File under: Absolutely Hilarious and Incredibly Accurate Unintended Irony on the Part of Facebook.
It seems that the folks at the automatic responder department of Facebook know their politics. The photo on the left is a screenshot from Facebook. The photo is of a page titled, "Nys MajorityLeader." I kid you not. That's the title. Nice start.
Obviously someone from the Nys MajorityLeader's office set this up to gather support for everyone's favorite Monserrate protector, Pedro Espada.
Setting aside the actual lack of Facebook understanding on the part of the administrator of the page, how about that photo? Instills a quiet confidence that the Nys Majority is in good hands.
The Facebook irony comes in if, while not signed in on Facebook, you do a search for NYS Senate Majority Leader, you get the results on the left.
To see the entire page, make sure you are logged out of Facebook and go HERE.
The irony is that Facebook is asking the exactly correct questions.
The Bronx Democratic Party, focused on refilling its depleted campaign coffers and coalescing around new leader Carl Heastie, has hinted that it will either sit out Espada's race next year or even go so far as to back the feisty majority leader.
"So far, Espada's been pretty decent," one party source said. "I'm not so sure you're going to find anyone willing to go up against him."
(snip)
Another hint that the Bronx organization will most likely pass on challenging Espada is the Bronx senator's close relationship with party consigliore Stanley Schlein, who represented Espada during the summer leadership negotiations. Although the two have had a volatile relationship, punctuated by a fistfight at the Bronx offices of the Board of Elections several years ago, some Bronx watchers assume that Schlein and Espada's renewed alliance will curtail any potential party-backed challenges.
This is unacceptable. The Bronx Democratic party has long had a reputation for being a cesspool of corruption, backroom deals, and clubhouse politics, so it's not surprising that they would support a slimeball like Espada for no other reason than to benefit from the largesse he has embezzled from the state treasury.
Schneiderman staffer Lilliam Perez expressed interest in challenging Espada a few months ago, but has since backed off making a clear commitment. Perhaps she would be more inclined to run if she knew she could count on the support of the progressive blogosphere. So what do you all think? Should we draft Lilliam?
The results from our poll are finalized, and the Worst Albany Embarrassment of 2009 is (drumroll)...
(Photo: Matt Ryan, Wikimedia Commons)
Senator Espada, you have shamed and demeaned even the low standards of your office. Your cynical power-grab threw the entire legislature into chaos as you demanded a leadership post that you had no qualifications to hold. You openly flout campaign finance laws as if you are some sort of dictator above the law, and you don't even live in the district that you very poorly represent. You are a shame and a disgrace and even by Albany standards, you are a damn pathetic embarrassment to all the voters and taxpayers who pay the salary you don't deserve. How you even manage to sleep at night after the way in which you conduct your public life is a testament to your utter and complete lack of integrity and your shameless megalomania. So congratulations on being the most embarrassing waste of flesh in the sad dysfunctional swamp we call our state government; hopefully the voters will remove your cancerous presence from our government in 11 short months. Happy New Year.
Queens Assemblyman Jose Peralta landed more than $500,000 in taxpayer money for a nonprofit that never filed federal tax records, has no employees and has been inactive for more than two years.
Peralta is the Queens Democratic machine's choice to primary Senator Hiram Monserrate in September, if he's not removed from office by the Senate before then.
The article outlines activities on the part of Peralta that sound very similar to Senator Pedro Espada's request for $2 million in Member Items for non-profits that had no address or staff or, well, much of anything except ties to Espada's friends and family.
One of the reasons for Espada's participation in the coup this past summer was the fact that the Democratic leadership essentially told him jump in a lake about the requests...so he went somewhere else to get the money...like Dean Skelos. (Ever wonder what was on tap for the Senate on the day of the coup? It was approval of the Member Items distribution that didn't include Pedro's request.)
I got a phone call this evening. "Hello, uhm, I'm calling on behalf of the New York Democratic Party, uh..." Click.
I blew it. I could have asked the poor hapless phone bank guy why the New York Democrats, after capturing the State Senate for the first time in forty years, let Pedro Espada steal it by blackmailing the Democratic caucus. I might have also asked why it is that Democrats cannot do with 60 members what Republicans manage to get done with 55, but that's not anybody's fault in Albany.
Gonzalez had some serious charges against him. He admitted to funneling state money (your tax dollars) to two nonprofits so that he could use that money for a shopping spree. A Gonzalez staffer was sentenced to prison for being the recipient of a "no show" job. (Gonzalez will be sentenced next month, so stay tuned.)
We wanted Gonzalez out. His scandal was bad news, not only for Democrats and the New York State Senate, but for the 33rd Senate District Gonzalez represents. No one wants to be represented by a crook. And that's exactly what Gonzalez is.
