Even hapless GOP Chair Joe Mondello realizes that the chances of Dean Skelos remaining Majority leader or some sort of joint Deputy Leader or whatever is "remote."
Senate Republicans should prepare for life in the minority, which may provide a springboard to recapture the majority in two years, state Republican Chairman Joseph Mondello said Wednesday.
Emerging from a closed-door meeting with county chairpersons, the longtime Nassau County power broker said he thinks it's unlikely Senate Republicans will be able to persuade dissident Democrats to join them in a coalition to retain power, as they are now trying to do.
"I think it's remote," he said. "That's not the way people behave."
That's all fine and well. I mean, there was a reason the GOP caucus chose Skelos to man the wheel after Uncle Joe Bruno Decided to get out while the getting was still good. (And don't for a second think that Bruno decided to go completely of his own accord. There was plenty of pressure within that caucus pushing for him to get lost, particularly from the younger members.)
But Dean was chosen precisely because most folks in and around that caucus knew that they were likely to lose their majority this year. Dean is not particularly well liked by anyone in the Senate, in either party. It was decided to let Dean hold the bag for and take the blame for the coming defeat. It's really that simple. Of course, Dean also didn't do himself any favors by pouring fantastic sums into longshot vendetta races while neglecting his incumbents. It was bad strategy and bad caucus politics. Now both Skelos and Mondello are taking their lumps for performing pretty much exactly the way most Republicans in the know and especially the GOP caucus in the Senate expected them to.
Which brings us to the rest of what Mondello had to say yesterday.
"There's not much further down we can go," Mondello said.
Au contraire, Mssr. Mondello. You know that isn't true. I know that isn't true. In fact, anyone paying attention knows that isn't true.
He then goes on to intimate that the losses are setting the stage for future victories. Now, Joe knows for a fact that the Democratic margin in the Senate will be larger on E-Day 2010 than it will be on January 7, 2009 when the new Senate is sworn in. He knows that with their majority gone, gone also are the massive advantages they built into that majority. Buh bye, unfettered franking privileges. Sayonara, to all that free flowing member item dough. Oh, and guess who won't be calling the shots on redistricting in 2010.
So, Mr. Mondello, There is a lot further down you can go. I know as party chair you have to keep a somewhat positive spin for the consumption of your rapidly dwindling donors and dismayed activists, just don't try to feed that nonsense to the rest of us, OK?
It's going to be a long time in the wilderness for the New York GOP. Demography is a large part of that, but the party itself deserves a healthy part of the blame as well, including folks like Mondello and Skelos and Bruno and Pataki and D'Amato and Treadwell. As the ever shrinking GOP caucus in the Senate tries to revive their fortunes by critiquing state government from the sidelines, let no one forget who was behind the wheel of the state's upper chamber for the lion's share of the last century. They certainly aren't solely to blame for the bloat and dysfunction in Albany, but it's not they'll wake up next month and suddenly be unfamiliar with the beast they helped create.
Things can most assuredly get worse for them and they most likely will get worse, both short term and long term.
Joe knows that. |
