{"id":828,"date":"2009-06-15T18:42:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T22:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/06\/15\/in-albany-time-for-fresh-faces-fresh-voices\/"},"modified":"2009-06-15T18:42:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-15T22:42:00","slug":"in-albany-time-for-fresh-faces-fresh-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/06\/15\/in-albany-time-for-fresh-faces-fresh-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"In Albany, time for fresh faces, fresh voices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very little is clear in Albany these days, but one thing has come into sharp focus: New York desperately needs a new cast of characters.<\/p>\n

Senator Malcolm Smith’s lackluster performance over the last five months had already raised serious questions about his capacity for leadership.<\/p>\n

The fact that the Senate’s top Democrat stumbled blindly into this keystone-cop coup<\/a> hardly instills fresh confidence.<\/p>\n

It’s also clear that Republican leader Dean Skelos acted with a degree if imprudence amounting to fecklessness in staging this farce.<\/p>\n

His claim to a sudden zeal for reform rings hollow, given that his GOP dominated the Senate for four decades without embracing any significant reform.<\/p>\n

What’s more, his bungling grope for power was enabled by a partnership with two of New York’s least reputable Democrats: one under indictment for assault, the other being probed for campaign donation irregularities.<\/p>\n

“When you lay with a dog, sometimes you wake up with fleas,” said Sen. Martin Golden<\/a>, (R-Brooklyn), in an interview with the NY Daily News.<\/p>\n

All in all, it’s hardly a coalition of statesmen. Whatever Mr. Skelos’s qualities, this affair may well have tainted him beyond redemption.<\/p>\n

(And don’t get me started on Sens. Monserrate and Espada. Neither are worthy of much serious discussion, let alone leadership posts.)<\/p>\n

There are, of course, good men and women in New York’s Senate, on both sides of the aisle.<\/p>\n

It’s time for some of them to step forward and engineer the kind of power shift that truly serves the people.<\/p>\n

This affair may also be a final, unambiguous signal that Governor David Paterson’s future is damaged beyond repair.<\/p>\n

I have defended Mr. Paterson before in this blog. He was dealt a brutally difficult hand and has at times impressed me with his political courage and honesty.<\/p>\n

For a Democrat to challenge the public employee unions and members of his own party as the Governor has done is no small feat.<\/p>\n

But can he lead? Can he bend Albany? Can he bring a semblance of order to his own fractious and increasingly farcical party?<\/p>\n

As events unfolded in the Senate over the last week, it was hard to see any evidence that the Governor has these essential qualities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very little is clear in Albany these days, but one thing has come into sharp […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}