So who did we find to replace the scandal-ridden Efrain Gonzalez?
That's all I need to say, especially on this blog. We replaced one scandal-plagued senator with another only because the challenger (Espada), at the time, was the lesser of two evils.
If we are going to replace Monserrate, we need someone better to serve the residents of the 13th Senate District. We can't just replace him with someone that has a questionable past who will burn us in the end (like Espada). Monserrate needs to exit. He was found guilty of a crime that still has a lot of unanswered questions. While the misdemeanor means that Monserrate technically can stay in office, it still doesn't say a lot of Monserrate. Being found guilty of physically abusing your girlfriend isn't a good characteristic to have as an elected official.
The lessons we have learned about Espada should be fresh in our minds. The DSCC supported him. We saw him as a better option than Gonzalez, which is debatable. While Gonzalez had his own scandal with nonprofits, Espada also has nonprofit problems. Espada has toyed with switching to the Republican Party in the past and that culminated with his role in the June coup.
Thus, to replace Monserrate, we need to have a good Democrat ready to take over. We can't have another Pedro Espada.
It is hard for me to determine what is worse: The person raising money for one of the top Republicans is supposedly the Democratic majority leader of the New York State Senate or my senator, George Maziarz, on the receiving end of money from that majority leader who is the most corrupt man serving in Albany today.
Liz was sent this fundraising invite for an event that will be held in one of Maziarz's favorite places: Manhattan.
Maziarz, who never misses an opportunity to push the upstate-downstate divide and bash New York City, is not a stranger to New York City fundraising. Last year, he held a fundraiser at the same Penn Club where Espada will be helping fundraise for him.
The event is $500 per person. It might be worth asking around here in the 62nd Senate District to see who could afford to attend such a fundraiser if it were held in the district. I doubt many would be able to say they could. Thus, the reason why Maziarz holding these fundraisers is just more hypocrisy on his part.
We could also turn this on Espada, who runs on the Democratic line and yet, is helping raise money for a Republican. Even though Senator John Sampson might want to defend his "colleague", Espada is not a friend to the Democratic caucus. This fundraising invite should prove that. His name appearing as one of the hosts along with Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos is not good for our conference.
Back to Maziarz though. We have yet to see a serious contender to Maziarz. That might change come 2010. There is plenty of dirt and his willingness to side with some of the shadiest figures in New York politics doesn't speak well for his character. That is why we need to target him in 2010. I'm not saying that because it's my district. I'm saying that because he is one of the reasons why what happened in June and lasted until July went down.
We need to get rid of the bad senators in Albany. George Maziarz is one of those senators.
In what is certain to be only the first of several rounds, State Supreme Court Justice William R. LaMarca has ruled that Governor Paterson's appointment of Richard Ravitch to be lieutenant-governor is unconstitutional, and has granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting Ravitch from acting as such.
The text of the judge's decision is available here.
I'm not a lawyer, but since the judge agreed not only with my conclusion by also with my reasoning I find the decision to be clear and well-written; others may disagree.
It seems that Pedro Espada didn't campaign in 2008 ... or at any rate he didn't spend any money during the crucial months.
Espada's primary campaign committee, "Pedro Espada, Jr." (A39657), has yet to file a July 2008 statement, but all statements following that merely show "no activity." In other words, from July 12, 2008 through the end of November Espada neither raised nor spent any money on his campaign.
Remarkable! I'm working on a campaign in Queens now, and I'd love to know how to run it without spending any money.
There is another committee, "Espada for the People" (A30709), which is not listed as a particular campaign committee, but which did spend money in 2008. Specifically, from January 12, 2008 until 11 days before the primary (there are no filings yet after the 11-day pre-primary filing), that committee spent $5,859.80, mostly on petitioning.
Again, remarkable! I've been supporting a "Clean Money, Clean Elections" system under which a state Senate candidate could manage by raising only a few thousand dollars, but spending of public funds, to the tune of as much as a few hundred thousand dollars, would augment that. But Pedro Espada has managed to win with far less.
Please, Pedro, tell us how you did it! The campaign finance reform that you could enact would be truly amazing.
Medicaid is the 800-pound gorilla in state and local spending, and the waste, fraud and abuse in the nation's most-expensive-by-far Medicaid program is a perennial political pinata for those who say they want to reduce government spending.
Somehow, little gets done, and some Medicaid contractors continue to get richer than ever.
Case in point -- turncoat Democrat Pedro Espada of the Bronx, who has single-handedly thrown a monkey wrench into the state Senate's ability to do basic legislative work.
Espada makes $100K or so from his part-time job screwing up the Senate, but his big money comes from being CEO of the Soundview Health Network in the Bronx, which paid him $460,000 in 2007, according to Jim Odato's story in Thursday's Albany Times Union.
