This morning I was greeted with an article in City Hall News expressing “surprise” that the State Senate’s “Independent” Democratic Conference (aka ”Snow White and the Three Stooges”) joined with the Senate’s Republicans in voting for their package of Rules “Reforms.”
Surprise; it is exactly what I said was happening all along.
But last week, when I said it I got hammered. Hammered by Diane Savino.
Hammered on my threads about it; even hammered by my friends:
HESH: The responses by Roy Moskowitz & Rosalie are consistent with those of my Manhattan Reform friends. Like I said, reform Senators who are sticking with Sampson are playing with fire.
Then Hesh went on to say something quite telling:
Of course, if Klein & Savino vote for Skelos rules changes, this will give Squadron & Liz a legitimate excuse to attack them
One longtime Albany Hand I know put it this way:
“Voting for the Republican Rules changes removes all "cover" remaining for the IDC members. They are clearly part of Skelos' majority.”
Surprise?
All those "reform" and liberal types who got angry when I criticized Klein and Savino can now humbly apologize.
As one of my Facebook regulars put it:
Sam Hudis: I now humbly apologize. These guys are nothing more than sell-outs.
The threads of others contained similar sentiments:
Chris Owens: How can four State Senators elected as Democrats side with Republicans on a critical rules issue that further minimizes Democratic influence in the State Senate on EVERY issue over the next two years? We have replaced the The Three Amigos with The Four Stooges. And you, Jeff Klein, are the ringleader! Shame!
Rock Hermon Hackshaw and 3 others like this.
GATE: Excuse me, but don't use the Stooges bit without attribution.
Curtis Arluck: This is a real conundrum. The Gang of Four are nowhere–though Diane Savino's speech on behalf of gay marriage was one of the best I've ever heard–but do you really think John Sampson was a good Majority Leader? Aqueduct, the gross overspending on office staffing, the buying off of the Three Amigos, were all very, very bad. What is to be done?
GATE: Yes, Curtus, but you don't acquire clean hands by washing them in a sewer.
Scott Klein: I think Curtis' assessment is accurate and can't be dismissed, and contributed to the loss of the Democratic majority.
GATE: http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/gone_to_the_dogs.html
Curtis Arluck: Not a good vote for Klein & Co., to be sure.
Scott Klein: Agreed.
Jeff Klein can deny he's made a deal to support Skelos, but his friends in the Bronx are bragging about it.
Since I have no use whatsoever for John Sampson, I would like to sympathize with the IDC, but I cannot. It would be hypocritical for me to do so.
Back in 2007, when it looked like the Senate Democrats had a shot of wooing over a couple of Republicans to their side, Carl Kruger blew that plans to bits by taking a Committee Chairmanship and a $12,500 lulu from Joe Bruno, sending a signal which profoundly altered the Albany Zeitgeist. But for Kruger, two Republicans may have jumped, and there would have been no Bruno. Without Bruno, no Choppergate. Without Choppergate, who knows?
Not to mention that Kruger's acceptance of the position, as I predicted, set the stage for all the Amigo nonsense to come in 2008 and 2009.
But thatnks to Kruger, the dreams of Spitzer came to naught.
At the time I said:
“Kruger should be buried up to his neck in horse dung, and beaten senseless with a baseball bat three times a day until he comes out of the closet and admits he's a Republican.”
The IDC has now proven to be the deja vu all over again; it even had the same price tag.
How bad is it?
Klein and company voted for a rule change so offensive that Andrew Cuomo actually took the side of John Sampson against Dean Skelos.
Poor Bob Duffy; Jeff Klein and his buddies voted to curtail the one and only power he has under the State Constitution–at least in the absence of an effort by the Governor to structure a payment to a prostitute (and I don’t mean Carl Kruger), so as to be able to wear socks to bed.
Dean Skelos didn’t need the votes; he could have let them off the hook to save face. He could have found some way to let them vote against at least some of the proposed rules to maintain their false veneer as “Reformers.”
But that was not the message he wanted to send. Dean Skelos (Greek for “canine“) had paid his $12,500 apiece to add these four bitches to his doghouse, and now he wanted to show he had had them fixed and trained to heal at his command.
The IDC may have escaped the purgatory of Sampson’s pound, and one cannot begrudge them their freedom, but better they should have remained wild and hungry strays than to have joined these hounds from hell.
At the very least, the IDC is going to awake with fleas. And flee is what they would do if they had any sense.