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Espada: Give me two votes
This is actually very funny, or would be, until you realize he's serious. NY Post, Dicker and Scott:
Renegade Democratic Sen. Pedro Espada claimed yesterday he and his Republican allies are forging an explosive new plan to give him an unprecedented two votes to break the newly emerged deadlock in the state Senate.
"I can have two votes," Espada boldly told The Post.
"We're going to maintain that, as the president pro tempore of the Senate, I am also the acting lieutenant governor, and the lieutenant governor can vote when there's a tie."
I did a brief Google search for the idea. What Espada is proposing has no precedent that I can find over the last four hundred years of Anglo-American parliamentary procedure. Not here, not in the UK, not in the Dominions.
Not anywhere, ever.
Sounds like...
Sounds like he is acting more and more like a Republican.
Re: Espada: Give me two votes
I'd like to give him a swift kick out of the State Senate. This is why we need the ability to recall creeps like this. Additionally, if he's found not to be living in his district, if he's found to be using state funds for his own benifit then he should also lose his state pension in addition to his seat. Any elected official should be subject to losing their benifits if found criminally guilty. We need these 2 issues put on the 2010 ballot. I also think we voters should be out there protesting what's going on in Albany. Our business is not getting done and these children are still getting paid. Skelos and his crew better grow up and realize that they're not going to get their fantastic parking spot back EVER. The Republicans are holding up the state's business, but the Dems have their faults also (like not realizing what was going on until after Espada and Monserrate blew them off). I hope also that Monserrate gets his just reward too. If not for him we wouldn't be in this situation now.
Mole is right, Espada sounds more and more like a Republican everyday and I'm waiting to hear him announce he's joined their party but I doubt he'll do it since his district is Democrat. He's got nowhere to go, the Democrats would never take him back and he has to stay with the decision he made.
I'll give him 2 votes you know where. Please protect Paterson (another loser) until November 2010 because I would NEVER want to see Espada acting Governor of this state or any state.
On the ballot
Unfortunately, there is no such thing in New York as ballot referenda. The only stuff we get to vote on is whether to approve a bond issue and whether to convene a constitutional convention. That's it.
While I'm not advocating for a California-style system, it's clear that the legislature needs to stop pretending that they know best, especially as their actions -- or rather, inaction -- over the past two weeks prove that they don't know much of anything. (Note: Many legislators know a great deal, but they are not the ones in control.)
For all his faults, Malcolm Smith was getting ready to pass some actual, serious reform measures. He had already begun the process by allocating equal funding to each Senator's office, much as they do here in the City Council. When the legislature finally gets around to passing reform (which at this point looks like it will happen on the 30th of February), they should add a method by which voters get to override the legislature occasionally, especially when the legislature appears too immature to do the job.