2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumFormer New York Mayor Ed Koch Hospitalized
Ed Koch back in hospital
Former New York Mayor Ed Koch was back in the hospital Sunday for the third time in recent months.
Spokesman George Arzt says Koch went to the hospital around 10 p.m. Saturday with swollen ankles. He says tests Sunday showed Koch also has some fluid in his lungs.
Arzt says Koch sounded great when they spoke Sunday.
Its unclear when he will be released.
-snip-
Full post here: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/ed-koch-back-in-hospital-86469.html
FarPoint
(12,207 posts)Maybe needs to cut way back on the salt?
NMDemDist2
(49,313 posts)graham4anything
(11,464 posts)He had a few minor strokes, and a few other bouts recently.
He is a NYC character, that's for sure.
note- my liking Koch has lessened over the years as it moved into the later part of his congressional terms, he seemed to turn both to the right
and also played the race card in a few elections and did things that were, well there is no nice way to say it, Koch sure did act racist.
However,ironically, he was himself the victim of a major smear from the Cuomo campaign when the two ran against each other for Governor.
though denied, it was loud and most people in NYC and NYS heard about it, and I still blame Andrew (who ran the campaign for his dad Mario). Koch lost that race.
interesting long ago note on then congressman Koch from wiki-
that I knew about but had forgotten.
Koch was the Democratic US Representative from New York's 17th congressional district from January 3, 1969 until January 3, 1973, when after a redistricting he represented New York's 18th congressional district until December 31, 1977, when he resigned to become Mayor of New York City.
Koch has said he began his political career as "just a plain liberal", with positions including opposing the Vietnam War and marching in the South for civil rights.[9] In April 1973, Koch coined the term "Watergate Seven" when, in response to U.S. Senator Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.'s indicating that one of the men in Watergate scandal had been ordered in the spring of 1972 to keep certain Senators and Representatives under surveillance, posted a sign on the door of his United States Congress office saying, 'These premises were surveilled by the Watergate Seven. Watch yourself'.[10] At about this same time, Koch began his rightward shift towards being a "liberal with sanity" after reviewing the 1973 controversy around then-New York City Mayor John Lindsay's attempt to place a 3,000-person housing project in the middle of a middle-class community in Forest Hills, Queens. Congressman Koch met with residents of the community, most of whom were against the proposal. He was convinced by their arguments, and spoke out against the plan; this decision, he has said, shocked many of his political associates.[11]
Koch was active in advocating for a greater US role in advancing human rights, within the context of fighting the worldwide threat of communism. He had particular influence in the foreign aid budget, as he sat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations. In 1976, Koch proposed that the US cut off foreign aid to the right-wing government of Uruguay. In mid-July 1976, the CIA learned that two high-level Uruguayan intelligence officers had discussed a possible assassination attempt on Koch by DINA, the Chilean secret police. The CIA did not regard these threats as credible until after the September, 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, DC by DINA agents coordinated by Operation Condor. After this assassination, then-Director of Central Intelligence George Bush informed Koch by phone of the threat. Koch subsequently asked both CIA and FBI for protection, but none was extended.[12]
and the Gay smear by Cuomo-
Koch is a lifelong bachelor, and his sexuality became an issue in the 1977 mayoral election with the appearance of placards and posters (disavowed by the Cuomo campaign) with the slogan "Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo." Koch denounced the attack. During the campaign and after becoming mayor, Koch began attending public events with former Miss America, well-known television game show panelist and consumer advocate Bess Myerson.[35]
Koch has refused comment on his actual sexual experiences, writing:
What do I care? I'm 73 years old. I find it fascinating that people are interested in my sex life at age 73. It's rather complimentary! But as I say in my book, my answer to questions on this subject is simply "Fuck off." There have to be some private matters left.[36]
Randy Shilts, in And the Band Played On, his influential history of the early AIDS epidemic in America, discusses the possibility that Koch ignored the developing epidemic in New York City in 19821983 because he was afraid of lending credence to rumors of his homosexuality. Author and activist Larry Kramer describes the former mayor as a "closeted gay man" whose fear of being 'outed' kept him from aggressively addressing the AIDS epidemic in New York City in the early 1980s.[37] Kramer lampooned Koch's sexuality and perceived indifference to the plight of AIDS victims in The Normal Heart, in which the protagonist, an AIDS activist, laments that the only way to get the mayor's attention is to "hire a hunky hustler and send him up to Gracie Mansion with our plea tattooed on his cock." John Cameron Mitchell's movie Shortbus features a gay Koch-like older gentleman lamenting his poor choices while mayor of New York City. In the 2009 Kirby Dick documentary Outrage, investigative journalist Wayne Barrett of The Village Voice states that Koch is gay.[38]
dsc
(52,129 posts)that said, Koch did do a poor job with the AIDS crisis and deserves criticism for it.
graham4anything
(11,464 posts)it was easy and politically beneficial for Andrew now to be seen as liberal on this issue
but running a whisper campaign was disgusting. (and he has never publicly revealed if he is or isn't).
Yes, he did a bad job during the AIDS crisis, especially in the first years before it was called AIDS, he should have led, especially as he was from NYC itself and claimed to call himself a liberal.(and it is ludacrist to think that NYC would have penalized him for coming out.
I can see the conservative upstate areas of NYS when he ran for Governor, but not in NYC.
If anything, he would have been more popular.
he later in the 2000s worked for the local Fox network on Good Day New York as a once in a while observer of whatever he felt like talking about.
Personally, he is a nice guy.
And there is no bigger cheerleader in NYC for NYC than he was.
But I cannot not talk about his major flaws on two subjects important to me.
dsc
(52,129 posts)I am a Hillary guy in 16 but if she doesn't run I want O'Malley.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)"Vote for Cuomo not the Homo"?
dsc
(52,129 posts)and a rather bad case of it.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)but by his last mayoral race, he had managed to antagonize so many different constituencies, and finally me. I voted for Dinkins in the primary. I don't harbor any ill will against Koch at this point BUT naming the 59th Street Bridge after him was a bit too much. The Manhattan Boro President, in explaining his vote for the renaming, said the bridge "had an identity problem". So, a bridge known by two names (59th Street Bridge and Queensboro Bridge) had its "identity problem" solved by bestowing a third (Edward I. Koch Bridge) at a cost of many millions of dollars.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)It doesn't go to Ed Koch plaza.
JimDandy
(7,318 posts)Last edited Mon Jan 21, 2013, 12:45 AM - Edit history (1)
then why didn't he give a straight answer. Obviously he does care. Can't imagine living the life of a lie -- and so publically too.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)An ancient selfish liar is in poor health and I'll respect that by saying nothing else about the ancient craven fake.
BlueStater
(7,596 posts)He was as much of a disgusting DINO back then as Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller. At least unlike those two clowns, he did eventually see the light and endorse Obama a few years later but he was on the wrong side of history when it really counted and that will sadly be recorded in his legacy.
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Time to recalibrate.
But, seriously, I hope he gets well soon.