The State Of New York: Chaotic

A week after the Republicans in the New York State Senate wrested control of the chamber from clueless Democrats a lot has happened and yet at the same time, nothing has happened.

The Democrats dumped their leader, Malcolm Smith (generally regarded as a buffoon).

The Democrats have suggested a power sharing agreement. Among the many issues is setting the agenda and who would preside over each session.

Normally the Lt. Governor would preside over the Senate but since Eliot "Client #9" Spitzer resigned and was replaced by David Paterson, the post has been vacant. The job of President Pro Tempore would normally fall to the majority leader. One of the dissident Democrats, Pedro Espadia, got the job last week after the Democrats walked out of the chamber. Democrats went to court to overrule that and a state appeals judge refused to get involved.

Complicating matters even further....one of the dissidents who moved to the Republicans (the one under indictment for slashing his girlfriend with a broken bottle) switched back to the Democrats, which means the chamber is deadlocked 31-31 and even if Democrats recognized the dissident Dem as President of the Senate, Republicans can't muster a quorum now or figure out who would set the agenda of bills to be acted on.

In a further attempt to beclown himself, David Paterson (the architect of the Dems takeover of the Senate in 2008) offered himself up as a neutral party to preside over the chamber. I'm guessing the Republican response will be laughter.

So, the Senate can't meet and pass any bills. This seems to upset a lot of people. Personally, I'm good with it.

I bet you feel better about your state government now, don't you?

Unrelated: While I've got the attention of NY morons, any non-NYC readers interested in getting together sometime? I'm thinking anywhere from the Hudson Valley up through the north country and maybe out to Syracuse makes sense.

If so leave contact information in the comments or drop me a note at drewmtips(at)gmail(dot).com (make the usual changes).

posted by DrewM. at 01:32 PM

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