Silver Says Panel Erred
An aide to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says the three-man panel didn't conform to the process as Silver understood it when he, Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno reached their agreement on selecting the next comptroller.
Silver says he thought the panel would select five names instead of just three, but a joint press release about the agreement said the panel could choose "up to five" names. Seems like Silver is trying to find some wiggle room since the panel dissed all of his Assembly pals. He really got no love whatsoever.
Silver appears to be boxed in here. Even if Spitzer lobbied the "independent" panel and Silver completely rejects its decision the assembly speaker might be labeled as a stumbling block in the way of reform.
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Comments (6)
Will Silver and Bruno team up and nominate DiNapoli for state comptroller??? and defy Spitzer??? for details...check out my blog.... http://spitzerdayone.blogspot.com andy
Any panel that picked Mr. Weitzman as qualified is highly suspect.
DiNapoli is the guy. All the LI Assembly delegation will vote for him plus Bruno/Skelos will line up the Senators as well.
This will send a quick message to Spitzer from the Assembly (angry one of their own didn't get picked in this process) and the Senate (angry Spitzer is involved in the Balbni seat race).
Spitzer is a ploitician first a reformer second. This "panel" seems to have been rigged from the start to pick only people Spitzer has already said he approves of.
Tom DiNapoli should think twice before helping Spitzer as much as he did this past election. Spitzer is as craven a politician as there is. Just ask Delaraba about Spitzer and the PERB board and how it would affect the PBA!
The last line of this blog entry says that Shelly Silver "might be labeled as a stumbling block in the way of reform" if he goes against the panel's recommendations. Is it reform when the Governor is pushing his friend Mulrow to be the one overseeing state finances? Is it reform when the Governor lobbies the panel making the recommendations in order to exclude Assembly Members? It seems that in the Spitzer Administration we've gone from the system of "3 men in a room" to "1 man in a room". Day one everything changes....my a**
DiNapoli is in. Silver will force Spitzer to accept his man. He can't afford not to. BIG amateur mistake by Spitzer trying to grab too much too soon. This coupled with his attacks on healthcare and the appointment of a lightweight with minimal utility experience to LIPA do not bode well for the new governor. He is seriously miscalculating what his mandate is. He'e going to see how quickly people abandon him.
Also Cuomo going after member items is going to end up being a HUGE embarrassment to the democratic party and will further widen the split between Spitzer-Cuommo and the rest of the dems. Shelly NEEDS DiNapoli in as comptroller to maintain his power in the state. Look for Shelly and Bruno to get together and appoint DiNapoli (despite some reservations by some republicans about DiNapoli's personal issues).
DiNapoli will do a great job as he's done as an assemblyman and as someone who can reach across both ailes to do what's right for the public. Spitzer(like Bush) is a divider. DiNapoli brings folks together.
DiNapoli should be the guy. It won't be Mulrow. Shelly will go for that clown Weitzman rather than Mulrow just to spite Spitzer. Weitzman is Suozzi lackey and a grandstander who won't actually DO anything except step on people to make headlines. But Shelly will vote for that Herman Munster-looking phony before he'll let Mulrow even sniff the office.