Outside of Sylvia’s Restaurant two weeks ago, Congressman Greg Meeks promised he’d soon discuss the scandal surrounding his involvement in the Queens charity that allegedly stole $31,000 of tax-payer money.
“Watch me on NY1 on Monday,” he told me and other reporters who maybe wondered why he was so eager to do so. Since the news broke, he’d hardly spoken about his problems. So I tuned in.
Meeks wasn’t a guest that day on “Inside City Hall”, the obvious choice of shows to present his side of the story. Instead, the political talk show had City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Department of Education head Joel Klein.
He wasn’t on NY Tonight, the news recap show at 8. There was no Greg from Far Rockaway calling or emailing in to “The Call” (that night’s topic: Governor Paterson). He wasn’t talking about Broadway shows on the theater show, either, or the 11 o’clock news.
Congressman Greg Meeks stood up every eager and curious (and Time Warner Cable-subscribing) politico by canceling his appearance on “Inside City Hall”, citing an unexpected “family conflict.” He rescheduled an appearance for March 15th, but the surprise cancellation perhaps says a lot more than if he had actually appeared on the channel.
It was easy for Meeks to deflect attention while the Governor was under such scrutiny. But as the media begins to slowly move away from Paterson’s problems–it turns out his evidence tampering case is flawed, and he’s pretty firm about not resigning–they will begin to move on another scandal. And Meeks’ case has all the makings of the perfect news headline: the suspicious missing money from a charity meant for poor kids and Hurricane Katrina sufferers. And not just any money–YOUR tax dollars!
While the story’s made the front page before, it never lasted more than a day. But now that Paterson’s back to just being an (allegedly) incompetent Governor, and as long as Eric Massa goes into hiding and stops talking about his top-bunk shenanigans, reporters will just have to move on to the next one. That next one looks to be Congressman Greg Meeks.