Typical Sheldon Silver. Typical Albany, too.
Instead of doing the decent thing for New York (and his party) by resigning over the serious corruption charges leveled against him, Assembly Speaker Silver has been trying desperately to hold on to his title.
Meanwhile, his fellow Democrats, who hold the majority in the Assembly, have apparently agreed the issue will be decided in yet another Albany back room.
The back room is Shelly’s stronghold. So naturally the first idea to emerge was for Silver to step aside “temporarily” in favor of a five-member committee. In this way, of course, Silver would remain speaker in all but name.
But Silver is meeting unaccustomed resistance. New York City Comptoller Scott Stringer rightly called for Shelly not simply to “step aside” but to “step down.”
Public Advocate Letitia James has likewise said Silver needs to resign his speakership.
Assemblyman Keith Wright, who also serves as chairman of Manhattan’s Democratic Party, warned that so long as Silver stayed on as speaker, the “stink of scandal” would hang over the Assembly.
We’re not surprised Silver’s not budging. Nor are we surprised he could come up with five toadies willing to serve as place-holders to help keep him in power.
And, sadly, we’re not surprised that the other two men normally in the most important back room with Silver — Gov. Cuomo and Republican Senate Leader Dean Skelos — still won’t call for Silver to step down as speaker, either.
So here’s the question: Assuming the support of the Assembly’s 44 Republicans, all it would take to force a new vote for speaker and give Shelly the boot is 32 Democrats.
Does Albany have that many honest lawmakers?