We know far too much about Hillary and Chuck, New York's loquatious US Senators, but behind the scenes, there reside a couple of jamokes on the Empire State's Farm Team who need further fleshing out.
First of all, the word Comptroller, as it's used in New York parlance, came about as a misspelling in the original hand printed state constitution, where the framers intended it to say Controller. But, it seems in retrospect, the pen ran away with the writer, much as Mr. Hevesi's mouth ran off with his reputation, his career and any appearance he may have had of amounting to anything more than idiocy writ large on a canvas known for king-sized carp.
But, back in February of 2005, before Mr. alan Hevesi, New York's Comptroller, was publicly identified as being certifiably insane, he joined up with the maverick New York assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver, the patron saint of jail birds, for a go at cleaning up New York's troubled public authorities with a sweeping reform proposal, entitled, interestingly enough, a Sweeping Public authority Reform Proposal.
But, as with much in New York State politics, this sweeping bill has gone nowhere, at least as far as last May 26th. For a few moments it did unite our players in a publicized send up, designed for maximum publicity, with minimal work planned down the road. But appearances, however fleeting, are everything in the public pool.
Then, Mr. Hevesi did his bit of stand up humor on June 1st - with words lifted, it seems, right from the tattered air america notes of Randi Rhodes and her similar skit--where he announced, with minimal fanfare at the Queens' College Commencement, that Mr. Chuck Schumer was, "The man who, how do I phrase this diplomatically, who will put a bullet between the President's eyes if he could get away with it." New York's top money man delivered these unrehearsed words of peace and understanding in true liberal fashion, with kindness and peace, while remaining mellow at the mike.
His ringing comments, besides echoing throughout his hollow head, awakened his baffled handlers, his neighbors, who now routinely disavow all knowledge of his whereabouts and, of course, added substantially to the burdens that his mortified family must now carry in perpetuity.
and such is the amazing outflow of such decidedly poor parlor behavior which we all trudge through on a daily basis that it became rather apparent that Mr. Hevesi's boorish and puerile outburst was almost unnoticed by the haggard and jaded students and their sleep deprived families.
Following the ceremony by some fifteen minutes, Mr. Hevesi then threw himself on his cavalry sabre, or was it his thermometer, the photos remain unclear, and groveled for understanding while begging forgiveness for his openly distasteful diatribe and accompanying short-sightedness.
and beyond the sorry state of Hevesi lies the fiefdom of Silver and his personal playground--New York's assembly.
There, in the compact fluorescents which dot the hallowed halls of the assembly, Mr. Silver as the Speaker, reigns supreme, blocking Jessica's Law, refusing to increase the jail terms for convicted rapists of their own children--the incest loophole--and opposing the dropping of the statute of limitations in violent sex crimes. This would enable DNa evidence to be brought to bear years after the acts were committed--among the many criminal laws he's seen fit to stymie.
The list of enforcement activities that Governor Pataki is for and that Mr. Silver is against is shocking. and it should come as no surprise that Mr. Silver is rated as a top friend to New York's incarcerated population, those on parole and those contemplating crime.
Today, in many states, as crime and criminals have grown more savage in nature, enforcement options have become more severe. In New York, however, under Mr. Silver's steady guidance, the assembly has voted for the loosening of many criminal strictures. and this regular activity has even gained the ire of Democratic Da's, where repeated requests for tougher laws have been routinely rebuffed.
I am amazed that one man in a state the size of New York can, like William Bulger did so adroitly in Massachusetts for far too long, control the outcome of a legislature so successfully.
Then again, for a few short moments in the bright lights, Hevesi and Silver, and Eliot Spitzer for that matter, too, were members of a short-lived community of fate, wrapped around that long lost bill designed to reign in the thousands of independent state agencies that come and go as they wish across New York without so much as a by your leave--before that bill slipped beneath the white caps of legislative limbo.
When the gates at the old stadium are closed, only the kids and the old folks have a view of the players on the field.
and if you bend low and look through the knotholes in the fence that surrounds the sanctum of New York politics, you can see alan and Shelly warming up for the contests in the local leagues, where the field and dreams may be smaller than the nationals, but the stakes are every bit as high-- especially if you're a convicted child molester eyeing the neighborhood and the Speakers on the mound.
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