NextGenDems

Stronger Than Dirt

Gatemouth assesses Pedro, the "amigos," and the new Senate majority by noting:

We are now back to where we were a month ago, only worse, with the Senate Democratic Conference still held hostage by a group of degenerate madmen who are now more powerful than ever. At any point, any one member can pull the plug, while those members of the Conference who actually are committed to some form of improvement for State Government are forced to pray for indictments and convictions of their colleagues, whether they’ve actually violated the penal code or not.

If anybody knows these characters it's Gatemouth.  He used to work for Marty Connor, before, during and after the Paterson coup.  Yeah, the "Paterson coup."  Seems kind of quaint and genteel these days.  Then there's also Paterson's leadership handoff to Malcolm Smith.  And then Smith to Sampson.  And the beat goes on and on...

Talk about karma. 

Meet New Boss, Same as Old Boss

Wow. Dick Ravitch reports for work, the four amigos coalesce and Pedro re-flips. Luck or design by Paterson/Ravitch? I suppose it doesn't really matter. Besides, luck trumps design any day.  Although evidently grudge trumps all, at least to these two.

Of course, this is good news for Senate Dems because they could begin passing important legislation.  That the conference is still an IED is an issue for another day.  Anything patched together with Pedro Espada's nihilistic self-interest--or that of Kruger, Monserrate and Diaz--is explosive. By definition.

And that their first communication as the new Majority appears to have been a birthday serenade isn't encouraging. These guys still don't seem to get it. I mean, go into conference, do anything, but don't play Romper Room in front of the media while the state burns--and has been for the past month. They can't manage a nano-moment of gravitas for the cameras? Or maybe work on getting their 32 members into the chamber instead of singing?

Then the Senate Dems put the principal agent of Tom Golisano--who precipitated the whole thing on behalf of the GOP--on their payroll.   'Surreal' doesn't even begin to describe this. 'Bizarre' can't either. This is like Hitler defecting to Russia and then telling Stalin to can Zhukov and hire Rommel to fight the German army because democracy needs to be protected.  

Moreover, what does that move say to Shelly Silver and the Assembly Dems? That Golisano's gonna launch his jihad against them from the Democratic side of the Senate chamber now?  With new Senate Majority leader Espada as the point person?

Maybe the Senate Democratic conference acts dangerously flippant and feckless because it is dangerously flippant and feckless. And this is exactly how it will continue to approach life.  Because if getting ripped asunder by a narcissistic billionaire and spending thirty days in the trash can doesn't change this, absolutely nothing will.   But I suppose nothing demonstrates this more than the narcissistic billionaire switching sides on himself--still in the name of reform.

The Invasive Species Speaks

What's the singular of 'species?' Is it 'specie?' I ask because I'm thinking about invasive Floridian specie Tom Golisano. Today he speaks through current employee-of-the-month Dean Skelos.

So how do we know it's Golisano doing Dean's talking today?  It's pretty simple. You've got a Senate Minority/Majority leader--or whatever Skelos calls himself these days--from a legislative chamber and conference that has done no work for a month, is locked in constitutional trench-warfare with everybody, is getting pounded by the media every hour of every day because of it, and talking about Shelly Silver's "stranglehold" and how the Assembly also needs reform. Really, he says that. Today. July 8, 2009.

This is like that scene in Jaws where Quint's about to get chomped in half by Jaws, only this time talking about the bigger one that got away. And how he's really gonna get that thing after he gets a new paint job on his boat. 

At any rate, I don't think Dean Skelos really desires to take on Silver and his 110 Assembly Dems. He's neither stupid nor delusionally grandiose. Golisano and Steve Pigeon are both. In spades. Plus they've both got OCD around anything Silver. My guess is that that's because the only people left on the board to really clip Team Golisano is Team Silver. The runner-up hypothesis is that Silver thinks Golisano's too much of a self-absorbed asshole to take seriously, so much as endure a meeting with, such as Malcolm Smith acquiesced to for some impenetrable reason.  And people thinking Tom a non-significant, self-absorbed asshole makes Tom about as angry as anything made with blackberries.  Or having to fly commercial--maybe screaming at some flight attendant about his pillow, all amped up on Viagra, Scotch, homestead exemptions and Shelly.

