Burning Questions For Christine Quinn

Christine Quinn must be sweating right about now.

The New York City council speaker came under fire yesterday after New York Post reported that her office had shuffled money into fake organizations and then used that money at its discretion. Homo-politico Quinn promises that neither she nor her staff used the funds for political gain.

Though the phenomenon has been going on for decades, Quinn’s involvement has raised some eyebrows – and questions. The rumored mayoral hopeful told the press yesterday that she had “instructed” her staff to stop siphoning funds, but, as Azi Paybarah points out, failed to address two major questions. Where did she think the money came from? And, more pressing for the politico who touts transparency, why didn’t she go to the press?

It’s still not clear to me why, if this was a whistle-blowing exercise, Quinn didn’t talk to reporters and the people of New York a lot sooner–like when she first found out that this presumably shocking practice was going on. Her display of transparency would have been lots more effective if she decided to do it before the Post broke the story rather than after.

The politico’s staff undoubtedly smell a shit storm, because consultant Josh Isay defended his friend Quinn’s actions: The speaker dealt with this issue in a manner above and beyond the call of duty. She’s done the right thing in this and in her role as speaker in general. And I think the people of New York respect that.” If the cartoon above is any indication, NY Post‘s Sean Delonas does not “respect that.”