Who would have imagined that some GOP senators would come to regret having some ethically challenged guy from the Bronx become their new spokesman and face of their party?
They're allied with him in the quest to wrest control of the State Senate leadership, but there are some lingering misgivings among Republicans in the chamber about the partnership with State Senator Pedro Espada Jr.
"Several of them are in 'Oh my God, what have we done' mode," said one Republican who is close to many of the senators. "Pedro is obviously enjoying this immensely. The image of Dean standing mute while Pedro pontificates is a little much. And the general stoppage ... some are saying we never should have done it, some are saying, they should have said bring three or four or don't come."
That much seemed clear Thursday when the two top figures in the Republican-led coalition-Espada and State Senator Dean Skelos-emerged from a negotiating session.
Espada proclaimed he had Skelos' support. Skelos said nothing. When pressed, his comments were less than clear.
Later in the day, Skelos issued a statement decrying attacks against Espada and touting the historic nature of the first Latino to attain the title of president pro tempore. There was also this line: "The members of the Senate Republican Conference stand solidly behind Senator Espada as Temporary President and we look forward to building our reform coalition together."
Still, no first-person declaration. Skelos was pressed by the Times Union's Irene Jay Liu in a walk-and-talk. She asked if Skelos was "going to stand by him throughout this."
"I'm going to stand beside him because that was the vote of the Senate," Skelos said.
He's all yours now, Senator. Lucky you. You get what you pay for. You can thank your pal Tommy Golisano.
Let's review.
Democrats? Tired of Pedro's shit.
His constituents? Tired of Pedro's shit.
and now the GOP? Yeah, tired of Pedro's shit too.
To go with his bullshit attitude about how everything revolves around him, Pedro just bought a new set of clothes. Remember, he and his buddies made sure to pay themselves, so he has the cash.
By his own admission, Pedro Espada doesn't live in the Bronx. When he needed to post bail for a nephew last year, he admitted it. CBS2 has the documents.
The Bronx politician at the center of the Albany coup has new problems, CBS 2 has learned exclusively. Official documents we obtained show Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. listed his residence as a home in Mamaroneck, not his Bronx district.
When Espada was first asked by CBS 2 HD whether he actually lives in the district he represents, he laughed. But now it's no laughing matter.
CBS 2 HD acquired documentation filed on June 24, 2009, by Espada and his wife Connie to post bail for their nephew, Carlos Mocete, who was arrested in Bridgeport, Conn. Twice, on two separate pages, Espada listed his residence as 115 Beechwood Drive in Mamaroneck, not the Bronx coop where he claims he lives to fulfill state residence requirements that he actually live in the district he's serving.
Espada did his best to dodge the questions when we approached him in the past. He may not be so lucky anymore. The documents are important because Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson now has an expanding criminal probe of whether Espada is violating state law by living in Mamaroneck.
Sources tell CBS 2 that Johnson has subpoenaed box loads of records from the state Senate, including Espada's travel vouchers and requests for pork barrel money. The DA wants records for Espada's present Senate stint, which began in January, as well as two other terms from 1993 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2002. CBS 2 has also learned the prosecutor also wants to know about a request made by Espada for $2 million in pork barrel money for two non-profits that were started in the spring.
The video at the link is even more devastating.
Update (Thanks John!) - Speaking of video and June 24, 2008...
Let the historians note that it only took 9 days for the state's highest ranking Republican, Dean Skelos' ethically challenged pet Pedro Espada, to let the power dangled in front of him take him completely around the bend. It would seem that the Il Duce of the Bronx has jumped the shark in record time. He now claims that he is the awesomest of all the senators, more equal than all the others, and that he has the power to cast not one, but two votes.
Outside an uneventful GOP-plus-Pedro Espada Jr. meeting of the Senate Rules Committee, the breakaway Democrat repeated his claim that as president pro tempore he is also "acting lieutenant governor," and therefore could wield not one but two votes in the chamber, which is deadlocked 31-31.
"I didn't invent that - it's in the Constitution," said Espada.
Espada said his only reluctance to unsheath his second vote and establish a quorum is his desire to avoid landing the Senate in an even more protracted legal battle. "We don't want to end up in court," he said.
He really believes this apparently. He was quoted saying the same thing to the Post this morning:
Renegade Democratic Sen. Pedro Espada claimed yesterday he and his Republican allies are forging an explosive new plan to give him an unprecedented two votes to break the newly emerged deadlock in the state Senate.
"I can have two votes," Espada boldly told The Post.
"We're going to maintain that, as the president pro tempore of the Senate, I am also the acting lieutenant governor, and the lieutenant governor can vote when there's a tie."
This man actually believes that he has been vested with the power to vote exactly twice as many times as anyone else in the New York State Senate. Does he also believe that he can manufacture a quorum by voting twice? What other superpowers does he believe he now has? Does he think he can fly?
