Sure It's A Hit Piece, But Some Folks Need To Be Hit

I'm not sure Bloomberg can duck this one: Sex suit could be problem for Bloomberg

Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks his mind and that is a big part of his cachet in anything-goes New York.

But new details from a sexual harassment lawsuit he settled in 2000 and other racy comments over the years show how his blunt style could prove a liability if he runs for president as an independent.

Before his election as mayor in 2001, Bloomberg was the target of a sexual harassment suit by a female executive who accused him of making repeated raunchy sexual comments while he was chief executive of his financial company, Bloomberg LP.

Among the allegations in the complaint:

• Bloomberg asked the woman who sued if she was giving her boyfriend "good" oral sex.
• He said "I'd like to do that" and "That's a great piece of ass" to describe women in the office.
• When he found out the woman was pregnant, he told her "Kill it!" and said "Great! Number 16!" — an apparent reference to the number of women in the company who were pregnant or had maternity-related status.

...

The harassment suit was filed in 1997 by former Bloomberg LP sales executive Sekiko Sakai Garrison. Bloomberg adamantly denied all the allegations in the suit. He settled the case in 2000 for an undisclosed amount without admitting any wrongdoing.

During his first mayoral campaign, aides told reporters that Bloomberg had passed a polygraph test in which he had denied the allegations. That year, his campaign refused to release the actual test. Loeser said Friday the mayor's office would not provide The Associated Press with a copy of the original polygraph.

Bloomberg founded Bloomberg LP in the early 1980s to provide financial information in a way that had never been available before on Wall Street. According to Garrison's suit, Bloomberg and other male managers at the company made "repeated and unwelcome" sexual comments, overtures and gestures, contributing to an offensive, locker-room culture.

Comments attributed in the suit to Bloomberg include: "I'd fuck that in a second," "I'd like to do that," and "That's a great piece of ass."

Once, according to the suit, Bloomberg pointed out a young female employee and told Garrison, "If you looked like that, I would do you in a second."

The suit also accused Bloomberg of referring to Mexican clients as "jumping beans" and saying of another female colleague who was having trouble finding a nanny that "all you need is some black who doesn't even have to speak English to rescue it from a burning building."

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In private conversations, Bloomberg is less inhibited and is known to tell bawdy jokes, use provocative language and comment on women's appearances.

The public got a glimpse of this in 2003, when he told a pair of disc jockeys on a radio program that he would "really want to have" actress-singer Jennifer Lopez. A day later, Bloomberg backpedaled a bit and told reporters, as his face reddened, that he would want to "have dinner" with her.

The 65-year-old divorced bachelor had a reputation as a womanizer during the years he was building his financial empire. He began dating his girlfriend, investment firm executive and former state banking superintendent Diana Taylor, before his first run for mayor.

"I like theater, dining and chasing women," he once told a reporter. "Let me put it this way: I am a single, straight billionaire in Manhattan. What do you think? It's a wet dream."[Expletives undeleted from the original article.]

And this guy is supposed to be the moderate hope in 2008?

I think I'll pass.