Fred Siegel Quotes (10 Quotes)

The Achilles heel of academics is their status anxiety. The only way to attack them is with mockery.

The new Tammany was wrapped in a cloth of sanctimony. It professed to represent the interests of the poor. Protected in part by civil service and union power, it was immune to elections, and rather than being subject to scrutiny by the press it was mostly treated as a sacred cow.

The key here is Ferrer is running for an office that no longer exists, ... Prince of the City Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life.

Before Giuliani, New York politics had been mostly about striking caring poses in the course of paying off interest groups, ... Liberal mayors like Lindsay and Dinkins spoke endlessly of what the city owed the poor, but they delivered rising rates of crime and welfare. Theirs was the sovereignty of words over deeds.

It is a joy to live (on campus), and it is a pleasure to open my house to students,

The tabloids would relish turning a wonkish and dull re-election campaign into something vastly entertaining. You know how the papers are going to love this, two harridans mixing it up, ... This could be the equivalent of mud wrestling for fraternity boys.

What he represents is that part of Giuliani's legacy that has become permanent, on crime and welfare,

Since 1989, the office of mayor has been transformed by three changes. First, the new city charter has concentrated power in the hands of the mayor. Second, Giuliani made it clear the city was not ungovernable. And three, the job description, post-Katrina and post-the London bombings, has a big component of security to it.

The question is, what happened between 10 o'clock this morning and 1230 The statesmanlike option was there last night.

Abolishing tenure could just turn the decision making over to deans who come out of today's orthodox academic world. That would mean that few remaining non-leftists would get pushed out.