The possible disability fraud involving LIRR retirees, as uncovered by the New York Times recently and now the subject of state and Federal investigations, unsurprisingly casts republican leader Dean Skelos in an unflattering light, reports Spin Cycle.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) has long been the state lawmaker most involved with the Long Island Rail Road, with cordial union ties and a hand in its capital funding. Asked Thursday about state and U.S. probes into a federal board’s suspiciously routine granting of disability pensions, he said: “If somebody’s creating a crime, they’re creating a crime, and they should be punished for it.” He said his house's investigation committee could look into it but indicated that such a decision would likely await the outcome of work by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has in effect been deputized by Gov. David Paterson for the probe.

Roy Simon, Skelos’ Democratic challenger, said the situation “smacks of someone asleep at the wheel in the Bush Administration's regulatory bureaucracy.”

In short, no Senate investigation, because, you know, that would rock the boat, and that's not something you can afford when you're clinging to your crumbling majority for dear life. Just one more example of where divided state government leads.