That's Politics

In 2013 State Senate leader Malcolm Smith and two co-defendants attempted to buy the Republican nomination for the NYC Mayoral race (de Blasio won). Their conversations were secretly recorded and this is what they had to say according to a 2013 report on NY political corruption:

That’s politics, that’s politics, it’s all about how much. Not about

whether or will, it’s about how much, and that’s our politicians in

New York, they’re all like that, all like that. And they get like that

because of the drive that the money does for everything else. You

can’t do anything without the f**king money.

A good shake up is long overdue. NY politicians (Andy Cuomo, you listening?) cannot be trusted to do it. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York decided to do something.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the Thursday-morning arrest of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver goes to “the core of the problem” in state government corruption: “lack of transparency, lack of accountability and lack of principle, joined with an overabundance of greed, cronyism and self-dealing.”

[...]“For many years, New Yorkers have asked the question, ‘How could Speaker Silver — one of the most powerful men in all of New York — earn millions of dollars in outside income without deeply compromising his ability to honestly serve his constituents?’...” Bharara said.

You got that straight. And whenever light was brought to bear on the feeding cockroaches, the politicians snuffed it out... like the Moreland Commission.

In a line that might send a chill through certain corners of the Capitol, Bharara noted that his corruption work was ongoing.

“We will keep at it, because the men and woman of the FBI and of my office still subscribe to the quaint view that no one is above the law, no matter who you are, or who know, or how much money you have,” he said. “And so our unfinished fight against public corruption continues. You should stay tuned.”

Story here.

More on Andy Cuomo's interference with the Moreland Commission here and here.

The Moreland Commission's preliminary report here.

Even the NY Times was offended by Cuomo's political shenanigans so it really had to stink to high heaven. This really is a good article.