Joe Lhota is no Mitt Romney, especially when it comes to calling it as it is. Asked to respond to today’s front-page New York Times story looking into Mr. de Blasio’s past support for revolutionary Nicaraguan politics, Mr. Lhota called his Democratic opponent a “Democratic Socialist” and his philosophy “unfortunate”.

A NY Times review of hundreds of pages of records and more than two dozen interviews suggest his time as a young activist was more influential in shaping his ideology than previously known, and far more political than typical humanitarian work.

Mr. de Blasio, who studied Latin American politics at Columbia and was conversational in Spanish, grew to be an admirer of Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista party, thrusting himself into one of the most polarizing issues in American politics at the time. The Reagan administration denounced the Sandinistas as tyrannical and Communist.

According to the Times, Mr. de Blasio became an ardent supporter of the Nicaraguan revolutionaries. He helped raise funds for the Sandinistas in New York and subscribed to the party’s newspaper, Barricada, or Barricade. When he was asked at a meeting in 1990 about his goals for society, he said he was an advocate of “democratic socialism.”

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“We do have very, very different political philosophies, especially, you know, in light of what my views are as to how our economy works, how he believes our economy works,” Mr. Lhota told reporters after a press conference denouncing Iran, across the street from the United Nations. “It’s pretty obvious we think very, very differently about the way the governments of the world should work and the way the people should interact with their government.”

Mr. Lhota went on to quote Mr. de Blasio’s own past description of his views, which reportedly included telling his fellow Sandinista activists that he supported a “democratic socialism” vision for society.

“Quite honestly, there are words that I don’t like to use, but his own words–in his own words–he called himself a Democratic socialist. It’s really unfortunate that that’s the level that we’ve come to in this city,” Mr. Lhota said. “Ten days ago in the Wall Street Journal, he actually said he thought the mayor of the City of New York needs to be a community organizer. You know, he’s done nothing to show his support of the business community of New York whatsoever. And I think that’s indicative of his core political philosophy,” he said.

Mr. Lhota also specifically criticized Mr. de Blasio’s decision to honeymoon in Cuba, according to Politicker.

“I believe actions taken like the Sandinistas who were fighting Americans as well as capitalism was absolutely not the right thing to do during the Cold War,” he said. “You know, going to Cuba illegally is never a good thing in this country.”

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)