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A Patterson lawyer was charged yesterday with illegally possessing child pornography on his laptop computer.

Robert Groezinger, 53, surrendered to federal authorities in White Plains to face a two-count criminal complaint that charged him with receiving and possessing child pornography.

For the past 20 years, Groezinger has served as a part-time associate counsel for state Sen. Serphin Maltese, R-Queens. But he was fired yesterday after he was charged in U.S. District Court in White Plains.

Family values republicans strike again!

Here's the infamous, ghoulish video that ran during the Republican National Convention. This is republicans ripping the remains of the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks from their graves and rubbing them in the faces of the electorate in their desperate plea to stay relevant.

Dead Americans, dead New Yorkers, used, dishonored, exploited. It's shameful. Republicans think they died to give them dramatic footage.

They weren't murdered in their thousands, on the watch of a republican administration, to be a tool of sleazy republican operatives. On 9/11 itself, it didn't matter what your party affiliation was; not to the hijackers of the planes, not to the victims in the towers, not to the police officers and firemen who died trying to save lives.

It shouldn't matter now. So what to do?

The best way to stop republicans from dishonoring our dead is to hold them to account. Call them, and demand that they repudiate their nominee's sickeningly cynical exploitation of dead Americans. Contact info for New York City republican Senators and Majority Leader Skelos is over the fold.

As we pointed out yesterday, the Bronx Supreme Court dismissed a suit brought against Governor Paterson's executive order mandating that state agencies recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages.

That suit was brought by several respondents, including republican Senator Serph Maltese and the Alliance Defense Fund.

One of the founders of the Fund is James Dobson, founder of the national organization Focus on the Family, an extremist rightwing group.

It's hard to imagine a figure moe at odds with our values here in New York than James Dobson. He believes that men and women are inherently unequal, and that women should not work outside the home if they have minor children.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has accused Dobson of inciting violence against gays and lesbians.

Per his book, Dare to Discipline, he believes that children should be beaten regularly.

"It is not necessary to beat the child into submission; a little bit of pain goes a long way for a young child. However, the spanking should be of sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely."

Slate.com described him in 2005 as the most powerful leader of the religious right and credited him with delivering Ohio and Florida to George Bush.

It might be worthwhile for the media to ask Maltese whether he shares Dobson's views, in especially given that Maltese is the prime sponsor in this state of extremist rightwing legislation.

The Bronx State Supreme Court - which is not the same thing as the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals - in a ruling issued Tuesday backed governor Paterson's executive order to state agencies to recognize out-of-state marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

The New York Times:

The decision, issued by Justice Lucy A. Billings of State Supreme Court in the Bronx, a trial-level court, is the latest in a string of rulings by state courts that have upheld the right of same-sex couples who were married in other jurisdictions to have their marital status recognized in New York, even though gay couples may not marry within the state. A bill to allow gay unions passed the State Assembly last year but has not come up for a vote in the Senate.

The suit was filed in June by lawmakers who opposed the governor’s order and by other opponents of same-sex marriage, who argued that Mr. Paterson had effectively usurped the Legislature’s role by issuing the order. The governor said the order, issued in May, was made to protect the state from litigation by gay couples legally married in places like Canada or Massachusetts.

The decision was rendered in a suit filed by Serph Maltese, Marty Golden and the virulently bigoted Alliance Defense Fund, and will now probably be appealed through the state court system by deep-pocketed extremist interests allied with the embattled Senator Maltese.

Ironically, Maltese and the other dead-enders who joined his suit have only to look to their own party's convention, currently unfolding fitfully in St. Paul, to see a shifting tide.

A group of gay and lesbian Republicans has traveled to the site of the GOP convention this week to help convince its party that it is time to stop being on the "wrong side" of the same-sex marriage issue.

"Clearly, the tide is turning," said Scott Tucker, communications director for the Log Cabin Republicans. "It's important for the Republican Party to be inclusive on this issue, because we are risk of being on the wrong side of history."

New York republicans aware of this state's demographics like to pretend that they're not quite the same people as their extremist, hateful cohorts in other states. They're the reasonable ones, supposedly.

Problem is, that's just not true.

Two data points make a trend, three a pattern. Based on that observation, we can now detect a trend: Serph Maltese is using public money to run for re-election.

First, from Albany Project, a mailer sent out at taxpayer expense as what is presumably constituent outreach.

Then, there's this quote from Serph in today's Daily News:

Maltese has not gotten a similar influx of GOP campaign guns, but he said he will instead draw on paid consultants and volunteers from the 227 groups he funds with grants.

He bristled at the notion that he is the most vulnerable GOP senator.

"That puts me in a very good position to secure funding from not only the Senate, but many of the groups that I have been helping in the past," he said.

It's a sweet gig if you can get it: get yourself elected, then dole out member items to constituent groups, and use their free labor and other resources to keep getting re-elected. Garnish with campaign mailers you send out for free, and voila - the perfect cocktail for permanent incumbency. Sure, there's a fly in the ointment in that this is technically illegal, but that's never stopped a republican Senator before.

New York's legislative dysfunction has one benefit: horrible laws passed in the upper chamber tend not to become law, a sentiment presumably shared by the arch-conservative republican Senate majority when they consider the actions of the lower house. The upside of a legislature that doesn't do much of anything is that it also doesn't do that much harm.

Though, to their credit I guess, some republican Senators do try very hard. Consider Serph Maltese, probably one of the most fertile anti-choice legislators in the country. NARAL has the details on what he's sponsored this year.

Bill Number: NY S6645
Defines pregnancy and conception in such a way that it could jeopardize access to contraception. Requires women receive state-mandated lecture which includes medically inaccurate information prior to obtaining abortion service and prohibits abortion unless women wait an additional 24 hours after receiving lecture. Subjects abortion providers to burdensome restrictions.
Sponsor: Maltese (R)

Bill Number: NY S6644
Allows certain individuals to refuse to perform any abortion services in all or most circumstances. Allows certain individuals to refuse to provide or dispense contraceptives in all or most circumstances.
Sponsor: Maltese (R)

But wait, there's more.

Democratic strategist Doug Forand emails over an analysis of the recent poll done in the Maltese / Addabo / Baldeo matchup that takes some of the wind out of republican crowing regarding the state of that contest. As a reminder, in an unreleased poll, the Maltese campaign released numbers for the three-way matchup in SD-15 that showed the Senator at 45%, Democratic candidate Joe Addabbo at 18%, independent Albert Baldeo at 3%, and 35% undecided.

Before examining the results of the poll, it is important to look at the demographic nature of the sample used, as it appears likely to skew the results to be more favorable for Senator Maltese. Most notably, according to the polling memo, 30% of the respondents are registered Republicans, while information from the New York State Board of Elections shows that the actual Republican enrollment within the district is just under 22% - an over-representation of the GOP base by 36%. Even if we screen out unlikely voters, only looking at new registrants and voters who have a history indicating that they are likely to vote in a presidential election, the GOP enrollment only climbs to 22.5%. The sample also under-represents women, who represent only 52% of the respondents when the actual percentage of likely women voters, based on enrollment and voter history, is over 55%.

However, even if we assume the sample produces results that are valid within the margin of error (4.9%), the data presented is not favorable for Senator Maltese. Reflecting his 20 years in office, Senator Maltese is very well-known within the district, with substantive name recognition of 87% and he is generally held in good regard. Despite this and after two decades of representing this constituency, Maltese is only supported by 45% of the voters in the initial trial heat against Councilman Addabbo, which is a strong indicator that the voters in this district want change. This also explains his near-loss in the 2006 elections – people know him and don’t dislike him, but they are not inclined to support his re-election bid.

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