Greg Meeks has been in the hot seat recently because of his suspicious Hurricane Katrina charity.

But now, he wants us to feel bad for him because, despite a new house that rivals the Growing Up Gotti homestead and dinners at oyster bars and an expensive wardrobe (who can forget that Coogi sweater?!), Mr. Meeks is saying he’s actually sort of poor.  Maybe he isn’t as out of touch as originally thought.

The New York Times ran a story this week highlighting the Queens congressman’s financial woes.  Despite making $174,000 a year, Meeks says he barely has a few thousand dollars in the bank.  Why?  He put his two daughters through college, debt-free, and also just had a brand new house built in St. Albans, after deciding his old house in Far Rockaway (which he inherited from his parents) wasn’t big enough.  He sold that house and combined it with a JP Morgan mortgage to develop land he already owned on mainland Queens.

The home was built in 2006 by Richard Dennis, who also was a hefty campaign contributor.  Many local appraisers are saying the $830,000 price tag was low for the area and size of the house (one local neighbor said he thought it was going to be four houses during construction).

The Times contaced an independent appraiser, Kevin Donegan, who said, “At $830,000, anyway you slice it, it was substantially below market.  He appears to have gotten a very, very good deal.”

Another good deal?  The $1,000-a-month Lexus he drives (leased by the Government), the dinners at Docks Seafood (lobster roll appetizer: $24; organic Scottish Salmon: $26), and his stays at the Ritz-Carlton while on business in Miami.  Meeks defends his high-rolling status by saying he needs to play the game in order to make it in Washington.  With eyes clearly on a higher seat than the one he’s in now, his expensive fund raisers make sense.  He couldn’t even began to raise the amount of money he has by looking for it in his district (OpenSecrets reports he raised close to $500,000 in 2009-2010, with close to $128,000 now on hand).

Like so many representatives, he represents a weird mix–living like a King while representing some of the most struggling areas of Queens.  The argument can always be made that in order to get the funds to help your area, you have to think beyond the people living there.  But with a house like the one he’s living in now, it begs the question for those he works for: Representative Greg Meeks is a lot better off since we’ve elected him, but are we?

ALSO: A recent article in the Daily News points to a similarly-shady real estate deal with friend of Meeks State Senator Malcolm Smith.

Facing a congressional district with one of the highest percentages of uninsured residents in New York City, Rep. Yvette Clarke has backed off on pushing for a public option and will vote for health care overhaul – as soon as this weekend.

As much as 30 percent of New York Congressional District 11 in Brooklyn is uninsured, according to the city’s department of health. This is the same as the South Bronx neighborhood, and a much higher percentage than the Upper East and West Sides in Manhattan.

“This week, we are going to ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable healthcare,” said Clarke on Wednesday.

But when Clarke voted for the House-version of the bill back in November, she, like other Democrats, proposed the need for a public option.

She said of the November bill: “This bill provides healthcare coverage to 96% of Americans and includes a strong public option that will provide the needed competition to lower premium costs.”

That version of the bill would have provided employer-based coverage for 367,000 of her constituents in Brooklyn, provided credits to help pay for coverage for up to 160,000 households in her district, and allowed 11,900 individuals in the district who have pre-existing medical conditions to be able to purchase affordable coverage, according to Clarke.

The Senate-version of the health care overhaul, however, stripped away the public option. That, along with other items the Senate stripped away, has caused some House Democrats to become resistant toward the latest overhaul efforts.

One such lawmaker was the scrappy Democrat from Ohio, Dennis Kucinich, who just this week finally threw his support behind the health care overhaul.

While the House is still short on votes, Kucinich’s much-anticipated announcement boosted Democratic confidence that they will secure the necessary votes to pass the much-needed bill in Clarke’s district.

Republicans continue to refuse supporting such a health care overhaul.

“It’s now or never,” said Clarke last November, months being challenged on the bill by the removal of a public option.

She added: “We will never get an opportunity like this again in our lifetime.”

Anthony Weiner has a gift for saying memorable things.

Last month he was asked to withdraw his remarks -twice- for referring to the Republican Party as a “wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry” he attempted to correct the perceived insult by saying “Ok ok, I withdraw, let me rephrase… I have never met a single Republican in my entire life that was not a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.”

On March 10 he spoke to Don Imus about the implosion of fellow New York Democratic house member Eric Massa on Glenn Beck.

“It’s very clear from these interviews that this guy is one taco short of a happy meal. They are always coming down on the guys that are having tickle fights with their staffers. It just seems so unfair to stereotype…” he then went on to empathize with Massa’s story about getting yelled at in the showers at the House gym by a naked Rahm Emanuel. “I have very few hard and fast rules. One of them is not to have sword fights in the morning with Rahm Emanuel.”

On March 12 his remarks cast aspersions on the Senate. Those remarks place him at the center of the attempt to pass health care through reconciliation.

In dueling Sunday morning talk show appearances. David Axelrod, the president’s top political strategist and John Boehner the house minority leader took turns assuring the American public their side was going to win the historic legislative battle.

While Axelrod conceded that the forces arrayed against reform were fully mobilized saying “The lobbyists for the insurance industry have landed on Capitol Hill like locusts, and they are going to be doing everything they can in the next week to try and muscle people” He claimed to welcome Republican opposition: “I say… Make my day. I’m ready.”

He also pushed back against Republican claims that using reconciliation was some how an unfair tactic saying: “Enough game-playing; enough maneuvering… Let’s have an up or down vote.”

