Is it 2011 yet?

Election Night, 2007: I was with fellow Republicans watching the results and the kickass pastry buffet at one of my usual undisclosed locations. Let me share with you an abbreviated transcript of my thoughts that evening as the results came in.

This baklava is phenomenal. The Democrats are probably eating store-brand chocolate chip cookies at their gig.

"Monroe County Executive: Republican hold..."

I pause and give Steve Minarik some due credit. Maggie Brooks will be governor someday because of the good work he's done in Monroe.

"...Erie County Executive: Republican hold..."

This is wonderful! The enrollment numbers in Erie are even uglier than they are in Monroe. Spitzer's really screwed stuff up!

"...Onondaga County Executive: Republican hold."

Joanie freakin Mahoney has just got elected. Joanie freakin Mahoney. We have to deal with Joanie freakin Mahoney as a county executive for the next four years. Joanie "arts initiative" Mahoney.

In 2005, Joanie Mahoney was a former one-term city councilor in Syracuse running for mayor. Her first announcement after clinching the Republican nomination wasn't about property taxes. It wasn't about her opponent spending too much taxpayer money. It didn't lay out some grand plan for the City of Syracuse to stop hemorrhaging residents. It was about her art initiative.

Yes, an art initiative.

For those of you just now engaging in regular brain function, an art initiative is arguably the least Republican and least substantive thing you can propose. It only went downhill from there, and for some strange reason, Mahoney lost.

Today we have another reason to be disappointed with Mahoney. Already known as a liberal Republican, she's decided to let her Big Government tendencies show.

The County Legislature Ways and Means Committee approved a bill Tuesday that would create the position of "director of inter-government relations." The job would pay $71,471 a year.

Creating a post, if necessary, is fine. Homeland Security is just one of many examples of an instance when someone was needed. But this position is, by no measured, a needed one, because:

If the full Legislature passes the bill Tuesday, Mahoney would appoint Ben Dublin to fill the new job.

When a position is made especially for a second-rate political hack at the expense of the taxpayers, it's almost always an unnecessary one (I say "second-rate" hack because I tried to reach State Senator Jeff Brown for his analysis of Dublin's 2006 performance, but he couldn't be located at the Capitol this term.) Ben Dublin was fired from the NYGOP for a good reason, one which he probably hasn't gotten around to sharing with Mahoney. We should probably rectify that with a future post.

Dublin is, of course, insignificant in the grand scheme of things. For the NYGOP to return to power statewide, we need people at the county level who simply gush Republican-ism. People like the county executives who are screaming at Spitzer about his budget or the county clerks who refused to give licenses to illegals. Mahoney, to her credit, is currently doing a bit in the fight against Spitzer's budget, but for her to reach "good Republican" status, she needs to go beyond bellyaching about aid payments and start taking the Dems to task for spending too much money. And before that can happen, Mahoney herself may have to learn why that's a bad thing.