So today's unclimatic upshot is that Golisano and Pigeon put the screws to Skelos to toss out contextually-retarded non sequiturs about getting Silver during Albany radio station interviews.  Maybe this was all part of Golisano's media offensive for this week that didn't get very much play--or fawning editing. We also understand Golisano started running some commercials against Senate Democrats rationalizing some of the paralysis he's underwritten by slinging more self-serving shit at the wall.

And this is why Malcolm Smith's mortal sin of blowing his Democratic majority to this viscerally repulsive hypocrite is unforgivable.

The Dog Ate My Bill Copy

A day or two ago I thought that Fred Dicker was being a tad maudlin in his declaration that the state is headed for Third-Worldom with the brainiacs in the Senate blazing the path.

Today, I'm not so sure he's off-base, because yesterday I hear that one of the least criminally-insane and megalomaniacal members of the Senate Democratic conference has finally succumbed to SDS (Senate Derangement Syndrome). To wit, Senator Darrel Auberine decides he's going to sue the Assembly for its refusal to hand up to the governor the Power for Jobs bill that recently "passed" the Senate by virtue of something akin to an Elvis sighting.

This is remarkably similar to the Senate Dems lambasting Shelly Silver for the latest "Three-Men-in-a-Room" budget.  But the open secret behind this one is that the Senate Dems were consummately incapable of drafting a budget resolution, budget bills and going to conference committees because the new Senate Majority didn't think about such trivial items while hiring staff based on identity rather than experience or qualification (call it the anti-Marty Connor, pro-David Paterson movement in full). In other words, the Senate Democrats can't do what's perhaps the most important job of a legislator: write budget legislation and pass a budget.  But they can bash Silver for his help in keeping their jaw-dropping incompetence from public view.

The same MO holds true for the Power for Jobs legislation that Aubertine is suing on.  That this law was to expire isn't not a late-minute revelation--at least for anybody bothering to read the enabling legislation. The Assembly had bill copy and was good to go on this for months, but the then-Senate Majority was too busy doing other things: Senate Energy Committee chair, Kevin Parker, beating down a New York Post photographer (and then blaming it on "The Man");.then the Senate Majority was busy reverse-engineering itself into the Senate Minority; and the indispensably incompetent Senate staff did more incompetent things to solidify this transmogrification. And then session goes and ends on the day it says on the calendar. The upshot? It's gotta be the Assembly's fault that people are going to be out of work because Power for Jobs didn't pass the Senate within six months. What else is one to conclude?

The net result will be that Aubertine is still going to get filleted by the Watertown Daily Times because they know his lawsuit is just another Senate Dem stupid idea. But then as a bonus, he'll also earn the enmity of the state Assembly. Two birds with one lawsuit is impressive. He must be on assignment John Sampson.

Maybe Dicker's right that the current Senate really is beyond repair or redemption.

Sampson's Chaos Theory

More words to live by from kind-of Senate Democratic Manager John Sampson on mayoral control of NYC schools. They have to do, of course, with the abject failure of Sampson and Malcolm Smith to address this thing--one way or the other.

From the Daily News' political blog:

“Right now we just need to step back,” said Sampson, who insisted the Senate is not, as Bloomberg has charged, being "irresponsible" in its failure to take up the Assembly bill.

Wrong direction, John.  Right now, you really need to step up, not back. You've had six months to address this thing and you've collectively and individually done nada about the schools--apart from suing them. But then again anything you've got to say about schools these days is kind of academic since you don't really represent a majority any longer. Nor evidently--and notwithstanding Malcolm's hand-you-down tin badge--are you talking even for a majority of your  conference. Layered a top of all this, it also appears that if the Assembly's mayoral control bill came to a full vote in the Senate--and you actually were majority leader within a majority--the bill would roll and you'd get yourself humiliated. Not a good opening act for such a preemptively presumptuous shot-caller.

Which brings us to the main point: Why are you going out of your way to trash talk Bloomberg and Silver on school control, if what you say or think really doesn't matter, regardless of how many times the Senate deck is cut and cards are dealt? The only thing we can hypothesize is that you're too entitled and/or lethargically-inclined to think through something of this magnitude before you say something dumb about it.

