But What’s My Motivation?

Last night, Hiram Monserrate was expelled from the NY State Senate. In case you don’t remember Hiram, he was one of the ‘amigos’ from the Dem’s side of the aisle who moved over to the Rep side in the coup last summer, giving the Reps a 32 – 30 majority; a week later, he went back to the other side, and eventually so did Pedro Espada, the other amigo, bribed with a leadership post to cross back over.

The reason he’s been tossed is because he was convicted of abusing his girlfriend by dragging her down the hall, forcibly, on the way to a hospital 14 miles away from their home, to have her slashed face stitched up. There’s security camera footage showing the two of them leaving the house, with Monserrate clearly calling the shots, making the misdemeanor conviction pretty much a slam-dunk.

He wasn’t convicted of a felony for slashing her face, which is what he was charged with. One reason there was no conviction on the felony is because, like many domestic violence victims, she said it was an accident and she was not cooperative with the prosecution. Had he been convicted of a felony, expulsion would have been automatic; however, the misdemeanor conviction led to a caucus, and to two resolutions, and eventually to the yes vote on immediately kicking him out, rather than waiting a while.

If you listen to some of the players, including Monserrate himself, you'll hear a few different opinions on why the expulsion was necessary. Ruben Diaz Sr, another Dem, had these opinions, offered in the middle of the voting itself. Diaz is quite the character, as illustrated by his bizarre quotation of Martin Luther King's 'Dream' speech in response to a question of whether he would begin siding with the Reps in the Senate. Note that the Reps were not in favor of keeping Monserrate around, making it somewhat unlikely that they'll be courting Diaz, but stranger things have happened. Pedro Espada, for his part, made a connection between Monserrate’s rights and the rights of terrorists. I'm not sure what the other five who voted no were thinking and I think I don’t want to know.

Although I didn’t know it was a gem from Alfred Hitchcock, like most folks I’d heard this joke many times before: “When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'”

In the case of our folks in Albany, I'm hoping their motivation was obvious. Those who think the vote was racist in some way, or retaliation for the coup last year I hope are misguided. I think the real reason he was booted is because he’s a jerk who's been convicted of domestic violence; even in Albany, that should have been motivation enough.

Now of course he’s going to appeal the expulsion, and of course there will be an injunction keeping him in the Senate until all legal courses have been exhausted, and of course during this time people in his district are stuck with him. Hopefully they will ignore him, loudly and vigorously and publicly. If his staff is any good, they'll be able to handle constituent service until such time as someone decent is elected to represent them.

PPOD 8/11/09: Two Pedros Are NOT Better than One

I promised I'd take a break from talking about health insurance reform for a couple days, and I'm going to keep my promise. Instead, let's have a Pet Peeve of the Day, it's way more fun!

Not long ago, I had the opportunity to post a PPOD on Pedro Espada Jr, the 'leader' of the New York State Senate. Regular readers will remember that the NYS legislature is the country's most dysfunctional, not in my humble opinion but in the opinion of really smart people who know about these things and have spent lots of time researching this stuff. Me, I just live here.

But now, as a New Yorker, I'm hardly proud to announce that not only do we have Pedro Jr in Albany, but we have managed to find a way to create a job for his son, the highly qualified Pedro G Espada, and pay him $120K per year. During a hiring freeze. When the State is offering some employees a buy-out to reduce the size of the workforce.

I know, folks are going to tell me that nepotism is a way of life in politics, and that I shouldn't be shocked by this. And I agree -- I'm not shocked. I'm peeved at the audacity of this man, and at the lack of basketballs on the part of the rest of the Dems in the Senate who sit idly by and watch this nonsense go on, all in the name of being in the majority.

So, two big thumbs down for the two Pedros. I say it again: we deserve better.

At Last - The Two Amigos Are Gone

(photo by Richard Drew/AP)

New York's Democrats accomplished at least two good things yesterday -- the Two Amigos, Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate, are finally done.

Espada, the hugely ethically challenged Dem-turned-Rep-turned-Dem who by many accounts doesn't even live in his district.  He was a key pawn in the coup perpetrated on New Yorkers by the ethically challenged Republicans in the senate, who offered him a leadership position to stumble across the aisle.  Dems, even more challenged than the Reps, offered him a bigger leadership role to return to the fold. Blissfully, he's been booted by folks who live in the district he represented.

(NY Daily News photo)

Monserrate, who was convicted of a domestic violence charge stemming from an incident in which his girlfriend's face was cut with a glass, and who was expelled by the Senate, sued  and lost, then tried to get voted back in. But the voters knew better.

Here's more on our friends Pedro and  Hiram, in case you'd put them out of your mind.

There's plenty of stench surrounding both of these guys, and I think an equal amount surrounding the Reps for enticing them over in the ill-fated coup, and even more so for the Dems for inviting them back in a sad game of Red Rover. Sadder still, all of this was ostensibly done for our benefit, so the right folks would be in power in Albany and would be doing things to benefit all New Yorkers.   Uh, right... 

