Senate Democrats: Showing Leadership by Playing the Race Card
As we reported yesterday, the leader of the Senate Democrats basically invited his supporters to commit some felonies related to paying off public officials. According to minority leader Malcolm Smith, supporters should view the possible takeover of the New York State Senate by the Democrats as an initial public offering of stock.
Presumably, the “stock” being offered by the Senate Democrats is ownership of their votes in next year’s legislative session. Malcolm Smith encouraged supporters to buy in early - by contributing large amounts of cash to the Senate Democrats now - or face the prospect that the same amount of influence would be much more costly later. “Then he referred to [Bronx state Sen.] Jeff Klein about four times as his ‘enforcer,’ who is going to be brutal, aggressive, about collecting the contributions, and that he was the one managing the IPO.”
The Senate Republicans (and most anyone else who read this story) were understandably horrified by the remarks, and in an interview, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos stated, “You cannot threaten people to give contributions. That’s thuggery. And I think that’s totally inappropriate to make those sorts of statements. Quid pro quo is a crime; you go to jail.”
Can you predict what came next? If the Senate Democrats had any kind of honor, they would have removed Malcolm Smith from his leadership position.
Instead, Malcolm Smith offered the lamest of excuses for the remarks (”I was just kidding” does not cut it in elementary school and it doesn’t cut it when you are the leader of the Senate Democrats), and then played the race card. According to a story in the New York Times, he ”called on Mr. Skelos to apologize for the ‘thuggery’ comment and suggested that his remarks had a racial tinge. ‘I think that demeans his position and has questionable overtones. I call on him to apologize,’ said Mr. Smith, who is black.”
Let us review: the leader of the Senate Democrats tells everyone that his conference’s votes are for sale, and when he is confronted about it, he plays the race card.
I think I just threw up in my mouth.
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