“We’re in summer recess at this point in time,” [Sampson] said. “We do have an opportunity to address this issue...We still have time.”

Finally something I can half-agree with. Yes, you are in summer recess at this point in time, you and Malcolm have been in summer recess since last November. But unfortunately, you don't "still have time."  You ran out of time on June 8.  While you were literally snoozing around conference and acting the smug, inner-circle clique-member, Pedro Espada, Steve Pigeon, Rob Mujica and Dean Skelos kicked your ass, stole your lunch money and then got the principal to expel you. All in one day.

And this is why you and Malcolm and other inner-circle cliquesters should be permanently benched. Or traded. Or put on waivers.

But instead, Sampson just keeps fronting:

“We will have an opportunity to definitely address mayoral control and I understand the importance of it...“We are not about to engage in any sort of chaos. Today, summer school started, the buses ran on time, the children went to school.”

Keep in mind, this is coming from a guy who actually believes it's a really, really good idea to pass legislation by dint of another guy's six-second trip through the back of the Senate chamber. And then sincerely expects people like David Paterson, Shelly Silver and the rest of New York to co-sign this stunt--therein keeping the state Court of Appeals busy until the next millennium--and, not for nothing, suspending the state in the same functional purgatory he's already managed to embed. Sampson and Smith even wrote a big fat legal memo to memorialize this stupidity.  Also keep in mind, all this is coming from a couple of guys, Smith and Sampson, who've shut out lights, locked doors, doctored transcripts and then sued Dean Skelos over the exact same type of insidious, court-clogging, institution-debilitating stunt.  But not to worry, Sampson isn't about to engage "in any sort of chaos" here.

"Engage in chaos?" Sampson and Smith are chaos. It follows them around like the lousy cologne on some of those newly-hired Senate "bodyguards." 

The ugly but simple truth is that Sampson and Smith are in way, way over their heads.  And they simply have no idea how far.  And they don't want to hear how far. They're kind of like a failed state that recursively implodes.

Hate to say we told ya so on all this, but we did.  A long time ago. We're not geniuses here, or even smarter than your average blogger, because just like with Spitzer's caffene-induced psychoses, this stuff is kind of hard to miss. At least objectively. So I can't believe we're the only ones to have predicted this.

But here's the real howler: Smith-Sampson acolyte Carl Kruger says that--unlike himself and fellow statesmen Sampson and Smith--David Paterson's the Peter Principle dimwit. And whom--just in case you're interested--also speak with "woof" tongue. We know this because fellow Sampson-Smith ally Eric 'G-Money' Adams tells us this. On whatever the hell "woof" might mean to the rest of the planet, this is the best I could come up with:

Woof.", a common greeting within gay, bisexual, and transgender bear communities

Yet people anguish over Pedro Espada's proximity to power.

 

Malcolm Sampson IPO Rolls On

Wouldn't it be great to be confident that the whole NYC school control thing is being deliberated on it's merits?

Right.

FU Dicker of the NY Post says it all boils down to a racial thing for the Senate Democrats:

"They see Bloomberg as a white Manhattan billionaire who thinks he can boss everyone around and they don't like it," said a top Senate Democrat.

As everybody here knows, we don't happen to like Mayor Mike either. But it just never occurred to us to not like him because he's white. Or has a Jewish surname. For the record, we think he's a controlling and petulant hypocrite. And a really, really lousy sore loser.  But that's got absolutely nothing to do with who should be running the city schools.

Here's a very unbold prediction: Any elected official or coalition of elected officials that predicates public policy on personal racial enmity will not last.  This is almost too stupidly self-evident to have to type.

If Dicker's got his facts straight, any real wonder the Malcolm Sampson IPO got delisted in less than six months? 

Yet, somewhere in South Florida another controlling, petulant--and white!--billionaire smiles as he awaits more bush-league belly-flops from Malcolm Sampson Enterprises.  As such, we've gone ahead and prepared a special annotated road map of South Florida for these guys so they can get their racial resentment to the right white billionaire.

Motivation

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.

