New York Post, Sunday, November 15, 2020
nypost.com
AMERICA’S OLDEST CONTINUOUSLY PUBLISHED DAILY NEWSPAPERcan fundraise: He set a record for cash brought in
for a House race back 2017, more than $23 million,
and his current bid is expected to set the record
for a Senate race. Indeed, he and Warnock held a
joint Silicon Valley fundraiser on Monday; they’ll
hit up Wall Street, too.
And never mind that Warnock, with a record of
radical comments (praise for Cuba and the Rev.
Jeremiah Wright) seems a longshot: Democratic
donors like Mike Bloomberg have shown them-
selves willing to burn billions this year.
Since 1992, Republicans have carried every state-
wide Georgia runoff, as Democratic turnout tends
to drop more than GOP. But Democrats aren’t delu-
sional to think they have a shot: Mail-in balloting
could change that; it likely helped Joe Biden carry
the state already.
On the other hand, Georgia voters presumably
bought Biden’s vow to be a “moderate”; letting Re-
publicans keep the Senate would be a smart way
to ensure he keeps that promise. Making New
York’s own Chuck Schumer the majority leader
would open the door to a far more progressive
agenda.
Anyway, it’ll be great entertainment for many
outsiders — no matter how much Peach State citi-
zens have to suffer.Pity the people of Georgia: Control of the US
Senate next year comes down to two Jan. 5
runoff elections there — so the state is sure to
be inundated with ads and “ground game”
workers funded by donations from across the
nation: Close to half a billion bucks worth of
noise in less than two months.
Republicans already have 50 seats to Democrats’
48 (including two independents), but Kamala Har-
ris as vice-president gets to cast the deciding vote
for control if her party can somehow nab both.
One race pits Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R), appointed
last year after Sen. Johnny Isakson quit, against the
Rev. Raphael Warnock (D), the pastor of Martin Lu-
ther King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. He only drew
26 percent of votes in the regular election, but “in-
surgent Republican” Rep. Doug Collins pulled 20
percent, leaving Loeffler with just 33 percent.
Georgia law — originally passed in the ’60s to
ensure the dominance of White Democrats — re-
quires a runoff if no candidate crosses the 50 per-
cent line. And Sen. David Perdue (R) fell just short,
with 49.7 percent to 48 percent for Jon Ossoff (D)
and 2.3 percent for the Libertarian, Shane Hazel.
(Perdue has a slight chance of winning outright,
thanks to the state’s recount.)
Ossoff has never held elective office, but he sureThe Battles of Georgia
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Publisher Sean M. Giancola
Editor-in-Chief Stephen Lynch
Editorial Page Editor Mark CunninghamWill Joe Biden throw President Trump’s Mid-
dle East achievements in the dirt, betraying a
host of US allies to fecklessly chase after the
goodwill of the Iranian regime? If not, he needs
to choose carefully as he names his Cabinet and
White House staff.
For starters, many retreads from Team Obama will
want to bribe Tehran back into that dangerous nu-
clear deal — a slap in the face to Israel and most
Arab states.
They’ll also push for a return to anti-Israel policies
such as funding the Palestinian Authority even as
it pays off terrorists and their families, and to allow-
ing anti-Israel UN resolutions to pass.
Then-Secretary of State John Kerry insisted there
could be no “peace with the Arab world without the
Palestinian process and Palestinian peace.” Trump
has proved that’s just not so — he let the Palestini-
ans stew, yet fostered Israeli peace deals with three
Arab states (and counting).
Trump’s Abraham Accords showed that Palestini-
ans don’t have the support they thought. If Biden
sticks with Trump’s policies, they may finally start
thinking realistically about what they can get in
their own deal with Israel.
It’s a good sign that Biden gave a thumbs-up when
the United Arab Emirates privately checked with
him before signing its peace deal. But it may be that
Biden (wisely enough) just didn’t want to interfere
with Team Trump’s foreign policy before Election
Day — a mistake that might have led to a Trump vic-tory if word got out.
One potential bad sign: If Biden yields to pres-
sure from far-lefties like Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her anti-Israel
Squad and brings back Obama’s worst idiots, such
as ex-security adviser Ben Rhodes.
Sadly, top Biden adviser Tony Blinken has sug-
gested the Abraham Accords might push Israel
to make more concessions to Palestinians. And
Kamala Harris vowed to renew ties with the Pal-
estinians and restore their funding. If Biden
agrees — when US law now bans that if they keep
paying off terrorists — they’ll go back to making
impossible demands.
Bucking conventional wisdom, Trump worked
hard to shore up traditional US alliances across
the Middle East, building on common interests
not only in facing Iran and fighting terror but in
trade, as well.
His withdrawal from the Iran deal inspired con-
fidence among leaders; some even began cooper-
ating more with Israel. Sanctions put renewed
pressure on Iran to strike a better deal. Will Biden
give away the store to restore the Obama accord?
Democrats and their media cheerleaders end-
lessly bemoaned the way Trump supposedly
weakened US alliances — even as he was actually
strengthening them, by insisting they serve all
members fairly. It would be a tragedy if Biden ac-
tually did trash alliances simply because Trump
embarrassed the foreign-policy establishment.Don’t Betray Our Allies
C
OVID, mass un-
employment, fis-
cal disaster — the
next mayor of
New York City
will have a lot on
his or her plate to cope
with. But Hizz-or-Her-
honor can make the Big
Apple a much better place
almost overnight.
Face it: Our streets and
sidewalks looked like hell
even before the pandemic. Too many
New Yorkers grew inured to it, but visi-
tors from other great cities were ap-
palled at our home town’s ruined look.
It will take courage and a steel will to
break through special-interest agendas
and bureaucratic inertia to achieve the
courses of action below. But this is why
we elect people — to lead, to govern
and to make hard choices.
1) END THE SCAFFOLD
PLAGUE. No city on earth suffers a
blight of “sidewalk bridges” (i.e., tun-
nels) like Gotham. Many blocks resem-
ble scaffold rental yards more than they
do public byways.
Our city’s becoming unrecognizable
beneath 300 miles of corrugated-steel
jungles. They ruin business at stores
and restaurants, plunge residential en-
trances into darkness and provide awelcome mat to muggers and
lazing psychopaths.
They’re supposed to pro-
tect the public from falling
debris. But the situation’s so
out of hand that the city now
requires inspections of scaf-
folds themselves.
The right way to protect the
public is to beef up the under-
funded, understaffed Depart-
ment of Buildings to perform
more inspections, identify vio-
lations and make landlords fix them on
the spot. It’s a better solution than cur-
rent Local Law 11, which requires facade
inspections every five years and scaffold-
ing that seems to stand for 1,000 years.
2) OUTLAW ARMOR-PLATED
STOREFRONTS. Nothing proclaims
defeat and desperation more than steel,
roll-down iron gates that completely
block shop windows. Yes, we’ve seen
crime upticks, but we’re not under day-
and-night siege.
The city passed a law in 2009 to out-
law steel gates, so why do there seem
to be more of them than ever? The law
ridiculously gave merchants until 2026
to replace them with gates that would
leave 70 percent of the storefront visi-
ble. Just look at the steel-trap rows along
western Canal Street — and cringe. It’s
time to push the lazy City Council to ac-STEvE
CuOzzOGigantic all-caps rental ads
on every other building only
add to city dwellers’
despair. We already know
these spaces are available;
the next mayor should
make these signs smaller.POSTSCRIPT Editorial