Albany Feud Was an Exercise in Ugly Politics
It was an unprecedented month of turncoats, scoundrels, power grabs, lies and dirty tricks
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Updated 5:39 PM EST, Sun, Jul 12, 2009
In the end, Albany politics became so partisan, so high-stakes, so just plain mean and self-serving that the ugly monthlong standoff that made New York's Senate a national bad example was inevitable.
The Senate got back to work on Thursday night, and took the weekend off before returning to try to get back to weeks of stymied business.
It was so bad, even well-meaning senators couldn't stop rogue loosed in their house. The rogues took with them the Senate's power, its time and its dignity.
And it won't be the last time.
"I'm less excited about being a senator today,'' said Sen. Neil Breslin, an Albany Democrat whose courtly manner was once the model of Senate demeanor. "There's a total loss of collegiality, which I don't think can ever be regained."
Being portrayed with clown faces on the front page of the New York Post will do that to you.
It was an unprecedented month of turncoats, scoundrels, power grabs, lies and dirty tricks.
Gov. David Paterson said the rise in trading political allegiance for perks or titles is getting worse.
"It is so blatantly quid pro quo that it borders on the boundaries of illegality," Paterson told The Associated Press Friday afternoon. "And because no one is saying anything about it, it's becoming acceptable ... it's becoming very dangerous.''
In the end, Democrats retook the majority they had won in the November elections over a Republican-dominated coalition.
But at great cost.
Democrats are even more fractured along racial and borough lines. Blacks insisted on one of their members running the conference and Hispanics demanded greater say, while Manhattanites aligned with some upstaters are in conflict with outer borough colleagues over policy priorities. Those existing cracks deepened in January when the party was thrust into running the Senate without experience.
Now, the Democrats depend on the loyalty of their new majority leader, freshman Sen. Pedro Espada. The Bronx Democrat flipped to create the coalition June 8 only to flip back Thursday to recreate the Democratic majority, each time exacting a powerful title over loyal rank-and-file senators.
Many Democrats hate him. Most don't trust him. But all nonetheless accepted him to get the majority back.
For Republicans, the power-wielding coalition they sought since the November elections is gone, at least for now. And with it, their hopes to rewrite oppressive Senate rules that they used freely as a majority are greatly diminished.
The GOP, in the minority after 60 years of nearly uninterrupted control of the Senate, had sought to force greater power for the minority in passing bills. They wanted equal staff, resources and allocation of all-important pork-barrel spending for their
districts. All of that would give them a much better chance at keeping their jobs and the chance to regain the majority.
But after nearly five weeks of insisting the standoff was all about reform -- "obviously" Espada emphasized to a skeptical press corps -- the Senate on Thursday night quickly shelved reform resolutions and considered bringing pork-barrel grants the floor.
But after Republicans claimed Democrats were trying ram through the same pre-coup pork plan, in which Democrats took home 90 percent of the $85 million, no action was taken.
Both sides agreed to further negotiation after some tense hours late Thursday.
In a clear glimpse of what's to come, the Senate almost gridlocked all over again.
Expect all of this to happen again.
Copyright Associated Press
First Published: Jul 12, 2009 8:17 AM EST
You Might Like
You have 2000 characters left