 

Tommy Paycheck's in the Senate's Living Room

According to the Albany Times-Union on Friday, a quadraphonic Senate 'leadership' structure was emerging.  It worked out to be Dean Skelos, Pedro Espada, Steve Pigeon and Tom Golisano vs. Malcolm Smith and John Sampson.

If it came to pass, this one wouldn't even be close.

How do we know this? It's because Smith and Sampson keep adhering to serially irresponsible--but entirely predictable--concepts and retro-babble like:

Privately, many Democratic members said that the leadership of the Senate needed to be retained by a black member, as Gov. David Paterson’s dismal poll numbers make 2010 increasingly less likely.

Wouldn't you think that instead of worrying about the governor, the Democratic conference would be more interested in reestablishing a majority and not frittering it all away again? As opposed to say, counting complexions and calling the governor some kind of affirmative-actioned coke-head?  This is just embarrassing.

What the hell is going in there?  People like Kevin Parker, John Sampson and Carl Kruger are getting called back into session because they blew their majority by saying and doing dumb things that the governor had absolutely nothing to do with.

The leadership of the Senate Democratic conference is just a disaster.  Espada, Libous, Skelos (and Monserrate) have demonstrated this by shredding it, without a moment's effort. As such, Smith and Sampson (especially if Sampson was in fact, selected by Smith to 'succeed' him) really need to be on the curb, instead of cutting new deals with a bunch of guys who are only gonna slit their throats. Again.

And now with Tom Golisano thoroughly committed and invested, the Senate Dems got themselves a pathologically predacious billionaire and his proxy in their living room making as much mischief as possible and doing everything a pathologically predacious billionaire can to spend/connive/perpetrate the State Senate back into a solid GOP majority again.  And then do some serious damage to the state.  And there's absolutely nothing Malcolm Smith and John Sampson can do about it. Except turn out the lights.

The best the current Senate Dem management can hope for is that one of these   GOP principals catches a felony conviction. Or, lacking that, the Assembly somehow bails them out. Again. And Golisano knows this above all things.  He knows this because he was entirely unable to impose his will on Shelly Silver and the Assembly Democrats on the budget (but much more on this later).   My guess is that they, the Assembly Dems, were laboring under the premise that when somebody like Tom Golisano is dust-mopped, it's usually good for everybody else.  And that kind of thinking makes Tom cranky--and a wee bit loco too.

Speaking of making Tom cranky and loco, here's a special FYI for him. Hey, maybe he should keep publicizing his fantasies, the Assembly Dems might pick up another half-dozen members by the time Monica stuffs a tennis ball in that mouth of his.

And Malcolm Smith and John Sampson never see this dolt coming after them from a mile away? How's that even happen?

Maybe Malcolm and John's tech-guys should have set up a special Twitter-feed on Tom Golisano's mouth and Steve Pigeon's location. [Dare I say, like NGD has?]

So just in case you still wonder why Pedro Espada's still smiling like he's swallowed the canary, it's because he has. It's name was Malcolm Sampson.

I wonder if Malcolm Sampson even knows they're finished.  Seriously. Or know any of anything about say, 'Responsible New York' cooking the books--so they can finish pissing on their heads?  Probably not.

Maybe they should just sue Espada, Skelos, Pigeon and Golisano for child abuse. Or just rehire Mike Fallon, blame him again, and then fire him again.*

*That strategy only works if the Senate Democrats have since hired another individual who has ever actually drafted legislation. And then can find the Bill Drafting Commission. All in the same day. 

What About the Brennan Center?

We get an email wondering if we're just like the Brennan Center because we just carp, carp, carp on the BC, yet have proposed no unrealistic and self-serving recommendations for its improvement. Fair enough.

So without further ado, here's our five-point reform plan for the Brennan Center:

1. Get hold of Tom Golisano. We understand Bernie Madoff took all the Brennan Center's money so why not hook up with Big Tom? They are rhetorical and intellectual soul mates. Plus, Tom's got a ton of bank and he's all about reform.  If he's not in the phone book, Larry Norden and Laura Seago can give these people or these people a call and they'll patch them through to the South Florida Center for Reform and Taxation Elimination. We understand it's presently located on a yacht in the waters off Naples, Florida (so as to avoid subpoena).

