A front-page story in the metro section of today's New York Times reports on the role of the Liberal Party in the mayoral race. The article manages to avoid mentioning that one of the four candidates seeking the Liberal Party's endorsement, Herman Badillo, is a name partner in the law firm of the leader of the Liberal Party, Raymond Harding. The firm is Fischbein, Badillo, Wagner and Harding.
The article also claims that "ideology has never been high on the Liberal Party checklist when it comes to doling out endorsements." That's just false, at least when you use the conventional definition of the word "never." The Liberal Party was founded in 1944 after the American Labor Party was taken over by Communists; it gave Jewish liberals a way of voting for Franklin Delano Roosevelt without aligning themselves with the Democratic Tammany Hall machine. Ideology had a lot to do with it, notwithstanding the Times claim about "never."
The Times article concludes by reporting, "Mr. Bloomberg could well have more to gain from a Liberal Party endorsement than Mr. Hevesi, and would be more in Mr. Harding's debt should he win -- a fact that has no doubt crossed Mr. Harding's mind." How does the Times know with so little doubt what's going on in Mr. Harding's mind? He is quoted in the article, but not on this particular topic. If the Times actually interviewed Mr. Harding on this point, he might have denied that he was considering the question this way. That would have robbed the Times of the fun of asserting what with "no doubt" is crossing Mr. Harding's mind.