Fortunately, in this case the voters didn't need the Albany 'leadership' to tell them the right thing to do -- they just plain knew.  Maybe there's hope after all.

One Pedro is Better Than Two...

As hinted late yesterday, Pedro G Espada has resigned from his freshly-minted $120K job working for the State Senate.

It may have been the review by Attorney General Cuomo. It may have been the outcry that echoed across the Empire State at this latest round of nonsense from Albany and the audacity of Pedro 'padre'. It may have been editorials like this one in my hometown paper that spelled out bribery-related statutes. Whatever the reason, one Pedro is better than two.

But none would be better than one.

Meanwhile, Back in Albany (v17)

Nathaniel Brooks/NY Times

For the second time, former NY State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam were found guilty of corruption charges.  

Previously convicted in back in 2015, that verdict was thrown out and a new trial ordered based on a Supreme Court decision in another dirty politician's trial. The Skelos case was kicked off by former US Attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by the Trump Administration, as happens sometimes when administrations change. (Bharara is now more than holding his own on social media, hosting a podcast on NPR and otherwise keeping us in the know.) 

And yes, while the trial was in Manhattan, the case has legs beyond the boundaries of New York City.  Because, meanwhile back in Albany, these are just a couple more convictions in a list of convictions on ethics-related charges that have occured in the past few years, reinforcing the message that we need to do something about the people we elect, the people they appoint, and how they all operate.

Who's in the rogue's gallery, in addition to Skelos? Here's a partial list, covering the nine years I've been publishing veritable pastiche of just the convicted state pols, not the 'resigned in disgrace because of a sex scandal' gang or any who served at the federal level:

• Sheldon Silver, Assembly Leader
• Deputy Senate Majority Leader Tom Libous
• Senate Minority Leader John L Sampson
• Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith
• Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa
• Assemblyman William Boyland
• Assemblyman Eric Stevenson
• Assemblyman Nelson Castro
• State Senator Shirley Huntley
• Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Jr.
• State Senator Vincent Leibell
• State Senator Nicholas Spano
• State Comptroller Alan Hevesi
• State Senator Carl Kruger
• State Senator Hiram Monserrate
• State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, Jr.
• State Health Commissioner Antonia Novello

Pretty impressive, kinda sorta, isn't it? You know, in a shameful kind of way, or in a 'seriously, we can't do better than this?" kind of way.

We've tried to address this, in any number of ways, including suggesting that the legislators get paid more so they would be less tempted to be bad.

We've tried passing ethics legislation - that didn't work, either.  And we had our Sonofa Gov's Moreland Commission, which was abruptly cancelled just when things started getting interesting.

Do we maybe just need better people?

The Weekend Trifecta 9/7/09

A trifecta is generally described as a type of bet where, in order to win, the bettor must pick the top three finishers in the correct order. Here are the weekend’s top three:

Serendipity. There’s a giant black walnut in our neighbor’s yard, with several good-sized limbs that hang over our patio. The trees are so flush with nuts that we have more than our usual complement of squirrels this year, and when we go outside all we hear is the sound of them chewing green walnut hulls. Sadly, one of the consequences of too many squirrels and too many walnuts is (pardon the visual) mountains of partially chewed nuts coated in squirrel spit. Saturday My Sweet Baboo and I were discussing how we were going to have to hire a tree company to come in and get some of the branches down so that it’d be a little cleaner and a little harder for the squirrels. So where does serendipity come in? Well, today when I was in the midst of a garden weeding marathon out front, a guy stopped to give me his card and let me know he did tree work, general yard cleanup, and stuff like that. We talked a bit, got permission from the neighbors to work on the tree, and about two and a half hours later, they were done. Not an easy job, because it was not reachable by bucket truck but instead was all rope and ladder work, but it looks great!

Getting up early. On Saturday mornings, I usually sleep in a little after My Sweet Baboo gets up. He does his morning chores, including making the coffee, getting the paper, feeding the cats, and feeding the birds. We have a pretty large contingent of birds in the neighborhood, including chickadees, sparrows, hummingbirds, several kinds of woodpeckers, grosbeaks, nuthatches, cardinals and blue jays. The blue jays are extremely vocal, particularly when they're hungry. The only thing they’re interested in is peanuts - lots of peanuts - and they put on quite a show. MSB puts two or three handfuls on the platform feeder, and then the fun begins. It’s a little like O’Hare airport – one jay comes in, lands on the feeder, grabs a peanut, and takes off; a second one is right behind, hitting the feeder just as the first one gets airborne, the third one in the tree above waiting for his clearance to land. It goes on like this for several minutes, one right after the other, a landing coming immediately on the heels of each takeoff. Saturday, I had the chance to witness the action, because I dragged myself out of bed early.

