She doesn't care what you think

From the NY Times:

Ms. Quinn is no naïf. She used a masterstroke to ascend to speaker. While her rival wooed individual members, she charmed the Queens, Bronx and Brooklyn Democratic bosses, and a bushel of votes fell her way. At her swearing-in, the former Village Voice columnist Tom Robbins noted, bosses sat in the front row. Vito J. Lopez of Brooklyn wore a red sweater vest, lest anyone overlook him.

The fates have smiled on Mr. Lopez’s social-service empire, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council; this year the Council sent more than $4 million its way.

Ms. Quinn’s predecessor, Gifford Miller, dueled often with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. That didn’t work out too well; Mr. Miller is now in real estate.

Ms. Quinn drew a lesson: Tread carefully around mogul mayors. When Mr. Bloomberg wanted term limits lifted, she tossed aside previous promises and rammed the measure through without a referendum. When he wanted state approval of an unqualified candidate for schools chief, she raised no peep.

Last year, a Council majority favored mandatory sick days for New Yorkers with less than a week of vacation. The mayor opposed it. Ms. Quinn killed it.

Some suggest that she has gotten lost in the game, that she can no longer recall the questions she once asked as an advocate. That sounds too definitive. Her arc is not done.

She affects nonchalance when described as a mayoral puppet: “You can call me Mini-Me. I don’t really care.”

The rub is that voters might care a lot.