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People in masks cannot be trusted
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ny senate don't know how to play nice.
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Come to Order! Not a Chance, if It’s Albany
By DANNY HAKIM
ALBANY — New York did not have one State Senate on Tuesday. It had two.
Democrats sneaked into the Senate chamber shortly after noon, seizing control of the rostrum and locking Republicans out of the room. Republicans were finally allowed to enter about 2:30 p.m., but when they tried to station one of their own members on the dais they were blocked by the sergeants-at-arms.
So then something extraordinary — and rather embarrassing — happened.
The two sides, like feuding junior high schoolers refusing to acknowledge each other, began holding separate legislative sessions at the same time. Side by side, the parties, each asserting that it rightfully controls the Senate, talked and sometimes shouted over one another, gaveling through votes that are certain to be disputed. There were two Senate presidents, two gavels, two sets of bills being voted on.
“This is turning into the worst reality TV show ever: ‘I’m a Senator, Get Me Out of Here,’ ” said Thomas R. Suozzi, Nassau County executive and former Democratic candidate for governor. “Jon and Kate are fighting less than these guys “
Gov. David A. Paterson had called the senators to the Capitol Tuesday, urging them to find a way to end a 31-to-31 standoff that had halted legislative action for more than two weeks. Mr. Paterson said the Senate’s behavior “disgusts me.”
“I have been a public servant here for over 20 years,” Mr. Paterson said, adding, “The conduct today was farcical.”
By the end of the day, Democrats had passed 14 bills and Republicans had passed 85. But not even the governor could say whether any of the votes were valid, or who was in charge of the Senate. The senators will gather again on Wednesday for another special session called by Mr. Paterson, who has vowed to keep doing so, every day, until the sides resolve their differences.
Most of the bills taken up Tuesday were local or routine: Democrats approved a hotel tax increase in Tioga County; Republicans designated May 17 as Thurgood Marshall Day.
But Mr. Paterson is urging the Senate to grapple with more major issues, and added the legalization of same-sex marriage to a list of bills on the agenda for Wednesday.
The day’s events leave Albany in an unprecedented legal and political morass, experts said, as there is little case law or historical precedent to determine which dueling session — if either — was legitimate, or even who has the authority to make that judgment.
Because all 62 senators were present in the chamber at the beginning of the sessions, each side claimed that it had the necessary quorum to conduct business and said the other side was voting yes by not voicing opposition to any of its bills.
Patricia E. Salkin, director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School, said, “There is no right answer because there’s no precedent, because this hasn’t happened before.”
The galleries at the Capitol were packed for Tuesday’s session, with aides, lobbyists and others watching rapt as the bizarre scene unfolded. Democrats scored a tactical victory by seizing the official Senate gavel, which is large and made of black walnut, its whack echoing through the chamber with authority.
Senator George H. Winner Jr., who was presiding over the Republican session, was left to peck the table in front of him with a small gavel used by Republicans for their private conferences.
“It’s better than the eyeglass case I was using before,” Mr. Winner said.
At times, the proceedings grew heated. After Democrats declared the chamber “at ease,” or on a break, Mr. Winner called a Democrat, Ruth Hassell-Thompson, out of order for standing and speaking to a colleague.
She whipped around.
“Don’t you dare tell me I’m out of order,” Ms. Hassell-Thompson, who represents parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, shouted several times at Mr. Winner.
“Easy, Ruth,” a Democratic colleague called out.
At the same time, Senator Dean G. Skelos was trying to speak from the Senate floor, complaining that the Senate’s staff would not provide them with the bill “jackets” — the official bills used to conduct Senate business.
Kevin S. Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat under indictment on charges that he attacked a newspaper photographer, faced Mr. Skelos.
“If they were actually in charge, they would have the bill jackets,” Mr. Parker bellowed to fellow Democrats while Republicans tried to silence him. “We’re at ease!”
A few other Democrats moved between him and Mr. Skelos.
“Calm down,” Senator John L. Sampson, the leader of the Democratic caucus, said aloud.
The dispute in the Senate began on June 8, when two Democrats joined 30 Republicans to oust Malcolm A. Smith as majority leader, leaving Mr. Skelos and Pedro Espada Jr., a Bronx Democrat, as co-leaders in a power sharing agreement. One of the dissident Democrats, Hiram Monserrate of Queens, later changed his mind, leaving the Senate evenly split.
Negotiations to break the impasse have sputtered.
Early Tuesday, Republicans seemed as surprised as the rest of the Capitol when Democrats took over the chamber. Some Republican staff members rushed to the chamber to peek through small windows to watch the Democrats congregating. Some reporters were able to gain access to the locked chamber through the office of Mr. Espada, hurrying through a side room where Mr. Espada’s grandson was parked in front of a television, watching the Cartoon Network.
Despite the condemnation from the governor, newspaper editorialists and civic groups, senators of both parties seemed strikingly unworried about, or perhaps insulated from, public anger over the events. Several said that they have noticed only a slightly more-than-average volume of calls coming into their district offices lately, and that only a small percentage of the calls were negative.
And some members seemed to almost enjoy the chaos, calling it memorable and recording it for posterity.
Senator Craig M. Johnson, a Long Island Democrat, took pictures of reporters who sneaked into the Senate’s gallery with his BlackBerry camera after the Democrats had locked the chamber doors. Later, Senator Kemp Hannon, a Long Island Republican, raised his Nikon D300 to capture his colleague, Mr. Winner, speaking before a throng of cameras.
Turning to a reporter, he said, “We’re never going to see this one again.”
Nicholas Confessore and Jeremy W. Peters contributed reporting.
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It all started 2 weeks ago when some democrats switched sides to vote with the republicans, and elected a new senate leader. The democrats refused to accept it as being a legitimate vote, and since then they have been acting like children it is sad. Our governor I think has been mostly useless since he came in to office, but he did have one good comment basically saying there was 80,000 unemployed New Yorkers who would be more then willing to do their job.
Fast forward to yesterday and it is kind of funny to hear how Democrats went in through a back hallway and locked the republicans out at first. Then how they acted like 2 year olds fighting for a gavel and yelling at each other. Sorry that is insulting to toddlers, I apologize.
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06-24-2009, 04:19 AM
