HOW ARE THINGS IN ALBANY?
“Espada” is the Spanish word for “whore.”
That’s the lesson New York takes away from the five-week odyssey its state Senate has been on.
When all was said and done, it was about bribing Pedro Espada, an otherwise inconsequential political hack and “community organizer” from the Bronx. Mostly known for representing the Bronx while living in a $700,000 home in Westchester, and using his non-profit as a political cash cow, Pedro Espada is now living proof that, in fact, crime does pay.
In less than a month, he has been both the Republican president of the Senate and the Democratic majority leader of the Senate, and he got each job by selling out the other. He is the basest, vilest, most blatant political whore in modern times.
Everyone knows the story of the slim Democratic majority in the New York State Senate. Last November gave the Democrats a 32-30 majority. Behind those 32 Democrat seats, however, was a bunch of intrigue, much of it along racial lines. Black Democrats wanted to rule the roost and Latin Democrats wanted to be the swing bloc and white Democrats just wanted to avoid being forgotten altogether.
The four Latino Democrats -- with Pedro Espada in the fore -- held out and delayed the naming of a black Democrat -- Malcolm Smith -- as majority leader. Eventually, Smith bought the Latino senators by giving them chairmanships and leadership positions -- all of which come with money and perqs.
Then the Democrats turned their attention to the Republicans, and pushed back the frontiers of creativity as they found new ways to screw them. Being the minority party in either the Senate or Assembly has always been difficult, but Senate Democrats found new ways to make it insufferable.
So the Republicans went courting.
They knew of Pedro Espada’s lust for money and power, so they offered him both. If he and at least one of his friends would switch over and vote with the Republican caucus, the GOP would make him Senate president.
Cha-ching.
Thus the coup.
Thus the standoff.
Thus the effort by Democrats to buy him back. And so it was that after about a month of deadlock and hyperventilation in the press, the Democrats came on their knees to Pedro Espada. That’s how he came to be, after betraying and backstabbing the Democratic party which pampered him his entire life, the leader of Senate Democrats.
Did I mention that that comes with even more money and power?
And that he’s under investigation by the attorney general, again. And that he’s essentially useless to his constituents?
Nonetheless, Pedro Espada has played the “et tu brute” card right into the drivers seat.
And that’s too bad, because these last five weeks were actually a good thing, which could have accomplished much good for the people of New York. That’s not what the breathless reporters say, but it’s the truth.
Because this fight wasn’t about party, it was about ethics and geography. Ignored is the fact that in the minutes after taking power in the coup, the Republicans passed a raft of reform legislation that completely changed the way the Senate does business. A hundred and fifty years of encrusted political cronyism and corruption were swept out the door.
While the Democrats had put the screws to the Republicans while they held power, the first thing the Republicans did was make sure that every senator of either party received exactly the same treatment -- including money for staff and district projects. In the blink of an eye, cronyism was erased.
But the Democrats have punched that eye, and refused to recognize the Republican legislation. Pedro Espada got his way, and Senate reform got the shaft.
So has any sense that New York even exists north of New York City. Another motive for the Republican coup was the complete domination of state power by city interests. All the Democrat officeholders are from the New York City area and as soon as they came into power, they began shifting taxes upstate and services downstate, they rewarded their part of the state and punished the rest of the state. Just as the Obama Administration has rewarded counties that voted for him -- they receive twice as much per capita in stimulus money as counties that -- voted for John McCain -- New York Democrats being paying off the people who voted for them.
And the Republicans, who are largely from upstate, thought the vast region they represent should have at least some seat at the table.
Which seems fair.
But it also seems doomed.
Because the Democratic Party’s elevation of the most conniving and unprincipled member of the Senate sure seems like business as usual. It seems like one man, intent on filling his own pockets, can hijack both parties and an entire state and be rewarded for doing so.
The impasse should have been allowed to go on. There was nothing of true significance that had to be voted on right now. Gay marriage and anti-gun legislation could have waited til the fall. Sales-tax authorizations weren’t needed until October. The only pressure was that created by an ignorant press and a clueless governor.
But there is now a resolution.
The New York Senate is functioning.
Worse than ever.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2009
