Happy Fourth of July. In the spirit of we the people, I am pleased to announce that it’s been nearly a month since the shenanigans in Albany began.
For those too wrapped up in what Mark Sanford down in South Carolina to know what was going on in New York, here’s a brief summary. In early June, New York State Senate Republicans staged a coup of the Senate chamber. They got two renegade Democrats to side with them, and so then they were able to stage a takeover of the chamber which they lost in the November elections. Supposedly this was done because Democrats were raising taxes, doing things in secret, etc. The previous majority leader, Malcolm Smith, was unseated because supposedly he was an ineffective leader. Now the majority leader is Dean Skelos. At least the Republicans seem to think so.
One of the renegade Democrats said, after all this, no thanks, and went back with the Democrats. The other one, Pedro Espada, stayed with his new buddies who probably would never agree with him if they actually sat down to do legislation. Which they haven’t, by the way.
Espada, in the meantime, has been rewarded for his Benedict Arnold routine by being named President Pro Tempore of the New York State Senate. Which, in light of the last major debacle in New York, has made him in effect, Lieutenant Governor, a job once held by David Paterson but since vacated since Eliot Spitzer was caught with a call girl.
It all sounds peachy, but the problem is that no one is recognizing each other’s leaders, and so the State Senate won’t convene and pass legislation. With the Senate in a dead tie, neither one has the quorum to pass any laws. So Albany has been a whirlwind of grandstanding in a three ring circus with now Governor Paterson trying to tell the class to sit down and shut up. The courts are getting more exercise than a marathoner the day of his race with everyone claiming the other one is violating some kind of legislation.
Perhaps Republicans intended bipartisanship with the coup, but the fact that they will not sit down with the Democrats and push legislation through certainly reflects the opposite. Regardless of the justification for not meeting with the Democrats, the Republican caucus is acting more partisan than anything the Democrats did before the coup, in my opinion.
It’s not that the Democrats are really any better than the Republicans. But Republicans supposedly did all this in the name of saving the taxpayers money and reform. Nice idea, but since no legislation is being passed, these guys have been thumbing their noses on the taxpayers’ dime. One estimation I have heard regarding the total that this impasse has cost the taxpayers is seven million dollars. Some legislation was deadline sensitive, and those deadlines have come and gone without any resolution. So much for the reform theory.
Everyone, with all this nonsense, seems to have had no problem picking up their paycheck, even though many are upset that Paterson has forced them to stay in session during the holiday due to their impasse. Can’t see the problem there: they’ ve been on holiday for nearly a month now.
It has taken an outright threat from comptroller Tom DiNapoli to withhold the checks to put a plug in the fiscal bleeding. Comptroller DiNapoli is trying to see if all this is legal first before he does it, something that perhaps the Republican caucus should have thought of before they pulled what resembles a stunt with a lot of hyperbole. It appears that they are on shaky legal ground, at best. Not the best stance for one to take when one wants to be the reform party.
With these antics, it seems nothing more than a power grab, and that Pedro Espada has played all the dynamics to get the ultimate prize by playing it both ways. His biography says he is still a Democrat, but it is the Republican caucus propping him up. It seems very hard to me to say this is all in the name in reform.
Nice to know that the people’s government is hard at work during this Independence Day.