| My dear friend, State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, has been talking a lot lately about how the Governor has his priorities wrong. He's been saying that the Governor is ignoring the issues that concern New Yorkers most, like reinstating the death penalty for cop killers apparently, in favor of extending full marriage equality to everyone in the state. Personally, I think Bruno is full of it and I can show you so in black and white.
Yesterday, Joe's Senate majority yielded to the, ahem, overwhelming public demand to pay our legislators more money by valiantly voting to raise his own pay. Unfortunately for Uncle Joe, the Governor and the Senate Democrats demand that lawmakers earn a pay raise by passing some significant reforms before bellying up to the trough.
Pay hikes for judges and lawmakers that just a week ago seemed like a sure thing all but evaporated Monday as Senate Democrats sided with Gov. Eliot Spitzer in demanding raises be linked to campaign finance reform.
The abrupt change of events culminated with a speech by Bruno on the Senate floor, chiding Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, for supporting Spitzer.
"Senate Democrats have proven once again that they cannot stand on their own feet or act independent of the governor," said Bruno, R-Brunswick. "Yes, you have a right to change your mind, yes, you do senator, but I don't believe you have a right to walk away from people who send you here and cave in to this governor every time he intimidates you."
A question for Mr. Bruno: Do you really believe that the people sent you folks to Albany to raise your pay for a part time job or, ya know, maybe to do what you can to reform the mess people like you have spent decades creating?
I think Malcolm gets much closer to the actual will of the people here:
"We will oppose this bill absent an agreement by the majority to embrace meaningful campaign finance reform," Smith said. "The public has spoken, message received, message delivered."
Meanwhile, the State Assembly tackles an actual problem of great concern to "the people" on the flip... |
| While Bruno was having a hissy over an issue that isn't even a minor blip on the public radar, the Assembly was dealing with THE issue on the minds of Americans from coast to coast when they passed a resolution opposing our President's escalation of the Iraq war and urging him not to veto the supplemental funding bill sent to him by a newly Democratic Congress.
Weighing into foreign policy, the state Assembly passed a resolution Monday night urging President Bush not to veto a bill passed by Congress that calls for a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
The symbolic action by the Democrat-dominated house was designed to help the Democrat-controlled Congress in its battle with Bush, a Republican, over policy in Iraq.
The resolution, while expressing support for American troops, also states that Assembly members "respectfully urge President George W. Bush to reconsider his stated intention to veto H.R. 1591 and to sign this important legislation into law."
The measure links continued funding for the war with deadlines for bringing troops home.
The resolution points out that 149 troops from New York have died in the Iraq war, (out of a total of more than 3,300) and another 1,400 wounded (out of a total of more than 24,000).
"The solution to this conflict is political, not military," said Assemblyman Andriano Espiallat, D-Manhattan. "It is time for our troops to come back home."
Is this a symbolic gesture? Sure it is. I'm afraid nothing is going to dissuade our idiot President from digging our country deeper and deeper into the bloody sands of Iraq. That's just a fact.
But, somebody has to do something. Ending the spectacularly disastrous war in Iraq is the great moral issue of our time. It is of enormous concern to New York, the nation and the world.
The next time Bruno tries to tell me that he's the one dealing with the issues of greatest import to New Yorkers I will try my absolute best not to laugh in sad, prison bound face. |