More importantly, can he point a single instance anywhere in history where this has been the case for anyone else, no matter what titles they may have had? No? I wonder why that is. Oh right. It's because IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE.
I did a brief Google search for the idea. What Espada is proposing has no precedent that I can find over the last four hundred years of Anglo-American parliamentary procedure. Not here, not in the UK, not in the Dominions.
Not anywhere, ever.
Not only is Pedro Espada a common criminal, he has obviously also lost his mind.
Remember, all of 8 days ago, when the plotters were all puffy chested about a more equitable Senate? Remember when they were hailing their revolt as a victory for "bipartisanship"? Me too.
The "coup" plotters tried to tell everyone last week that their sham revolt was about "reform" and opening up the Senate. Most people paying any attention knew they were full of shit the minute they opened their mouths. But now everyone knows it to be true. Why? Because, as we now have a 31 all tie, everyone knows that there is going to have to be some sort of power sharing arrangement. The Senate will have to be more open under any such scenario.
Yesterday, in a closed door meeting between many of the principals, the Dems offered what looks to be a pretty good deal, one that the remnants of the "reform coalition" rejected out of hand.
During negotiations, Senate Democrats proposed a power-sharing plan to Senate Republicans that would include the following provisions:
1. On session days, rotate the position of temporary president between two the parties on a daily basis.
2. The floor leader from the opposition party would be preside with opposing temporary president "to provide better balance."
3. A bipartisan committee of 6 senators, three from each party, to set the session agenda.
When asked about the terms of the proposal, a Senate Republican spokesman said that the discussion didn't go as far as a formal proposal, so it really wasn't something on the table to accept or reject.
Senators in attendance:
Democrats: Sens. Malcolm A. Smith, John Sampson, Jeff Klein and Carl Kruger.
Coalition: Sens. Dean Skelos, Tom Libous, John DeFrancisco and Democratic Sen. Pedro Espada.
Sounds awfully damn "equitable" and "bipartisan" to me. It would also have let the Senate get back to doing the work we pay them to do. But such an agreement would not do for the plotters for one simple reason. All that talk about "reform" was straight up bullshit. These guys and their new pet, the ethically challenged moral pygmy, Pedro Espada, now arguably the highest ranking Republican in the entire state, never had any interest in any of that stuff. The GOP wanted their cushy offices back and to be able to turn on the patronage spigot once again. Tommy Golisano wanted to show he world that no one could check their blackberry whilst he pontificated about something or other. They both needed someone who could be bought off relatively cheap. Pedro and his pal fit the bill perfectly. They had to know that Pedro was a two bit punk and opportunist who had been rebuffed by the Dems when he tried to funnel $2 million bucks to sham non profits he's created just days previously, something he has quite the rep for.
So they decided to make him second in line to the Governor and gave him some laughable talking points about reform. It looked like this, an image that we as a state will carry with us in shame for a long long time:
But then they had a problem. Their little coup fell apart. Hiram got a serious case of buyer's remorse and backed away from this little cabal of suckitude. That leaves the Senate all knotted up at 31 votes apiece. Neither side can do a damned thing without at least some cooperation from the other. They can't even gavel in a session without someone from the other side playing along.
This would seem to mean that there needs to be some sort of power sharing agreement, no? The Dems offered one. The GOP decided to let the rest of the world know that all their talk of "reform" was utter tripe by rejecting it out of hand and by then returning to the very court they had asked to dismiss the case and begged for "judicial intervention." Why? Because they have no interest in getting back to the people's business under any arrangement that doesn't leave them in complete control.
It was always transparently ridiculous that the very people who fought against any reform at all for 40 years had had a sudden change of heart and did so while adopting and elevating probably the single most ethically challenged person in the entire chamber. Did anyone really believe any of this stuff? It was always about power, perks and greed.
Here's some powerful video from inside the Capitol as the so called "reform coalition" made their way to the senate chamber to hold their fake session:
Marriage equality will pass this year. That's a prognostication, but I have two reasons for making it.
First, Pedro Espada supports it. I hate to think that someone with his less than stellar record has any power at all, but there it is. In addition, Tom Duane is willing to do whatever it takes to get it passed -- even conspire with such as Espada.
Second, Republicans want it to pass. They are tasting the possibility of being in control of the Senate again, and don't want to lose that control in a year and a half. If marriage equality is still an issue, there will be enormous amounts of money and people turning out for Democrats (real Democrats) next year. By passing marriage equality, Republicans will dam that flood.
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:
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.)
They're allied with him in the quest to wrest control of the State Senate leadership, but there are some lingering misgivings among Republicans in the chamber about the partnership with State Senator Pedro Espada Jr.
