At this point it would be nice if we had something "completely different" but all roads leads to the flying circus. In the center ring is Gov. David Patterson, who just could not stand the other two rings where the democratic senators and republican senators could not agree on who was in charge with their now evenly divided senate. The only thing they could agree on was to immediately adjourn every time he called a special session.
The Governor finally decided to appoint Richard Ravitch for the position of Lt. Governor so that the senate would finally be odd (strike that, all of Albany is odd), and thus have the ability to bring the divided senate into some semblance of order. The New York Times wrote the following editorial:
"We don't know yet whether it was legal, but Gov. David Paterson of New York was right to take the plunge and name a lieutenant governor in an effort to break the increasingly damaging stalemate in Albany."
I'll save any comment on the New York Times for another day. I think I disagree with the times, I think there was another way this could be done. Doing this unilaterally is only going to lead to lawsuits. Basically when the Attorney General (who is a member of your own party) doesn't think you have the ability to do something, expect the lawsuits to follow. Sure enough here they come, and the circus is again in session.
Here is the article in the New York Times. To summarize the situation so far:
- The Governor "declares and swears" Ravitch at 8 PM on Wednesday
- Republicans got a restraining order from a judge in Nassau County
- Republicans insist the governor does not have the authority
- The Governor says that he did it before the restraining order so it's OK, but will wait until Friday when the appeal goes to the court
- Meanwhile, Democrats are trying to bring the lone defector back to the fold
Point / Counterpoint (From the NYT article cited above)
In his televised address Wednesday, Governor Paterson said, "This, I believe, is the right thing to do, I have no doubt of that," and added, "At a time of unparalleled fiscal difficulty, the appointment of Richard Ravitch today will bring the governor a successor, the Senate a presiding officer and will help to alleviate this crisis."
Senator Dean G. Skelos, the leader of the Republican caucus, said in his own address, "Sadly, once again, the governor has put his political career ahead of you, the public." He added: "Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has already said it's unconstitutional for the governor to appoint a lieutenant governor, and I agree."
Oh darn, this is getting serious all of a sudden, where are the clowns? Ah here they are! Remember that "declare and swear? Where? Ravitch Signed Oath at Brooklyn Steakhouse
Richard Ravitch, the kind of, sort of lieutenant governor, signed his oath of office at the Peter Luger Steak House in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Wednesday night, he confirmed in a brief interview on Thursday.
I've never been to Peter Luger, but my uncle swears by it. Now I'm going to have to rib him on this one; since he is a strong Republican and his favorite Brooklyn restaurant, a place he normally goes to before Yankee games, just helped support the Democratic control of the New York Senate.
Folks, it doesn't get any better than this.
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Comments: 4
I grew up in New York, and was always a conservative. During the sixties, being a teenager in the hippie enviroment, I was an outsider. But, I have no diseases, and have led a clean healthy life, so you hang in there. The blues are wrong, and time will tell. In my Oklahoma, we are red, and living the high life while the rest of the country suffers under under the knell of liberalism.
Carol,
Do you have an extra bedroom?
In Michigan our governor is practically bowing at the feet of the great obamassiah and the UAW. Whatever they want, they get, regardless of how bad we the people have to suffer. As of May our unemployment rate was over 14% and continuing to rise. Meanwhile our dear governor takes vacation after vacation, on taxpayers dollars, to foreign countries, all in the name of "bringing employers into Michigan." (and surprise, surprise, very little employment has come of it.)
I am so fed up with it it's ridiculous.
Michigan is a blue state as well, but if you seperated Detroit from the rest of it, you'd have a very RED state (my side) and a very Blue Welfare state (detroit).
I feel properly chastised for all the comments I have made about California. I honestly thought we had the stupidest state in the union. Now...
I still love living in this area, just can't stand the state, but maybe... just maybe people in other states have to put up with even stupider elected officials.
I think the biggest difference between NY and CA is the nature of the stalemate between the parties. The problem in NY isn't at the budget level; instead it is focused on hot button topics that divide the parties and traditionally the Republican Senate would generally work to defeat. These include same gender marriage, radical pro-choice legislation, the repeal of the statue of limitation for child molestation except if that involves a public school, a bizarre piece of legislation that allows a nurse to issue a DNR order on a patient without any appropriate authorization, etc. Unfortunately, stuck in the mix are two NYC legislations that reauthorize the Mayor to be in charge of city schools and that allows the city to raise local taxes. This is why the Republicans were inclined to fight it out, it's not like the state was going to go bankrupt because of the inaction.