"... sending shock waves through the political establishment and upending the new legislative session,"
the NYT reports.
Mr. Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side of Manhattan who has served as speaker for more than two decades, surrendered to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents early Thursday morning in Lower Manhattan, law enforcement officials said.
The investigation of Mr. Silver began after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in March abruptly shut down an anticorruption commission he had created in 2013.
What does that suggest about Cuomo? Did he see the commission's investigation leading toward Silver and shut it down for that reason?!
The speaker since 1994, Mr. Silver is a consummate back-room player, one of Albany’s “three men in a room,” along with the governor and Senate majority leader, who negotiate the state budget and hammer out deals on important legislation.
The day before his arrest, Mr. Silver, 70, was in Albany, where he attended Mr. Cuomo’s State of the State address and had a prominent seat on stage next to the governor.
ADDED:
Drudge presents the story with a photo that features Hillary Clinton:
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26 comments:
Well, New York politics looks like a cesspool with Cuomo.
A shot across the bow from Battleship Hillary!
...or maybe not. But this DOJ has been loathe to go after Democratic pols, and who Holder and the guy who holds his leash actually want to be the Democratic nominee for '16 isn't at all clear.
Maybe the answer is "nobody who could reasonably be called a Centrist Democrat." That still fits this being a hatchet job from On High.
Behind every great politician there is a great crime
What does that suggest about Cuomo? Did he see the commission's investigation leading toward Silver and shut it down for that reason?!
Duh?
Corruption indictments have been used many times in New York to get inconvenient politicians out of the way (who gets charged is an entirely separate question from who is guilty--they all are). I'm surprised that someone as prominent as Silver is the target. I wonder who he pissed off that they have the power to turn this particular weapon against him.
Cuomo tanked the investigation because it pointed at his folks...
As with all Dems in office, the question is not why him but why now.
While they're at it, perhaps they can investigate Obama's fundraising, Clinton's foundation, and so on.
Holding my breath, holding my breath.
An appearance of propriety, how quaint.
When you say "follow the money" you've said it all.
"...this DOJ has been loathe to go after Democratic pols, and who Holder and the guy who holds his leash actually want to be the Democratic nominee for '16 isn't at all clear.
"Maybe the answer is 'nobody who could reasonably be called a Centrist Democrat.'"
So you think Holder and Obama want a right of center Democrat as the nominee? (This would accord with Obama's own position, after all.) 'cuz there are sure aren't many left of center Dems left in Washington these days. (The only two I can name off the top of my head are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.)
Another supporter of People-Gun control.
I'm glad to see we're not playing Don Surber's "Name That Party" game with this report.
If one takes "centrist" to mean "centralizer", they all are, every single one. Every Democrat is enthusiastically for the totalitarianism of the bureaucracy.
And most of the modern .01% is on board as this system makes it easiest to get and stay rich, as most of them did, exploiting the corrupt financial and regulatory systems.
Even the "reforms" the so called leftists like Warren tout are just meant to armor the .01% and expand opportunities for the "new class", as Milovan Djilas called them. The old leftists had episodes of misdirected but genuine idealism; the modern ones are born fully formed in the hypocritical mold of the new class.
The best example of these people is John Corzine. The modern Democratic party is the alliance of the various John Corzine's with the new class, exploiting the lower class for elections' sake.
The only viable polityical opponents of this execrable alliance are the Tea Party tendency among the Republicans.
Any Lefty: This is racism. Straight up.
What does that suggest about Cuomo? Did he see the commission's investigation leading toward Silver and shut it down for that reason?!
Perhaps he saw it leading towards Cuomo.
The next step is to flip Silver.
Robert Cook said...
"...this DOJ has been loathe to go after Democratic pols, and who Holder and the guy who holds his leash actually want to be the Democratic nominee for '16 isn't at all clear.
"Maybe the answer is 'nobody who could reasonably be called a Centrist Democrat.'"
So you think Holder and Obama want a right of center Democrat as the nominee? (This would accord with Obama's own position, after all.) 'cuz there are sure aren't many left of center Dems left in Washington these days. (The only two I can name off the top of my head are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.)
1/22/15, 9:09 AM"
To a Stalinist everyone ever so to the 'right' is a right-winger.
As for Holder, supposedly there is no love lost between Obama and the Clintons and Holder is certainly no paragon of ethics. Silver is a NY Democrat who has been around forever so it's as safe a bet as any bet one can make that he is guilty of corruption and Cuomo needs to be investigated if for nothing else for what he did as HUD secretary and his part in the bank mortgage disaster.
Judging by the nature of the charges and the claimed evidence of transactions, the law may actually have found the secret routers this time. Don't tell garage.
This would accord with Obama's own position, after all.
Obama a "Right of Center" Democrat? It's arguable, but in the end I don't think Obama has a position on anything that doesn't translate to More Power To Me. He's Nixon without an agenda, Carter without a clue. But he was in a position for people to feel good about themselves for voting for him.
But the flip side of that is Obama want to feel good about himself too, and being (potentially) followed by someone Not of His Stripe probably galls him. How do you think he'll react to a Democratic nominee who runs away from the Obama "legacy" such as it is?
All pure speculation. (I'm guessing Warren is the personal favorite of most in DOJ, but that's more speculation.) What isn't speculation is that before Holder was Obama's hatchet man, he was Bill Clinton's plumber. (Marc Rich, anyone?) Obama may not like Hillary!, but she can't run against him, and as they say, Holder knows where the bodies are buried.
I do wonder about RC calling Obama "right of center". Says more about RC, than Obama. If you compare him to the population around the country, instead of the limousine liberal and racial grievance communities, most would probably consider him far to the left of center, even as a Democrat. But, part of the problem is that real right of center Democrats have been run out of their party, and have tended to join the Republicans. Which is a good part of why many of the Jacksonians, one of the most loyal Democratic constituencies over the last 200 years, have changed parties.
Michael, corruption in New York is hardly a novel development. At least it isn't the bad old days, when the Black Horse Cavalry and Tammany Hall divided up the spoils between the state and the City.
"there are sure aren't many left of center Dems left in Washington these days."
HAHAHAHAHAHA
The next step is to flip Silver.
Not easy. Flipping may hurt his future political viability. At least in NY.
I'm sure MA would take him though. Might even be able to serve while doing his stretch.
Michigan used to have problems like this back in the day too, but then voters passed a ballot initiative in the mid 1990s to limit house members to three terms, and senators to two. While there is still crooked shit going on in the leg, it is almost exclusively personal misconduct or illegality unrelated to lawmaking now.
Robert Cook
'cuz there are sure aren't many left of center Dems left in Washington these days. (The only two I can name off the top of my head are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.)
So it was all those center and right wing Demos who voted for Obamacare? All 200+ of them in the House, and all 60 in the Senate back in 2010?
Perhaps those commenters who have stated in more than one thread that Mr. Cook was, shall we say, rather far left, were onto something.
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