In case anyone's (still) wondering why the Senate Republicans are going to fight to the bitterest of ends, ready Danny Hakim's NYT piece today. He calls the Senate's gameplan "panic."
[The Senate Republicans] first act after staging a coup on June 8 was to institute rules changes to guarantee that administrative budgets be divided equitably. They have also said they want to guarantee that member items, the earmarks that are perhaps Albany’s most precious commodity, are split equally.
Legitimizing those rules changes is seen as critical to giving Republicans a voice in a future Senate that most believe will be ruled by Democrats. Democrats could always rewrite the rules if they claimed a clear majority, but reversing changes meant to establish fairness would be a controversial step for a party that bills itself as progressive.
In other words, the Senate Republicans have absolutely nothing to lose. It's all found money for them.
That the leadership of Malcolm Smith and John Sampson cannot devise a strategy to exploit this is testament to their near-surreal incompetence.
Instead they gratuitously lob grenades at Mike Bloomberg, David Paterson and Shelly Silver. And most likely when all is said and done, Smith and Sampson will find themselves with two highly-invested and motivated billionaires out to destroy them. And with no allies in sight.
Great work, guys.
