Alban[ia]

Outsiders coming to New York tend to see the city as its own universe, but taking up residence here quickly brings you into contact with the hard, cold reality known as Albany. Several things have happened this week to remind us that while our lives may be administered by King Bloomberg I, they are governed by the efficient solons of our state capital.

I say ‘efficient’ because the system they have devised is marvelously adept at shoveling cash into the pockets of its corrupt administrators while setting up future generations for bankruptcy. An ignorant outsider might surmise that this is done through a cozy alliance between the two major parties, both of which accuse the other of fiscal irresponsibility while battling mightily to make sure their favored constituents du jour feed at the public trough.

For decades this system was controlled by the iron triumvirate of Democrat Sheldon Silver (the Assembly Speaker), Republican Joe Bruno (the Senate Majority Leader)[left] and whoever happened to be the governor, who, being around for a mere eight years, threatened this arrangement at his peril.

Bruno is now waiting for a jury to rule on eight corruption charges steeming from his blatant influence peddling and private enrichment, and his statements to the waiting news media are illuminating. ‘Some people don’t understand about business’, Bruno whined to NPR this morning. Killjoy prosecutors who don’t want to see a guy make a buck, Joe was saying, illustrating the special Albany way of doing things.

Meanwhile, gay lobbying groups struggled mightily last year to throw out Bruno and get a Democratic majority in the Senate. Having done so, they logically expected an up-or-down vote on marriage equality for same-sex couples, which they got this week—and were clobbered on it 38-24. Eight of their supposed votes-in-the-bag allies, most of them from liberal-ish New York boroughs who had no trouble taking that useful gay money for their campaigns, voted no. One of them, Hiram Montserrate, just beat an assault rap for slashing his girlfriend’s face with a piece of glass. (Turned out it was an accident, wink-wink.)

It will be interesting to see what backlash this crude betrayal generates, if any, as the highly charged civil rights issue continues to rankle and the shiny new Democrats prove as indifferent as the bad-old Republicans.