| Can someone get Malcolm Smith to shut up for about a decade or so? I know he's enthusiastic, but tripping over your own tongue every election cycle seems like something Democrats would want to discourage:
"With the Democrats in control of the State Senate, we are going to draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the state of New York for the next 20 years," Smith said, as applause whipped up through the proudly partisan crowd at the Crowne Plaza in Niagara Falls.
The rest of the speech goes on to talk about how fair redistricting will make New York bluer automatically, but after that opening, I'm not sure there was much point in speaking.
There was, of course, more recklessness in the rest of the speech - citing specific seats likely to flip in redistricting, a great way to convince people that you're not stacking the deck. Plus a denial that redistricting had actually created problems for the state. He preferred to blame dysfunction on the Republicans, which I guess allowed him to ignore any minor unpleasantness surrounding his colleagues in the Assembly.
Is this really the best we can do?
(And yes, people noticed.) |
