Mayor Bloomberg went out of this way this morning to heap praise on the state’s senior US senator, Chuck Schumer, with whom the mayor has reportedly been warring over President Obama’s proposal to reform Wall Street.

“You know Schumer is as good a senator as this state has ever had, I think,” Bloomberg told WOR’s John Gambling during his weekly Friday morning radio show.

“He works his ass off, if you’ll pardon the expression. I guess I shouldn’t say that, but he works very hard. And he’s very smart and he can’t get everything done we’d like but you know you’ve got somebody that’s working hard and they try to do the right things, but there’s the court, there’s everything else.


Bloomberg comments came in the middle of his discussion with Gambling about his administration’s efforts to curb the number of vendors on city streets.

He veered away from that topic and returned to the issue of the push to reform the financial industry, saying: “You’ve got to be sympathetic with some of the legislators,” pointing out that elected officials have to navigate a complex minefield of regulations and politics when trying to craft policy.

The mayor spoke at length about Obama’s Wall Street reform plan in the wake of the Cooper Union speech the president delivered yesterday, reiterating his insistence that he agrees with much of what Obama is seeking – particularly when it comes to transparency and consumer protection.

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