When the DNC convention staffer came around to the media stands yesterday to hand out the final list of speakers for Wednesday I was more than a little surprised to see that the name of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had been added as the final slot in the 4 to 6 block. I was (wrongly) guessing that his appearance might be scratched by the time they opened up the day’s events, so I was even more taken aback when the man actually showed up on the stage. The reason for my reaction was that this was the very same day that the US Attorney in Brooklyn, Preet Bharara, had announced a new ethics and corruption investigation into de Blasio’s conduct regarding campaign finance contributions.

For whatever reason, the Democrats chose to not let that bother them overly much and allowed Hizzoner to come sing the praises of Hillary Clinton. By the time he was done, however, it had really begun to seem like a scene from a Fellini film. Here’s the relatively short speech in its entirety. Pay close attention to Bill’s comments around the 2:15 mark. (Emphasis added in the partial transcript which follows)

When Hillary Clinton was First Lady, she made it her personal mission to take on the insurance giants to get health care for every American. Now, despite millions of dollars spent attacking her, she never gave up and helped deliver the Children’s Health Insurance Program against all the odds.

Who did Donald take on? The small business owners he contracted with on his real estate projects. Too many times, Donald simply stiffed them. Now we know Trump is the great pretender. But how can he pretend to be for American workers when he didn’t even pay his own workers what he owed them?

Later in the speech he goes on to talk about predators in the real estate market.

Now, how does Donald see the economic realities facing the American people? Actually, he roots for economic turmoil for his personal gain. Want an example? When asked in 2006 about a possible real estate crash, he said, “I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy.” That is the very definition of “the predator class.

What’s going on at the DNC? Are they even trying to manage their image and that of Hillary Clinton at this point? We’re talking about a candidate who only weeks ago barely escaped her own brush with the law after a more than year long FBI investigation and is now getting a prominent endorsement at her convention from someone who may be in even more trouble. Let’s recall the way the New York press was describing the new corruption investigation as matched up against the mayor’s comments in Philadelphia.

Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara is investigating whether Mayor de Blasio engaged in a fund-raising pay-to-play scheme over the controversial sale of a Brooklyn hospital for redevelopment into housing, The Post has learned.

The corruption-busting federal prosecutor recently subpoenaed the State University of New York seeking a slew of records regarding de Blasio’s ties to its sale of Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, sources said.

This entire investigation revolves around de Blasio demanding tens of thousands of dollars in donations from real estate developers so they could get a crack at taking over a piece of State University of New York property (specifically a hospital) and convert it into a housing project. And that was after Bill had spent years championing the facility as a necessary resource for the poor and underserved minority community. And the same afternoon he goes on stage to complain about Donald Trump’s supposed mishandling of real estate deals?

The New York Post described the contents of the mayor’s speech as a salute to Clinton being “smart, steady and ready for the presidency.” By contrast, they note that he dismissed Trump as “reckless… risky… wrong… and scary.” If Bill de Blasio isn’t careful, he’s going to follow Sheldon Silver into a new residence with bars on the windows over his reckless, risky and scary abuse of power and campaign donations. This is who the DNC chose to carry Hillary’s water and to do so on the same day he was making that sort of news back in the Big Apple?

Toto… I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.