7 posts tagged “paterson”

(I'm out of coup puns)

A lot has been happening with our State Senate up here in the Capital Region. The long and short of it is that the Governor is forcing the Senate into session every day, a move that he can make now that the official session is over. The Senate is finding ways to simply hold a quick session and do nothing. 

Gov. Paterson has also been openly hostile to his former colleagues, accusing them of letting petty personal turf wars get in the way of "the people's work".

Then this afternoon this situation took just one more bizarre turn. Sen. Kevin Parker of Brooklyn, who less than a month ago was indicted for assaulting a New York Post photographer called the Paterson the "coke-snorting, staff-banging Governor". That's right now BOTH of the State Senators under indictment for assault have claimed the moral high ground.

Massachusetts is looking good right now.  

...David Paterson is the voice of reason.

The governor is calling for the Senate to go into session and hold a leadership vote. Assuming the two dissident Democrats still plan to caucus with the GOP, the results would likely be the same as Monday. The only exception: it would not be a political stunt.

Hey, Sen. Smith: even your old boss is saying that holding onto the keys will not get your job back. You're done. You're officially a historical footnote. On some level you should be happy -- most State Senate leaders never make it into the history books.

BTW, wasn't I just lamenting the lack of excitement in politics? OK, I'll shut up now.

The fun times of living in New York just keep on coming. Here's a recap of some recent events:

• No one (including Nate and NY1) seems to know if there are enough votes in the Senate to pass gay marriage even as sponsor Tom Duane insists the votes are there
  
• Sen. Diaz (who oppose same-sex marriage) tells Sen. Duane to name names or shut up (charming)
  
• Of course, the solution to this is to put it to a vote, but no one seems to want that 
• President Obama nominated Rep. John McHugh (R-23) to be Secretary of the Army which means upstate gets another SPECIAL ELECTION
• Republicans say the president picked McHugh to put the seat in play for the Democrats and the jockeying to replace him has already begun -- great, we get to do this all over again
• There is an ongoing debate about ethics reform  (that I do not understand) and when things are debated in Albany they don't seem to happen
  
• The bottle bill that was passed just a few weeks ago, has been put on hold by the courts because no one can figure out how to make it work
  
• Andrew Cuomo says that he will not primary Gov. Paterson, which means that our terrible Governor will likely run for re-election and will likely lose
• How bad is our governor? Nate ranked him dead last in his Gubernatorial Power Rankings -- YES!!!
  

I am so proud to be a New Yorker right now.

(Most MSM links are via Capital Confidential)

UPDATE: And New Hampshire makes us look even worse by making same-sex marriage legal today.

OK, this time I had help.

If you recall, last week I guest blogged on A Mistake's site. This post evolved out of a discussion that he and I had over the budget negotiations in New York State.

A Mistake is much more in the know about NY state politics (he knows people and knows people who know people) and during our discussion he affirmed my belief that Shelly Silver was essentially running the state because Gov. Paterson and Sen. Smith had no clue what to do or how to lead.

And what do you know: according to the New York Times we were right (scooped you again). Turns out this budget is all Silver. Here are the telling quotes in this article:

Mr. Paterson, who no longer has a discernable ideology, is being increasingly marginalized. When he was laboring in obscurity as Senate minority leader, he was a champion of open government; as governor, he has been a sharp critic of the concept.

and

“I can’t see what the governor got out of it, or what the Senate majority leader got out of it,” said Kenneth Adams, the chief executive of the Business Council of New York State. “If it’s done by three people and two of them didn’t get much out of it, it certainly sounds like the third person gets the spoils.”

Right now I am wondering if Paterson should even bother to run in 2010. He just got punked by a man who has one of the safest political jobs in the U.S. Paterson is getting all of the blame for a budget he didn't even want.

Come on Governor, at least if you are getting f**ked you should enjoy it. Your predicessor did.

An NRCC campaign ad for the NY-20th Congressional race (via Capitol Confidential):

I have to say I think that the Republicans have reached a new low here. First of all there is the fact that Scott Murphy is right, the death penalty is a difficult issue and the work of groups like The Innocence Project have shown that there are tons of cases where the wrong people are sentenced to death.
 

