A Year of Democratic Decline
By Jeffrey Page
“Left face!” Sgt. Al Minicus would bark at his trainees at Fort Dix and, invariably, 65 men would turn their bodies 90 degrees to the left, and one or two would turn to the right.
“You’re so damned dumb, you’d f**k up a wet dream,” Minicus would shout into the face of a soldier who turned the wrong way. It’s a line that can’t be explained but whose meaning is understood immediately.
And so we turn to the dreams of New York Democrats. One year ago they had the world by the tail. Comptroller Alan Hevesi had resigned two years earlier and talk of his idiotic use of state workers to chauffeur his wife had pretty much faded. And Governor Eliot Spitzer, who had paid high priced hookers to do that which he wished done, was out of office for nearly a year. The punch line “Eliot Spitzer” was heard less and less.
The Democrats had elected a promising new president. They were in solid control of the House and Senate. Rep. Charles Rangel was chairman of the important Ways and Means Committee. A House freshman, Eric Massa, had won a seat in a traditionally Republican district on Lake Erie. After eight years of Bush and Cheney, Pataki and Joe Bruno, this looked like the Democrats’ time.
But they have spent the better part of a year acting very strangely and through it all, there was a large nonpartisan constituency watching and wondering: Whoa, is this the party to fix things?
–Last spring, Democratic State Senator Pedro Espada defected to the Republicans. The Senate ground to a halt; important legislation was put on hold. Then Espada kissed some Democratic rings, or maybe it was the other way around. He defected back. And Senate Democrats welcomed him by making him their majority leader. Truly, this was Marx Brothers material.
–Recently, another senator, Democrat Hiram Monserrate, learned that – you know? – you’re just not allowed to drag your girlfriend around by her hair and shoulders. Monserrate was convicted of misdemeanor assault. In a rare display of political courage the Senate kicked him out. He won’t go quietly. He’s threatening to sue.
–Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is looking into reports that Governor Paterson had staff and/or the state police contact the ex-girlfriend of his confidante to get her to withdraw a request for an order of protection against the aide, David Johnson. Some are calling for Paterson to resign.
–Recently, two important members of Paterson’s administration quit – his criminal justice adviser (“good conscience,” she said, made her continued service impossible) and his communications director (“good conscience,” he said, dictated that he leave). Oh, and the head of the state police retired.
–Rangel gave up his chairmanship of Ways and Means as suggestions of lapses of ethical conduct swirled about him. One charge is that Rangel took trips to the Caribbean that were paid for by corporations. This is not allowed but don’t be too hard on Rangel. After all, he’s only been in the House of Representatives for the last 39 years. And there’s also an unresolved matter of possible income tax evasion.
–Massa used to be a Republican. Now’s he’s a Democrat. He says the reason a staffer went public about Massa’s alleged sexual harassment is that the White House is out to get him because he doesn’t like President Obama’s health reform plan. So he resigned. Then the Times ran a story about Massa’s interview on an upstate radio station in which he confirmed that, at a party in January, he “grabbed the aide, joked about having sexual relations with him and mussed his hair before getting up and leaving.” The aide’s complaint is now in the hands of the House Ethics Panel.
–Toss in the White House’s insane non-response over the summer as the Tea Partiers grabbed headlines on Page 1 on the matter of health reform. Did the geniuses in the Obama Administration think the Tea Party people would get it off their chests and then just go home?
Twelve months ago, the Democrats were sitting on top of the world. Nowadays, they’re sitting on one another. And that’s no dream.
Jeffrey can be reached at jeffrey@zestoforange.com
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