Free Republic

Imagine you are one of Shelly Silver’s handpicked protectors. Assume the Assembly speaker appointed you to the state ethics panel with a wink-and-a-nod understanding that you would do his bidding and shield him from gumshoes bearing subpoenas. All was going swimmingly — you acted with abject fealty when the panel met secretly and concluded it would investigate the conduct of Assemblyman Vito Lopez, but not Silver’s attempt to hide a $103,000 payoff to two women who accused Lopez of sexual harassment. Then Gov. Cuomo ruined everything. He piped up and threatened to unleash an army of diggers unless you investigate...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Wall Street is wobbling. Tax revenue growth has slowed. Economic forecasts call for a chance of recession. Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli — who have agreed on almost nothing in months — agree on this: The economic outlook is more bleak than in years, and likely to get worse. So, of course, New York's state government is poised to spend like a drunken yachtsman. Never mind the projected $4.3 billion deficit for the 2008-09 budget. Billions of dollars in new spending have already been committed,...

It's time to "fight fire with fire." That's Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's message to his fellow Democrat, Gov. Spitzer, when it comes to dealing with the governor's arch political enemy, and New York's top Republican, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. (snip) The speaker yesterday urged the governor to exercise his right to appoint a Moreland commission, which would have subpoena power and the ability to investigate "whatever it is they want to look into." "I think it's appropriate to do the same thing [the Senate Republicans] are doing, which is basically to do a fishing expedition," Silver said. "It's tit...