We’re all going to need a hug at this rate. The New York State Senate has a proud long history of bungling. But the past month has been a mother of ineptness and misaimed attempts at power grabbing. To paraphrase that noted political reporter, Jay Leno, “What was Sen. Espada thinking?” He might make people nostalgic for the barely distinguishable leadership of Malcolm Smith, the object of his affection in the picture above. We can even influence peddle well here. In a series of flip-flops that brought state business to an even great crawl than usual, he got himself a title. He’s “profoundly sorry.” Big deal. The inability of our government to, well, govern, did have effects on schools, businesses, and residences around the state. Apparently, the shroud of self-interest protects you from the havoc you create.
Thankfully, the keystone kops got right to work, starting to clear the considerable backlog of bills waiting for their overpriced rubber stamp. But the whole exercise reverberates with me as we got through a process in the spring where the state government seemed to want to make up for years of over-spending and budget setting in a fortnight, but taxing this and upping fees for that, but never actually looking on itself to spend smarter, buy less, and generally act like the proverbial educated consumer.
Yeah, they worked till 1Am this morning. Big Deal. They’ve had a month off with pay. I’d like that, but it ain’t happening. Hold on, I’ve worked for almost two hours. Let me stop and check the rules…..
I’m a democrat and this is embarassing to say, but if the Bronx can scrounge up a socialist, marxist, libertarian, green party guy, Romulan ambassador, as long as she or he has some combination of conscience and backbone, they would be worth looking into for the next election cycle.
Mike's Pub 