Bloomberg, Clinton Attend UFT Bash

An all-star cast of New York politicians came out Thursday night to speak at the 50th anniversary celebration of the city's teachers union. Speakers at the Midtown event included New York State Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch, National Teacher's Union President Randi Weingarten and former U.S. President Bill Clinton whom the union gave a check to for $100,000 for his work in Haiti. "There's not a person alive today who's ever made anything of herself or himself that cannot point to somewhere between one and a dozen teachers without whom they would not have been made," Clinton said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who often clashes with the union, was greeted with both cheers and boos as he stepped up to the podium. The heckling grew loudest when the mayor mentioned Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who was sitting in the front row. "Some of you cheer, some of you boo," said the mayor. "But the bottom line is in the last eight years we've made together some amazing progress and our children are the beneficiaries and you should be very proud and so am I." The mayor did get some jokes in, saying the union president told him to put the coyote trapped in TriBeCa in one of those so-called rubber rooms for teacher's accused of wrongdoing. The infamous rubber rooms are one of the sticking points in the stalled contract negotiations between the city and the union. Many in attendance acknowledged the city and the teacher's union still have a lot to iron out after the party is over. "If someone tries to say the unions are causing a problem to the system I want you to say without our great union there wouldn't be a system," said Former UFT Vice President Frank Carucci. More than 3,000 of the union's 167,000 members attended the dinner.