The New York State Fair. The Fair ends its twelve-day run today, likely shy of a new attendance record, but a good run nonetheless. We had a great time there yesterday – saw the pigs, sheep, goats, and llamas; spent some time at the International Horse Show; got our ice-cold chocolate milk (still a fantastic bargain at 25 cents a ticket) and saw the butter sculpture; and took in the Horticulture Building (too much non-horticulture stuff if you ask us) and the Center of Progress building. It’s sort of comforting to know that the same guy has been demonstrating the amazing chopper thing for the past five years or more. It's comforting to know he’s still out there, making salsa right before our eyes. The New York State Senate had a display, but no Senators were there so I didn’t get a chance to ask how they really feel about Pedro Espada and the whole coup thing. I thought about asking the folks from the Attorney General’s office if they were going to investigate the Senate for bribery and other acts, but figured I’d save that one for later. One other item of note – in the youth, amateur, and professional art and photography competitions, frogs were big winners – two blue ribbons in photography and at least two ribbons on the art side. Not sure why, got any ideas?

A long weekend’s always nice; we made the most of this one, and we both have tomorrow off as well. I’ll spend part of the day trying to sort out where the mayoral candidates stand on the issues that are important to Syracuse, so I can make an informed decision next week for the primary. I'll let you know what I learn.

Shots Fired: 10/17/10

“Power mongers such as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who controls the Democratic majority in his chamber, must go. At the least, voters must send a message to Silver and his minions that New Yorkers are no longer willing to allow them to continue ruining a once great state.

The best way to communicate that sentiment is to refuse to return all incumbent Democrats who control both the Assembly and Senate.

Minority Senate Republicans deserve the boot, too, because they have shown more interest in regaining power than real reform. Remember their ill-fated coup attempt last year and their willingness to broker a deal with Sen. Pedro Espada, the disgraceful Bronx Democrat ?” --Rochester Democrat & Chronicle


“We do not despair for the State of New York.

But we do despair for the State of New York's Legislature, deemed the most dysfunctional in the nation well before this session's budgetary incompetence and political debacles, including the mess Democrats made of the Senate.

And we have been so critical of that performance, which made up in show what it lacked in substance, that we can recommend neither re-election this year of many of the Legislature's current members nor election of many challengers who seem to be running more on a show of anger than on a substance of policy knowledge, experience and expertise.” –The Buffalo News 

Open Letter to all New York State senators

I’m willing to pretend for a minute that I don’t think you’re all self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me-thinking, party- over-all, damn-my-constituents, full-speed-ahead goofballs; you pretend to be honest; and we’ll pretend to have a conversation.

Here are two simple questions for which only a yes or no answer is required:

1. If you are a Democrat, do you approve of Pedro Espada as your majority leader?
2. If you are a Republican, will you admit that your party is for sale to the highest bidder?

There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

At this point, after the month of nonsense we've been subjected to, most of us in the Empire State are not really that concerned about who gets to bring bills to the floor, or who gets how big a legislative staff, or who has the biggest office. Truth be told, we don’t care who’s in charge of the playground that is our State Legislature. What we are concerned about are the budget, the economy as a whole, the unfair distribution of taxes, special deals for people who don’t need them, unfunded mandates, fees, and surcharges that are killing businesses large and small in our state, our backwards way of funding education through property taxes, whether or not we’ll allow gay marriage, health care, and so on down the line. These are the things that you were ignoring while you were pretending to work on 'reform'.

What many of us are dealing with, in case you’ve been so completely wrapped up in your games in Albany that you’ve forgotten, are the actual or potential loss of our jobs; temporary pay cuts; forced shortened work weeks; loss of current or future benefits; and of course the increased fees, taxes, and costs that you and your brethren are imposing upon us. I’m thinking you need to feel some of the pain that we’re feeling. So here are a few more easy questions, again a simple yes or no answer is all that’s needed:

1. Will you immediately and permanently give up your lulu, the added thousands of dollars you’re paid above and beyond your salary? The rest of us don’t get these types of payments; if we were lucky enough to be eligible for a bonus, most of us have lost them.2. Will you immediately and permanently give up the per-diem payments you receive for going to work? Again, your constituents don’t get this type of pay, particularly not for a volunteer job. Besides, with your salaries, you should be able to afford to buy your own lunch. Or, like us, you can bring it from home.
3. Are you willing to immediately reduce your staff and office costs by 20%, or furlough your staff for 20% of their work hours, without pay? This is the kind of thing that many New Yorkers have been forced to do.

And I have one last question for you. Your ability to ‘bring home the bacon’, something of which you all are pretty proud, is primarily a tool to ensure you get re-elected, but guess what? The money to pay for the bacon comes out of our pockets, and they’re pretty empty these days.
So: will you give up – completely give up – the so-called member items for your district, and include all requests for funding as line items in the State budget?

An honest, on-the-record answer to these questions is requested.

Thanks.