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I'm taking advantage of how we can post more than a diary a day to take exception with this characterization of Pedro Espada, that he's a "Republican." He isn't. He obviously isn't a democrat either. He's a criminal, plain and simple.
Tommy Golisano and Dean Skelos' new pet some piece of work:
* Andrew Cuomo is investigating Espada's Soundview health clinic scams. As you will see, Espada's employees should be used to the routine now. They are always being investigated.
* We learned today that Pedro tried to extort a cool $2 million bucks from the senate Dems before he went home with Skelos. He wanted that 2 million bucks for two of his fake nonprofits that just happened to share the same addresses as his Soundview Scam and his personal PAC.
* 6 of his employees at Soundview were indicted on multiple counts misusing the clinic's taxpayer funds to aid Pedro's campaigns. His employees were indicted for diverting money from sick children,. poor women and AIDS patients to fund his campaign.
* Espada and two associates were indicted on charges that they siphoned $ 221,000 in Medicaid funds from Espada's Soundview Health Care Center to finance his 1996 political campaign.
* Espada was indicted from siphoning $70K from a city funded HMO, again taking public money intended for poor, sick people and using it for his campaign in 1996.
* Pedro tried to award another $745K in no bid grants to another of his sham non-profits back in 2002.
* Hasn't filed a single campaign report to the BOE for his race last year. Not one. In fact he couldn't legally have raised or spent a dime to even get elected because he didn't even have a legal entity, a campaign committee, before about 3 weeks ago. He owes the BOE about $60K for campaign violations.
* Back in 2003, NYC pulled all WIC funds, the money intended for the nutritional benefit of "women infants and children", from all of Espada's sham clinics saying that the funds were mismanaged (stolen).
See what I mean? This is the man now claiming to be leading the "reform coalition" or some other such nonsense. Tommy Golisano and Dean Skelos have hijacked our democracy with this criminal's help. That's where the GOP finds itself today. They are so desperate to hold on to power that they have made common cause with a common criminal, a man who has spent most of the past two decades under investigation or indictment is now being investigated again. They really should be ashamed of themselves. Not only have the subverted the will of the people of New York, the are trying to put a criminal in charge of this circus. Pedro Espada belongs behind bars in prison, not as president of the senate. Of course this is the second time in a row that the GOP has put a criminal next in line to the governor. This makes a mockery of the empty "reform" rhetoric they keep spouting.
Reform doesn't come from a billionaire buying up crooks with a history of stealing from the poor and the sick and the weak to advance his own agenda. Reform shouldn't look so much like Florida in 2000, the last time the Republicans tried to steal our democracy. (How did that work out, btw? Oh, right. It kind of sucked.) |