Personally I have always been disturbed by the finality of the death penalty. For example, we will never know what motivated Timothy McVeigh because he can never tell us. Where others involved in his horrendous crime? Would he ever denounced his crimes and given us more details on why he planted that bomb? Is it possible that the events of September 11, 2001 (exactly three months after he was put to death) would have changed his perspective? We will never know because he is dead.  

But lets put all that aside. Lets assume that the system works and that some crimes are so terrible that the death penalty is warranted. Lets just look at this add for what it is: hackneyed political fear mongering. Haven't we moved beyond this? Hasn't our discourse evolved just a bit in the last eight years? Apparently not. These are the same despicable tactics that the G.O.P. used in 2002 to defeat an honorable man like Max Cleland.

Now, Scott Murphy is no Max Cleland, but he is a decent man and has a point. He made it badly, and he was called out on it by a political pinhead who went right to the terrorist card, but he has a point. It is a complex issue and one that I personally wish we would stop taking so lightly (especially since we stand alone in the developed world on this one).

I feel bad for Jim Tedisco. He is a respectable politician, but he has allowed his campaign to be taken over by the worst elements of the G.O.P. No wonder the latest poll (PDF) shows that people perceive his campaign as too negative.

In other "how screwed up is New York State" news: the Governor finally spoke and acted like a bit of a jerk when asked why he's gone back to "Three Men in a Room" (who still don't have a budget).

So we have a totally f-ed up Congressional race, a Governor who can't govern and the budget will likely be printed at midnight on Sunday to be put to a vote on Tuesday (without anyone having read it).

Vermont is looking good right now. Hell, Massachusetts is looking good right now.  

Legislative Leaders Say Hands Tied Over Paterson's Job Reduction Order

Legislative leaders met with Governor Paterson in private closed door meetings on the lay offs and other state budget issues. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who earlier issued a statement saying the job reductions were "unfortunate", said there wasn't much, though, that the legislature could do about it. He said it was all up to the governor.

"This is the governor's announcement. He is the manager of the state workforce," Silver said. "So there's nothing that we can do in that regard."

How bad is it to be Governor Paterson? Let's recap his week shall we:

• His poll numbers are in the basement (or "under water")
• He can't get a budget together, even with the Three Men in a Room
• The budget deficit got larger
• He plans to lay off close to 9,000 state workers (almost 5% of the work force)
• Upstate hates him because the job cuts could kill our economy
• The city hates him over the MTA fare hike (and service cuts)
  

And now he is all on his own, with Silver making it VERY clear that he has nothing to do with the lay offs.
 
With all of this going on, what is our courageous governor doing or saying? NOTHING!! He has made no public statements since announcing the layoffs in a memo (classy).

Has someone told him that being governor is actually a real job where you have to actually, I don't know, show some leadership, accountability and build confidence among the people that you represent?

I know he didn't want this job, he wanted another job. But if you take the number two spot you have to be prepared to step up when your boss decides to do something stupid like sleep with a prostitute.

Come on Paterson, we can't do this for another year, the state may not survive.

The only positive thing to come out of Albany this week: there appears to be a deal on reforming the Rockefeller drug laws. Great so now the GOP can claim that the Democrats can't manage the budget AND are soft on crime. 2010 is going to be a fun election.

See also: my guest post on A Mistake.   

Possible delay for 20th CD race

A U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit could delay next week’s special election in the 20th Congressional District because military and overseas absentee voters might not have enough time for their votes to be counted.

OK, really? There were accusations that Gov. Patterson played politics by delaying calling the special election to give Democratic newcomer Scott Murphy more time for a public roll-out. In New York a special election must be held within 30 days of the governor certifying the vacancy.

So couldn't Paterson have done the math to put the greatest distance between the date he certified the vacancy and the date he sets for the election?

Oh wait, I forgot, he can't do anything right, not even democracy. This state government is a joke. I am tempted to move across the border.

In related news, I guest blogged on A Mistake's site today, enjoy.