You can always count on the politicians to try and slip in a pay hike for themselves right after election day. Last year, that was the gambit of the Westchester County Board of Legislators.

This year, it’s the New Rochelle City Council.

Contained in the proposed city budget is a $22,000 pay raise for the part-time mayor which would bring him up to $85,5000. Note that I said “part-time” mayor in a town where the median income for $55,500. Members of the city council would see their salaries raised from $23,000 to $32,000.

See, the strategy is they hope that axpayers are not paying attention during the holiday rush.

Gee, I don’t think so.

But Peekskill Democrats are raging over the “I Dream of Jeanie” image that appears on the city Republican’s Web Site.

I’m merely reproducing it. You decide.

The two dancers in balloon pants and halter tops are supposed to be Drew Claxton and Mary Foster, two Democratic members of the Peekskill City Council. The bozos to the left are the five GOP council members who are touting a proposal to bring a Target store to the city’s industrial south end. A competing proposal is putting in a distribution center for FedEx or DHL delivery trucks.

The Democrats are taking offense at the Republican mode of ridicule, charging they have “resorted to sexist and degrading attacks.” Councilman Mike Morey has demanded to know who superimposed the heads of the women and wants the party of Lincoln to apologize.

In a press release, both Claxton and Foster objected. Said Claxton: “This is pure harassment and intimidation. Because I am a woman and because I may take a different perspective form the mayor (John Testa) does not give him or the GOP the right to make sexually provocative statements about me, either verbally or in pictures.”