Tuesday, February 16th 2010, 9:18 AM
Who woulda thunk it?
After all these years, The Fox finally got caught in the hen house.
We almost feel sorry for City Councilman Larry Seabrook.
He may have padded the expense account (Oh, that $177 bagel!), set a record for political nepotism - even for the Bronx - and helped businessmen who greased his palm or political club (same thing) with contributions to get contracts.
But, hey, that's Larry: always helping family, friends - and himself.
He has even been known to show up with some jamoke or other at construction sites, putting the arm on the foreman to hire the guy.
"They were mostly useless," one such foreman told us. "I'd just fire 'em the next day."
And then there are those phantom nonprofit programs that The Fox shoveled taxpayer bucks into - and allegedly back out of into his pocket.
That's nothing new for Larry. Some folks might remember back to 1995 when the federales almost nailed him for similar hanky-panky.
Daily News reporter Zachary Margulis got a tip Larry - then an Assemblyman - and Councilman Larry Warden pumped 390G into a Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corp. for phantom youth programs.
It wound up front page news, with federal grand jury subpoenas. But, alas, no indictment.
The accountant who helped put all the subpoenaed stuff together back then was a young protégé named Carl Heastie.
Larry later stabbed Carl in the back - and heart - by supporting Jose Rivera in the Dem Party rebellion. When Carl won and became party boss, Larry came back with his tail between his legs.
It was sort of like traitor Abe Vigoda telling Robert Duvall in "The Godfather" as he's being led away to be rubbed out: "Tell Mike it was only business."
And that, it seems, is the way it's always been with Larry Seabrook.
Schmear campaign
So, Larry, the media had fun over you turning a $7 bagel sandwich and soda into a $177 business expense.
But since you've quit your teaching job at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and given up chairing the Civil Rights Committee (and a 10G lulu), we wanna buy you the $13.95 bagel and lox deluxe platter at the Pelham Bay Diner near your Co-op City home. Our treat.
Just tell Carol or Jerry to put it on our tab.
Don't worry. We'll expense it.
Next!
That was some paparazzi false alarm at City Hall last Thursday as rumors flew that Mott Haven City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo was up next on the perp walk runway.
Nephew Richard (Little Ricky) Izquierdo Arroyo and cohort Margarita Villegas are facing heavy federal time for allegedly milking a nonprofit in the Arroyo clan's Mott Haven fiefdom - unless they feel like talking about auntie and granny/Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, whose offices have been papered with subpoenas.
Get on line
Talking about Bronx pols tumbling like bowling pins, let us now review:
* Indicted by the feds in the City Council slush fund scandal: Councilman Larry Seabrook.
* Under investigation in said scandal: the Arroyos and ex-City Councilwoman Maria Baez. (Aha! Bet you forgot about her!)
* Assemblyman Peter Rivera being eyed by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in a phantom program funding scheme.
* AG Cuomo chasing state Sen. Pedro (The Wascally Wabbit) Espada with a kitchen sink of potential charges.
* Bronx GOP Boss Jay Savino and GOP city Board of Elections Commissioner J.C. Polanco subpoenaed - and cooperating - in a probe of those new electronic voting machine contracts.
* And bringing up the rear, as usual, Bronx DA Rob Johnson, taking forever in a perjury probe of Assemblyman Nelson Castro.
Phew! Yah gotta love the Bronx.
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