Despite Axelrod’s bravura, on NBC, the House Democratic Whip James Clyburn, was forced to admit that “as of this morning” the democratic leadership did yet have enough support to pass the necessary bills.

A fact that Republicans were pleased to point out.

Speaking on CNN Boehner said “Guess what? They don’t have the votes.”

While the White House seems to have decided that it is time for an all out effort, the house minority leader is counting on help from unusual quarters: left leaning democrats.

This is because the Senate Parliamentarian, Alan Frumin ruled on March 11 that the original Senate bill must be signed into law before reconciliation can be used to pass an acceptable amended bill. House Democrats and many observers found the original Senate bill to be a boondoggle and potentially a huge giveaway to the insurance industry because of its requirements that all adults seek health coverage or face tax penalties.

Commenting on the ruling on March 12 Weiner said “At the end of the day, members of the House are being asked to trust an untrustworthy body.”

He is understandably nervous because in the last year the house has passed 290 bills upon which the Senate has failed to act.

With out his support and that of other “public option” house members there is little hope the Senate measure will make it to the president’s desk.

But Weiner is ultimately a pragmatist and a team player so it is likely that if they manage to convince the “Stupak 6” (who object that there is not enough assurance in the language of the Senate bill that abortion will not be federally funded), the Democratic leadership will probably overcome this particular obstacle.

Things were a little quieter in the 15th this week as Charlie Rangel and his challengers allowed the tumultuous events of the past few weeks to sink in. New scandals involving other local politicians, each more absurd then the next, took the focus off of Rangel’s ethics investigation. Rep. Massa’s tickle monster and snorkeling requests had enough juice to steal some headlines and national attention, something I’m sure Rangel is grateful for as he tries to save face since relinquishing his position on the Ways and Means Committee. Other absurdities included Hiram Monseratte, despite being the Chris Brown of local politicians, continuing a push to run for state senate again.

Meanwhile, Reverend Michel Faulkner, the only Republican challenger to step up in the 15th, issued a bold press statement, saying that he is looking to retire Rangel. Faulkner has been a reverend in Harlem for the past 20 years, and as the National Review pointed out, is used to losing since he played a season with the NY Jets. Forgive them for being skeptical, but Faulkner faces an uphill battle even if ignoring the fact that Rangel is a 20 term incumbent.

The 15th CD in New York is routinely called the second most Democratic congressional district in the country. As the National Review post points out, Faulkner is focusing on changing Harlem’s incredibly low voter turnout rate, and maintaining a grass roots campaign that has him talking to passers-by on Harlem street corners. I had the chance to speak with Faulkner a few weeks ago, before Rangel had been admonished by Congress.

I questioned Faulkner as to how a Republican could stand a chance in the 15th. He called himself a Republican with a small ‘r’ and went on to say that while the GOP had not demonstrated itself to be the best at understanding or outreach towards urban America, voters should look at the man, not the party. “The ideals are there, but they need a shake-up,” he said, and that people need to get beyond party labels.

He pointed out that Rangel had served Harlem as one of the most powerful people in the Congress, and citing the high unemployment rates suffered by Black and Hispanics, said that one would expect the situation in the district to be better. “His policies have failed,” said Faulkner. “He’s spent a tremendous amount of money, but where is it being spent?”

Faulkner thinks that Rangel has lost touch with the community as he got engulfed by the national political system, and now had a disconnect from the community. “I see what’s being done as an abuse of democracy,” said Faulkner. The average citizen sees what’s going on and it tells them their vote doesn’t count, he said, leading to distrust, a disconnect, and apathy. Faulkner compared a voter in Harlem to a sufferer of Stockholm Syndrome.

Faulkner said he hoped to tremendously increase voter turnouts in Harlem and that he planned on going after the disenfranchised voters.

“America is better than this,” he said. “This community deserves better.”

Growing up in the Hudson Valley, I rarely thought about the nuclear power plant just a few towns away. But after the World Trade Center attack of 2001, suddenly everyone I knew was talking about the giant target-for-attack looming nearby.

“If Indian Point has a meltdown, the winds will carry fallout to us within half an hour,” my stepmom’s friend told me, aghast, before handing us an envelope with her plans in case terrorists attacked the plant. It included the best “escape routes” (seriously) for different places we might be at the time of the big attack. I was to keep them in the glove compartment of my car.

Rendezvous in Vermont (also seriously).

Of course, even if someone flew an airplane into Indian Point, a meltdown would have been unlikely. But the fate of the aging power plant has been debated ever since.

Entergy — Indian Point’s operator — is hoping to get the plant’s operating license renewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for another 20 years, but the NRC needs to see that Entergy is updating its aging structures.

When an underground pipe at Indian Point popped a steam leak, Eliot Engel and his colleagues from the Hudson Valley Congressional Delegation, were quick to note their overall disapproval of the state of the power plant.

From midhudsonnews.com:

Representatives Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey and Maurice Hinchey also chimed in about the safety of Indian Point. “This steam leak is another example of Indian Point being well past its prime, a 40 year old plant that was designed to last only 35 years,” said Engel.

Hudson Valley Congressional wants underground IP pipe replaced

Indian Point is a tricky issue for politicians. On the one hand, the plant employs almost 1,700 people and essentially has a strong safety record. On the other hand, every time the plant has an issue like the recent steam leak, it serves as a reminder to locals that they live near a facility that is capable of accidental catastrophe.

Clean, safe, affordable energy that scares the crap out of the people it serves.