Posted on 06/15/2009 5:16:55 PM PDT by Chet 99
ALBANY — A rogue Queens Democrat who last week flipped sides to help Republicans take control of the State Senate has now flipped back back to the Democrats — creating an historic, gridlock-producing 31-31 tie in the 62-member house.
Because there is no lieutenant governor — David A. Paterson was elevated last year following disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's departure — no one is quite certain how, or even if, dozens of must-do bills will get passed in the coming weeks.
The situation has created a constitutional crisis in which the Legislature is effectively shut down from approving new bills just a week before the scheduled end of the 2009 session.
Sen. Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat, said today he has returned to the Democratic conference he bolted from last week.
"We've got to take back the Senate," said Monserrate as he stood next to his fellow Democrats this afternoon. Only a week ago, he stood in the back of the Senate chamber and voted for the GOP takeover.
"This conference today is more unified than ever," Monserrate said.
(Excerpt) Read more at buffalonews.com ...
Shut it down, stop paying the politicians. Lock the doors.
Why? Is every vote straight socialist vesus straight American?
Someone had this guy fitted for cement loafers.
Bicameralism is [...] conducive to gridlock. But there are 6 billion people on this planet and about 5.7 billion of them would be better off if they lived under governments more susceptible to gridlock. Gridlock is not an American problem, it is an American achievement.- George Will
Sometimes blessings come about in the strangest way.
This guy started acting squirrely almost immediately, refusing to vote unless more rats joined the coalition. This only speeds up the inevitable. He will be out of office as soon as he’s convicted of assaulting his girlfriend and another rat will take his seat.
The big problem for the NY Senate Dems is keeping Sen. Aubertine from running for McHugh’s House seat. If Aubertine wins, his seat will likely go GOP, and hence we get the majority with Espada (and right now, Espada can’t go back to the Dems, because he’ll never be able to get a position of power in the party again). I was a bit troubled having someone like Monserrate providing us with the margin of majority. He seems like an easily-bribed thug.
Terrific quote.
I’d go along with a do nothing Congress every time.
Monserrate is another Bloomberg, but right now we’ll take what we can get.
This may be the best thing that ever happened. If the can’t pass bills, they can’t spend more money. Praise the Lord. Lets keep it up for another 6 months. As you might have guessed, I live in NY.
The question in some quarters is, should the GOP not seriously contest McHugh’s House seat so that they can win control of the NY state Senate, or do they make every effort to hold it?
It’s a dilemma for us, but we REALLY need to take back Congress and we can’t shed any more seats. Even if we hold onto the NY Senate, it hasn’t kept us from being nearly flatlined at the federal level.
“Someone had this guy fitted for cement loafers.”
Yea, a good reporter would compare the number of children he claims to have now against the number he claimed last year.
Hmm I’ve never heard of such a thing.
The house seat is more important. Losing it would be a moral killer.
2010 will provide an opportunity to take back the State Senate if the NY GOP is up for it.
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