For more than half a century, I have reported on Albany.
Never in all these years have I observed a spectacle as outrageous as what went down Monday.
Rules and precedents have been ignored. The war between the two parties has resulted in a gridlock of selfish legislators pitted against each other. The people's business is not the primary concern. There is no morality. Just jungle law and maybe that insults the noble animals of the jungle. In Albany, anarchy reigns.
Two traitors to their party and the people have been elevated to high positions they didn't earn. Senator Hiram Monserrate, of Queens, and Bronx Senator Pedro Espada Jr. have gone against the Democratic Party and joined the Republicans in a voting coalition. The Republicans have seized the opportunity to take control of the narrowly divided Senate.
The two new kings of the hill have undistinguished records. Monserrate, an ex-cop, is awaiting trial on a charge of slashing his girlfriend with a broken glass. He was also recently fined for exceeding spending limits in a race for the City Council by the Campaign Finance Board. Espada owes more than $13,500 for campaign finance violations. He tried to direct pork barrel grants of $745,000 to a non-profit organization that paid him $200,000 in salary.
Espada has been voted the new Senate president and Republican Dean Skelos of Long Island is the new majority leader, that is, if the vote stands.
The state Senate, with its oak paneling, red decor and comfortable leather chairs, has a luxurious look. But the civil war now raging on and off the floor makes it appear more like a battlefield. The lame excuse offered by the two senators who deserted their party was that it would help the cause of reform. Espada called it “a new beginning of bipartisan government.” That's baloney. What happened was a coup engineered by two opportunists that has brought chaos. And, if the situation is allowed to continue, Espada will be next in line to succeed Gov. David Paterson.
Paterson denounced the Republican led power grab as “despicable” and asked: “When do we get around to governing?”
At one point during the war of words in Albany, the Democrats turned out the lights and the TV feed but power was restored a few minutes later. The man who until yesterday led the Democrats as majority leader, Malcolm Smith, denounced the coup as “an illegal and unlawful attempt to gain control of the Senate.”
Among the issues before the Senate are same sex marriage and mayoral control of the city school system. The raging civil war in the Senate has no precedent in modern history. Both Democrats and Republicans share the blame for what happened. The people of this state are witnessing a spectacle of power-hungry men battling over positions that ultimately only the people should bestow. Sooner or later the two parties have to make peace but, at the moment, no individual seems to have the power to force them to negotiate a solution.
Until that happens, anarchy reigns.
