This is stinging, even by the Times' board standards. But can one really argue with it?
Rarely does one man have a chance to do so much harm to so many.
New Yorkers should remember Monday as the day Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, used the power of his office to deprive them of $354 million in federal funds to help mass transporation, ease traffic congestion and improve the air that all New Yorkers breathe.
Backed by his Democratic conference, the speaker killed congestion pricing in the most cowardly way: without even holding a vote. Mr. Silver said so many members of his own conference were against the plan that it would never pass. How many? Who knows? The speaker hid behind closed doors to keep the public from watching his cronies do the deed.
(snip)
We've seen Mr. Silver's style of leadership before. In 1999, he cavalierly killed the commuter tax, costing the city, so far, more than $5.5 billion. It's always difficult to pinpoint the motivations of the opaque and narrowly political Mr. Silver. Certainly, the speaker has made little effort to disguise his personal dislike for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who proposed congestion pricing. But there is no place for personal grudges in leading the state and city of New York.
The congestion-pricing plan was not perfect, but it improved over time. Mr. Silver did not seem to put any effort into addressing the concerns of its opponents or into moving his members to do the right thing.
He failed to put New Yorkers' needs before his personal agenda. That makes him unworthy of his office.
(Hat tip The Maven)
Shelly's idiot cheerleaders will have you believe that none of this matters because the vote in the Assembly Democratic caucus was overwhelmingly opposed to pricing. However, one item they selectively ignore is that the GOP minority was largely in favor of it, and the only point of debate was if Tedisco could actually deliver the unanimous vote of his conference.
Of course, we will never know if Tedisco would have been able to deliver his conference unanimously or if it actually would have passed the whole Assembly, but the vote wouldn't have been by as wide a margin as Shelly's brown-nosers would like to portray it.
Additionally, Azi has an explanation why pricing was never brought to a vote:
It should be noted that one practical reason that Silver didn't bring the bill to the floor for of the state Assembly for a vote, where his Democratic conference outnumbers Republicans 107 to 43, is that if he did, and if the Republican minority decided to vote together for the measure, it could have passed with a minority of support from the Assembly Democratic conference. And that would have established a precedent which would destablize the absolute control Silver has in that house.
It's democracy as defined by the members of an unassailable supermajority.
Poll below the fold- I fully expect it to be freep'd, but I don't care.
UPDATE: The Brennan Center Blog says this:
We would remind everyone that a consensus among the majority of the Assembly majority does not constitute a majority of the Assembly. We would also note that voters have the right to know their representatives' stance on key issues, regardless of whether legislators proactively use their "right and ability" to share their points of view. This is just one highly charged example of Assembly leadership protecting its members from accountability with their constituents. |
