...these people are an embarassment. You'd think they would put two and two together - "Gee, we get no respect, and we ask how high when Shelly tells us to jump" - but nope. We don't have a legislature worthy of the name. It's a Supreme Soviet.

Well usually the legislature is leader-driven, but in this case, it seems clear that the leader himself was driven by his conference. Every legislator thinks they are worthy of higher office; Spitzer dissed them all.

Wonder why mavericks like Jim Brennan, who voted to oust Shelly as leader, stuck with DiNapoli? Brennan wants to be City Comptroller. Spitzer's position is that legislative experience renders one incompetent for such a position. What choice did Brennan have but to refuse to accept the validity of that position?

Anyway, if Shelly didn't deliver for a legislator, it's likely his conference would have dumped them. they were loaded for bear.

I don't get it. The argument that the legislature is standing up for it's constitutional rights is THE CREDIBLE ARGUMENT. It's a fact, read the constitution. Also, put this into context here. Spitzer is not the boss of the Assembly. Silver is the Speaker, but he's not an executive. In other words, would you impugn a Democratic congressperson for voting with Nancy Pelosi? She's their boss! How do you think a legislature, any legislature, works? And this was a revolt from the bottom up, no the top down. These were individual Assemblymembers making their own decisions. I watched it on TV. Most Dinapoli supporters gave at least somewhat improptu speeches while all of Stark's supporters gave bullet point speeches that were EXACTLY the same (at least a dozen memebers mentioned that she was captain of her college basketball team, c'mon) and I'd say HALF of them, including Malcolm Smith, called her "Martha Starks". Her name is Martha Stark and that must have been embarrassing for her.
And then there is the question about "up to five" which you might reduce to a matter of semantics, but humor me for a second. If Spitzer gives his word that there will be five candidates (I beleive the joint press release said something like "of the five candidates selected by the screening panel..."), and then reneges by lobbying the panel (which he did do) to release three names (presumably because either 4 or 5 or both were members of the Assembly), then the deal was broken by Spitzer. It the deal is not honored by one side, why must it be honored by the other? Again, you could say that that isn't true (all the editorial boards across the state are doing that), but logic would prove you wrong. I guess its nice to have a bully pulpit where you can manipulate facts and then sell them to the public as the unadulterated truth. As PT Barnum put it, "There's a sucker born every minute." It's sad.
If there's something that I'm missing that is based in fact or if there's something I wrote that is factually incorrect, please let me know. But as I see it, Lentol is factually correct in his assesment.

Legislators are not qualified to be neurosurgeons, rocket scientists, football coaches, conductors of symphony orchestras. Virtually every major corporation requires its comptroller to be an accountant, many require a CPA. The State Attorney General must be a lawyer; the State Comptroller should be an accountant, an actuary, or a chartered financial analyst. Alan Hevesi’s, like Tom DeNapoli, lacked any of these skills. Hevesi was a political science major at Queens College, This played a significant role in the costly chaos the New York State Retirement Fund is in.

Governor Spitzer may now seize the initiative by forcing new Comptroller DiNapoli to reform the pension system by restricting state and local government contributions ($2,782.1 million in 2006) to the same amount as government employees ($241.2 million in 2006). The benefits of equaling the contribution level will include reduced real estate taxes for county, city, town governments and school districts

In 2002, the state and local government contributions amounted to only $263.8 million. Poor pension fund investment policies by disgraced former Comptroller Alan Hevesi encouraged by lack of oversight by Governor Pataki and the dysfunctional state legislature; were largely responsible for the more than tenfold payment increase to the $2,782.1 million in 2006. The $142.6 billion pension fund assets as of March 31, 2006 could easily have sufficed to pay the $6.15 billion in current annual retiree benefits if invested in good safe bonds paying an average of 4.28% interest

DiNapoli can make amends for lack of oversight from his position on the Assembly Ways and Means Committee of Hevesi's disastrous investment policies, much in risky speculative ventures. Hevesi's stewardship of the pension fund was not only bad for the New York State budget but also for county and municipal governments forced as a consequence to raise real estate taxes and/or reduce services. The new Comptroller should be guided very carefully by Governor Spitzer but if he doesn't the governor will be able to force his hand by insisting that state and local government contributions to the pension fund not exceed what the employees pay.

Hearing them talk about integrity reminds me of that Seinfeld where George says something about his artistic integrity. Jerry says "you're not artistic and you have no integrity."