2. Put Senator Pedro Espada on the Brennan Center board.  Pedro, like the Brennan Center, is a serious pracitioner of rooting out dysfunction via press release.  He's a pro at  stuff like campaign finance law, ethics law and independent redistricting.  He might have a lot of free time soon. The Brennan Center might be able to catch up to him at the Bronx County courthouse. He'll probably be there with Steve Pigeon.

3. Make Hiram Monserrate the next Brennan Center executive director (sorry, Larry).  The man is an administrative genius who eats and sleeps reform. This is because he served as a Marine Corps reservist and is currently a former NYPD beat cop out on attitude disability.  He might have a lot of free time very soon also. Larry and Laura can catch up to him at the Queens County courthouse with his $750 per hour lawyer.

4. Install Steve Pigeon as the Brennan Center's political director. This is the perfect match. Steve can direct the center on how to make an even less-persuasive case of Assembly dysfunction and then sell it to some idiot rich-guy looking for a soap box. But the Brennan Center has to find itself a nine or ten-digit sugar-daddy for Steve to take a serious interest. If so, they'll be able to catch up with Steve around the Albany County courthouse. 

5. Make Gary Parenti the Brennan Center treasurer. This is also a natural fit, he's the second-leg of Golisano-Pigeon stool. Gary's the guy behind some full page ads in both the New York Post and Daily News on behalf of Reformers Hiram and Pedro which read: "These brave men put reform before party and the people of New York State before politics. They are true heros."  Excellent choice of words! See what I mean about Gary? We know Gary's the brain behind it because he was brilliant enough to have his name printed at the bottom of the ads so people can match those up with his own heroic deeds.

Think about it: Team Golisano and the Brennan Center...it's all good.

Why is Giuliani Making Noise These Days?

Two and-a-half words: David Dinkins II.  Or perhaps three words: It's Giuliani Time. Plus these two graphs from PoliticsDaily (via a blogger from the Daily News):

Right now Paterson looks like a sure loser. But that doesn't mean Cuomo is a sure competitor. Like McCall, who defeated Cuomo in the 2002 primary, Paterson is black – and racial politics in this state are a minefield.

"If you take on a black man in New York, there may be a price to pay for it, if that still holds. It was certainly the case in 2002," says Sheinkopf, who was working then for McCall. If Democrats want Cuomo to run, he says, they may have to get Paterson out – and the message is "going to have to come from the African-American community."

Oh yeah, Sheinkopf advises Malcolm Smith and Mike Bloomberg.  You do the math, because you can bet Giuliani has.

This is the kind of thing that should keep the State Democratic Committee up at night.  But since there is no State Democratic Committee, it doesn't.

Somebody needs to grab control of this thing before Giuliani does.

Zinger is Back!

Must be the season, because so is Carl Brinker, and he's pretty peeved at what he sees as the hand-him-up leadership of NYS and the Senate Dems.

Onto the matter of Rudolph Giuliani writing opportunistic op-eds, Zinger writes:

Dear NGD:
 
I caught this bit in the Daily News from Liz Benjamin's blog:

But he [Giuliani] also suggested that the chaos in Albany - “It’s almost like a stand-off at the O.K. Corral” - had presented a unique chance to shame legislators into action.

“This was always a broken state government,” Giuliani said. “Now it has collapsed, it has virtually collapsed."

Shame? Funny word to use in connection with Rudy Giuliani. Does he feel shame? Perhaps he does feel shame for foisting a corrupt fire/police commissioner on the  people of NYC - and then trying to make that person Secretary of Homeland Security for the nation. Or shame that the very same commissioner - Bernie Kerik - used an apartment set aside as a "rest" room for 9/11 rescuers and recovery personnel as a love pad. Perhaps he feels shame that he's been married 3 times - including his first marriage of 14 years to his cousin. Or shame because he is rumored to have carried on an affair with his mayoral press secretary during his second marriage, and then with another woman after her. Or perhaps now he's a bit embarrassed that he announced his divorce from his second wife to the world at a press conference...before he actually told his second wife. Or, perhaps he's totally shameless. That sounds about right.

