Awhile back I wrote about Marty Markowitz decline from popular Brooklyn Clown to a vindictive, rampaging creep. Markowitz was shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU, at the vehement opposition to his becoming Bruce Ratner's Rat. He blamed extremists who don't understand him for the opposition (myself probably included).

Now he has another group of "extremists" who just "don't understand" the clown. Brooklyn's Gay and Lesbian community is outraged at Marty Markowitz's endorsement of the unqualified, homophobic Noach "Call Me Noah" Dear for judge.

From The Brooklyn Papers:

A Civil Court race pitting firebrand former Councilman Noach Dear against a lesser-known judge has been thrust into the spotlight by gay and lesbian activists because of Borough President Markowitz’s endorsement of Dear, who was rated as unqualified for the bench by the City Bar Association...

Did anyone else happen to catch Noach Dear's performance on CBS 2 News this evening?

I would rate it higher than most professional comedy acts.

They even call out the Brooklyn machine for the real reason they're pushing Dear. To keep him out of the State Senate.

Watch for yourself here

[NOTE: Believe it or not, I was asked to clean up the language in the title...Yeah...on Daily Gotham we are cleaning up our language!]

So, there are some out there who get tired of my railing against "Vito Lopez and his Band of Ill Repute." But the truth is, what is deadly wrong with Brooklyn politics is what is business as usual within the Democratic Party. This year seemed to be a possible exception, but in the end I think it really will CONTINUE to be business as usual in the worst possible way.

One thing that the local political machine, currently headed by Vito Lopez, previously led by Clarence Norman, now in jail, was infamous for was putting comlpetely unqualified candidates up for judicial elections as part of a network of cronyism that would make Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff jealous. Judicial candidates who were rated as outright unqualified would be guided through with ease by Clarence and/or Vito simply to fulfill a favor or generate a favor. Favors were all that mattered, not qualifications, not quality, not actually quality governance.

As this year's judicial races get going, the hints of corruption have already surfaced. My most recent article on the subject announced the Corruption candidate, Vito Lopez's personal choice, Simpson. In it I also analyze one theory about Vito's choice, that Simpson was being run only to split the black vote with the current frontrunner, Diana Johnson, leaving Beitner, Vito's real choice, to clean up with the white and Orthodox Jewish vote.