DEAR RUDY: Since I’ve been writing this column . . .no, since you’ve been Mayor, I find myself praising the job you’ve done while criticizing your tactics. I’m clearly not alone. Every disagreement is not a war. Why must it be with you?

This time, I won’t sit idly by while you attack as committed a public servant as I’ve ever known. Now, I don’t always agree with her, but Queens Board of Education member Terri Thomson is the type of public servant New York needs. She is driven to do her job to the best of her ability and serve the children of this city. Agree with her or not, we must applaud her efforts. Any attack on her character, motivation or commitment demeans the attacker.

As a former NYC educator from a family of educators, I take a special interest in our school system. I’ve had frequent and lengthy discussions with Terri who has been a friend for more than two decades. I don’t always agree with her. But I know her heart and mind are in the right place. She’s for our kids! And therefore, I’m for her.

Two weeks ago, as the swing vote on the Board, she agreed with you. This week, again the swing vote, she disagreed with you. She’s going to continue to do her job. She’s good and honorable. She deserves your praise. She’s got mine.

And some kid from Queens made the cover of the new "Millionaire" mag.

BRIGHT IDEA! Now, we’re not intellectual snobs. However, we value intellect. When interviewing prospective employees, we consider intelligence. When evaluating prospective management team members, we significantly weigh our assessment of their intelligence. It’s simple; we’d rather have smart managers than not smart managers. We don’t think there is a law against that, yet.

Political correctness has gone too far if we can’t clearly state preference shown for smart people. We here at the Trib, show that preference. If you see someone wearing a Tribune t-shirt, give him or her a couple of extra points on their IQ scale.

Seriously, in leadership positions smarts count! It’s not the only factor — values, morals, work ethic, personality and of course education and skills are all also important factors. There are many others.

In choosing our elected officials, we believe smarts count, too — count big time. A smart mayor is better than a dumb mayor. Likewise, for all other positions. It’s not the only factor; but it matters — really matters!

We’d like the next President of the United States to be smart. We believe so would you.

Now, some of you politically to the right of this writer are probably snickering.

We are not playing favorites with this position. We just want to know how smart each of our prospective presidents really is.

Hey, they release their medical records, their financial statements — shouldn’t we know their intelligence quotient. These guys live in fish bowls. We know their drug habits, sex habits, and how they treat their pets. None of them should be embarrassed to have their intelligence looked at.

We make a quiet and respectful challenge to George W. Bush, Al Gore, Bill Bradley, John McCain, and the rest of the gang making the Presidential play.

We’ll arrange for a fairly administered, impartially scored, supervised IQ test. We’ll involve professionals from our local universities; we’ll seek input from the best the metro area has to offer. Our test selection and administration will be as fair and as effective as possible. We’ll invite each candidate’s representatives and the rest of the media in to scrutinize the process. We’ll tape every step of the way. We’ll release the scores to the public. We’ll let the people utilize the information to make their judgement.

The public will have one more piece of the puzzle to evaluate the men who seek to lead the greatest nation in the world.

How about it, gentlemen?

Ready; take out your number two pencils; begin.

A copy of this is being sent to all the candidates for president.

Remember Mort?

HILLMAN EMAIL: Remember Mort
Hillman? The former Assemblyman wrote the following to us from his home in Palm
Beach County, Florida commenting on the Sabini, Nolan, McCaffrey challenge for the Crowley seat.

Remember 1986 and 1987? McCaffrey was strongly backed and completely supported by Manton. McCaffrey was very helpful in making Manton leader and was very close for a long time.

I don’t see Cathy Nolan being able to get to Washington. Too many things in the way of her having to give up her seat that has made her important to the "higher ups" of the Assembly. She has been there since 1984 and that means she is one of the leaders. I was there for six years.

Joe Crowley was given the spot by Manton, but don’t play down his strengths. He has grown up and into the job. We were both of the class of 86 and he has a lot behind him and has the ability to raise a lot of money. And that my friend, unfortunately, is the name of the game. None of the other three [Sabini, Nolan, McCaffrey] can come near him on that.

I am deeply involved in Democratic politics in Palm Beach County where I retired to in 1997. No, I’m not ever going to run for anything here, just behind the scenes. I kid about how can I run when I can’t even walk good.

I read your paper every week on my computer and I’m glad to see you’re writing a column again.

Warmest Regards, Mort Hillman

Thanx for you thoughts, Mort.

QUESTION: We haven’t checked it out, though it seems plausible, here’s the latest email inquiry circulating in cyberspace:

"Just for fun, try to identify this outfit of over 500 employees with the following statistics:

29 have been accused of spousal abuse; 7 have been arrested for fraud; 19 have been accused of writing bad checks; 117 have bankrupted at least two businesses; 3 have been arrested for assault; 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit; 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges; 8 have been arrested for shoplifting; 21 are current defendants in lawsuits; In 1998 alone, 84 were stopped for drunk driving.

Give up?"

ANSWER: "It’s the 535 members of your United States Congress – the same group that perpetually cranks out hundreds upon hundreds of new laws designed to keep the rest of us in line."