Yes, many are hoping that the upstanding and morally righteous Rudy Giuliani runs for Governor next year.

We can watch him reenact last year's Presidential  campaign script. He can boast about "taming" NYC, an ungovernable place before him. That should once again win him many NYC votes. Or, perhaps, he can tout his (new) anti-choice, anti-gay rights/marriage equality credentials - that will help him in the 'burbs. Or he can just concentrate on the upstate vote by touting his family values; I'm sure all three of his families are worth a lot to him.

Or, he could abandon those positions and go back once more to being a progressive Republican...and get destroyed in a Republican primary.

Maybe he should just heed this little voice from the hinterlands: Time's up, Rudy. Go away. Now.
 
Sincerely,
John Peter Zinger

Hard to argue with Zinger or Brinker.

Tommy Toadstool Speaks

From Florida, Tommy Paycheck talks more smack.  Actually, we don't know where he is because the Buff News doesn't tell us from where Tommy called to refute the rumor that he's running for US Senate in Florida on the Rich Tool ticket. We surmise he's calling from Florida because he hasn't the cojones to visit the New York Capitol these days wearing that stupid grin on his face and talking reform.

But he sure sounds defensive. Probably because he will forever be mentioned in the same sentence as a psychotic woman-slasher and Bronx welfare hustler. The Buff News writes:

"In addition, Golisano said, he remains disappointed that the political coup he orchestrated in the State Senate on June 8 is not working because 'Democrats are the ones who won’t let it work.'

"He said the procedural reforms passed by what describes itself as the new Senate leadership (consisting of 30 Republicans and a Democrat) have gone mostly unnoticed. Despite the 31-31 tie that has developed in the coup’s aftermath, Golisano said he is pleased that term limits on Senate leaders and other measures are now part of the Senate system.

“'I don’t see them ever going back on them,' he said."

He says: “I don’t see them ever going back on them.”  Right, Tommy.  This is something somebody says when he knows he's finished in New York State.  How else do we know that? It's because he starts talking about how he's gonna "reform" the state Assembly like he has the Senate:

Golisano, founder of Paychex, also provided his strongest hint yet that his Responsible New York political committee will target Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan in the 2010 Democratic primary. Golisano said the reforms the Senate adopted should spill over to the Assembly, but he did not sound optimistic that they would be embraced by the longtime speaker.

“Responsible New York, once this thing settles down, will focus on the Assembly,” Golisano said.

When asked whether he would focus on Silver next year, he would say only that the Assembly is ripe for change.

“I think Shelly Silver has served there for 16 years,” Golisano said. “Even if he were doing a good job — and I don’t think he is — it’s time for a change. And the Assembly could use a change.

“It’s time for him to move on.”

Umm, who's in Florida, Tom? 

You ask how are we so confident that Golisano remains an incompetent and impotent buffoon? The man employs NGD-fan-fav Gary Parenti. And he can't even take out Sam Hoyt--a Buffalo assemblyman who's pathologically despised by Team Golisano, and for whom "Responsible New York" summoned everything it had to eradicate last September.  But of course, Team Golisano botched the job. Now, we understand Golisano's got this acorn in his nut bowl. (And Paul Brown is a Parenti-grade nut, but lots more on this later.)

Way to go, Tom.

That you can't win a war with an officer corps of imbeciles ain't exactly particle physics, folks.

But I'd be lying if I denied that I kinda want Golisano, Pigeon, Parenti and the new acorn to take on the Assembly.  Trust me when I say that that would be very entertaining.

"Ha!" Says South Carolina to the Brennan Center, "Top This!"

From the AP:

Where is South Carolina's governor?

The lieutenant governor doesn't know, and neither does a state senator who's a close confidante. Even Gov. Mark Sanford's wife is in the dark.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said he's been told the governor's staff is in contact with the second-term Republican, but Sanford's wife said she hasn't heard from him in several days, including Father's Day.

"He was writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids," Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press while vacationing with the couple's four sons at their Sullivans Island beach house. She said she didn't know where he was, but wasn't concerned.

"Ha!" Says Michigan to the Brennan Center, "Top This!"

From the Detroit Free-Press:

All that budget-cutting in Lansing got to two senators last week.

