sub-contracting and contracting out. To those who said it would save money, it didn't work. We've added employees where it's smart to do so."