And you may say to yourself “My god, what have I done”
The NYS Senate is now dead-locked at 31-31, as you may have heard, with one of the two party-switchers (the wifegirlfriend-beater) switching back. And Republicans may or may not be having buyers’ remorse about the other party switcher, the one whose “cronies stole food meant for poor, sick people and gave it out at his political rallies, owes the city $61,750 in fines….has failed to file 41 reports with the State Board of Elections….has racked up $13,553 in penalties since 2002 [and] does not have an office in the district he was elected to represent in the Bronx.” Here’s Jimmy Vielkind:
“Several of them (Republican Senators) 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.”
[...]
The strongest statement of support I’ve heard for Espada came from State Senator Marty Golden, who attacked the Democrats for attacking Espada.
“Right now he’s innocent until proven guilty. I’ve had the privilege of working with them in the past, and I’ve found he’s an all-right guy, and I’ve found him and his son, who I worked with on the City Council, to be good family people,” Golden said.
[....]
This guy [Espada] hasn’t been indicted. This guy hasn’t done anything wrong yet, although the Democrats would want you to believe he has.”
Yet?
“The question is not ‘yet,’ he hasn’t done anything wrong at all. The Dems would want you to believe ‘yet’ is the word,” he said. “We’ll see what happens. Grand juries meet on a regular basis, and sometimes they file charges and sometimes they don’t.”
Really, who among us has never been investigated by a grand jury?
(via The Albany Project)
Update. This is not to imply that everyone who has been investigated by a grand jury has done anything wrong. But “grand juries meet all the time” shouldn’t cut it when you’re an elected official.
MikeJ
I believe the old saying is that a good prosecutor can get an indictment against a ham sandwich.
oh really
“If you’re not guilty of something, you wouldn’t be a suspect.”—Ed Meese
Not a direct quote, but I think it fairly captures the sentiments of the man who was probably the greatest Republican AG ever; barely edging out John “Tit in the Wringer” Mitchell and Alberto “I don’t recall remembering” Gonzales.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
And you may
tellask yourself “My god, what have I done?”DougJ
Yeah, I agree with you and I don’t mean to say Espada is guilty because he’s under investigation. But I do think that if a politician is being investigated for multiple criminal and civil infractions, that’s problematic.
Martin
I call bullshit. Republicans feeling remorse? When has that ever happened before?
JenJen
Same as it ever was.
DougJ
It seems to be “say to yourself” (at 3:27).
The Grand Panjandrum
@JenJen: Into the blue again
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
Oops, nevermind.
“And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?”
canuckistani
This is not my beautiful House
The Grand Panjandrum
Grand juries don’t investigate, do they? I thought the DA would bring the case before them once the investigators have obtained enough evidence for an indictment.
Wile E. Coyote Republicans.
D-Chance.
The NYS Senate is now dead-locked at 31-31, as you may have heard, with one of the two party-switchers (the wife-beater) switching back.
Nice to know that Democrats will welcome back their wife beaters with open arms…
DougJ
I feel bad that I’m such a pro-Democratic partisan-hack that I described the guy as a wife-beater in my post.
DougJ
I think that if you define the term strictly enough, then no, but it is very common to refer to “grand jury investigations” or say something is being “investigated by a grand jury”. What that means, as you say, is that a prosecutor presents evidence to a grand jury that decides whether or not to indict.
The Other Steve
This is not my beautiful wife.
WereBear
Wait a minute, by wifebeater do you mean the faceslasher?
The Grand Panjandrum
@DougJ: Gotcha.
@D-Chance.: Pie!
TenguPhule
It’s as if the GOP has become the living incarnation of tvtropes.
jcricket
I believe there’s some phrase involving the verb “hoist” and the noun “petard” that’s applicable here.
Or in this case, perhaps they are hoist on our petard? Ha.
The Other Steve
Same as it ever was
DougJ
Yeah, you’re right, it wasn’t his wife. I didn’t want to graphic, but I’ll do a correction.
Yutsano
Man I feel out of it, I’ve never even been arrested.
Woodrowfan
hell, why haven’t the NY Democrats found somebody from their districts to replace them? Have they tried, but failed/ Are these new problems so they haven’t had a chance?? But then, I live in the DC area so if you just say “Marion Barry” I’ll just nod and say “ah, I understand.”
DougJ
Monseratte’s “problem” is new, but I think everyone always knew he was a sleazebag. Espada’s troubles are nothing new.
New York is a machine state. Once you’re in, you’re in. That goes for both parties.
Yutsano
Wonder what that says about Gillenbrand. Or how in the hell Hillary managed to carpetbag her way into the Senate.
Maus
Yep, before he was just a Scientologist tool. Now, he’s known for being a Scientologist scammer AND stabbing his girlfriend in the face.
R. Schmidt Orren
Exactly. I can’t even take a bath without 6 or 7 grand juries jumping in with me.
Martin
Dude, he was trying to get the thetan out of her. It was totally self-defense.
MattF
This is just amazingly entertaining.
Maryland politics used to be fun—until the goo-goos took over. Story is told of a certain Maryland state legislator who was accused of a conflict of interest with respect to certain legislation. He protested—“The legislation doesn’t conflict with any of my interests.”
Napoleon
I will not be able to get that song out of my head the rest of the evening.
Jay
Yeah, by the standards applicable to the New York State Legislature, that’s practically a nomination for sainthood.
Thlayli
@Yutsano:
See, the funny thing about New York is, there’s a lot of people here who were born someplace else. So that “carpetbagger” argument was never going to work.
Besides, what were we supposed to do—vote for a Republican? We’ve pretty much stopped doing that (except for the state senators, which is where we came in.)
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground
Buffalopundit
The funniest thing I’ve seen in all of this mess is this video taken last year, showing people in Espada’s purported building in the Bronx telling him to his face that he doesn’t live there, and he threatens them. It’s brilliant.
Espada is a narcissistic fuckwad in a body of narcissistic fuckwads – the totally useless and anachronistic NYS Senate.
Yutsano
I remember reading way back when she was originally considering running that New Yorkers tend to have a very cosmopolitan attitude when it came to their elected representatives. Never was quite sure exactly what that meant, but hey, she did do a few good things for New York right?
Dulcie
@Yutsano: Three words: Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Am I right? Am I wrong?
Thanks for the warning.
rachel
Oh, these slippery people. ˃⁔˂
DougJ
@BuffaloPundit
Good stuff. What a tool Espada is.
Chris Johnson
The Lord won’t mind :)
rikyrah
it was obvious that these two traitors were absolute losers. This is funny as could be.
Sophist
Look, it’s a plain fact that he owes the city $61,750 in fines. It’s a fact that he didn’t file 41 reports, has accumulated $13,553 in penalties and does not have an office in his district. The only thing that you might possibly wait for an indictment on is the food stealing.
Also, as a pedant, I feel I must point out that being unindicted doesn’t mean he hasn’t done anything wrong yet, it means that we don’t yet know if the things he’s done are wrong. A subtle distinction, perhaps, but an important one.
Tom G
I live in New York State.
In my opinion, NONE of the state senators ought to show their faces for re-election. Not after this. Throw all of them out and get a whole new bunch of crooks in.