Sen. Irma Clark-Coleman, D-Detroit, said that Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw Township, "charged me like a bull" in a Capitol elevator after a committee meeting in which Clark-Coleman objected to whacking 40% of state money for mental health services in Wayne County.

"His hysterical behavior startled citizens who, like me, were simply trying to leave the Capitol building. Everyone looked on in horror," Clark-Coleman wrote in a complaint to Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, asking him to "take corrective measures" against Kahn, whom she feared would hit her. She also filed a complaint with the Michigan State Police at the Capitol.

There's also a racial angle: 

Ben Frederick, a spokesman for Kahn, who is white, said Clark-Coleman, an African American, accused Kahn personally of discriminatory behavior for supporting the budget cuts.

"It was accusatory. Roger did not appreciate that and disagreed with that assessment vehemently," Frederick said. "It was merely a verbal exchange and didn't go beyond that."

"Ha!" Says Arizona to the Brennan Center, "Top This!"

From the Arizona Republic:

Driver's licenses will be unavailable. Road construction will grind to a halt. Child abuse will not be investigated.

Those are some of the scenarios state agencies are preparing for should state leaders fail to agree on a budget by July 1.

The nearly total shutdown of state government, a possibility raised last week by Gov. Jan Brewer, has grown more likely this week as Republican leaders in the Legislature refuse to send Brewer the budget package they approved June 4.

"Ha!" Says Wisconsin to the Brennan Center, "Top This!"

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

There will be no formal action on the state budget until Tuesday, a delay that allows legislative leaders to meet privately to try to resolve major differences between the spending plans of the Assembly and Senate.

That would continue what has been a pattern of secrecy surrounding the $62.5 billion two-year budget.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle kept his proposed budget secret until he gave it to the Legislature in February. And Democratic lawmakers at the next three steps in their process - the Joint Finance Committee, Assembly and Senate - also made their decisions behind closed doors.

"Ha!" Says Massachusetts to the Brennan Center, "Top This!"

From the Boston Herald:

Beacon Hill lawmakers again undercut their brave talk about transparency yesterday when they passed millions of dollars in taxes and fees without specific roll-call votes - a bald attempt to cloak themselves in secrecy and escape taxpayer wrath at the ballot box next year.

“We are at a point where the public has totally lost confidence in this building,” said Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Plymouth). “It needs to change and it needs to stop now.”

Tommy Paycheck Strikes Again

This is pure Golisano.

Last week or so he was singing the praises of Charlie Crist, the Florida governor, who dialed him up personally to congratulate him on his official move to the Sunshine State in order to cut his tax bill.

Now this week, talk is Tommy Paycheck may be running against new-buddy Crist for an open US Senate seat.  That Tommy's changing parties to do so (again) goes without saying.

This man is a menace to democracy everywhere.

Banana Splits

Irene Liu of the Albany Times Union does some digging on tied-up state legislatures.  It's not that uncommon.

She writes:

The New York Senate isn't the first legislative chamber stalled by a tie, and almost certainly won't be the last. But how the chamber arrived at the 31-31 member split over the past two weeks has created unique political challenges for the state leaders scrambling for a solution.

Since 1966, 38 state legislative chambers have been tied, occurring more frequently as time goes on. Every even-year election since 1984 has produced at least one deadlocked legislative chamber, according to Brenda Erickson, a senior research analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures who advises legislatures on how to resolve a deadlocked chamber.

Only In Lon-Giland

From today's Newsday:

You know it's bad when Phil Mickelson gets heckled.

"You're fat," called out one fan, visibly sauced, at the first tee Sunday evening.

Then, in an apparent reference to Amy Mickelson's cancer, a man in a camouflage hat called out: "Time to raise some money, Phil."

That might not be what Tiger Woods meant when he said the Bethpage Black crowd's energy was "electric."

The rowdiness that prompted Woods to shush fans Saturday night carried over into U.S. Open play Sunday. The USGA shut down beer stands at 6 p.m. - 15 minutes earlier than Saturday - but there they were at the first tee Sunday at 6:30 p.m., a dozen fans mercilessly ripping every golfer who teed off to start the fourth round.