The nominal plotlines are already shaping up for the next season of âThe Real Lawmakers of Albanyâ â catfights over charâter schools, rent laws and multibillion-dollar bank-fine windfalls. Yet the best story arcs center on the cast of characters of this reality show.
Leave Gov. Cuomo and his dđžrama for another time: The top dogâs tale is far from the only one worth telling.
Start with đthe most poignanàŠt reality: the stain on Sheldon Silverâs honor.
The Assembly speaker is the rock of Albany, with unmatched longevity and security in power, yet also the Capitolâs Sphinx â so private that even his rare public cođmments reveal little about his policy agenda, let alone his private thoughts. (Many a New Yorker great and small has discovered himself to be the object of Silverâs displeasure only long after the knife went in.)
Yet haunting the speaker is his long affiliation with the Jew who stole from the Jews â from a Jewish charity, no less.
The details of the schemes that diverted millions to William Rapfogelâs pockets are complex matters of insurance fraud. But the bottom line is that the head of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a Silver friend and the husband of Silverâs decades-long chief of staff, Judy RđŒapfogel, was caught with bundles of cash in his home.
Cash that should have gone to help the poor, espđŠecially poor Jewđs.
Siê§ lver is Orthodox, and traditional Jewish teaching tđ akes charity very, very seriously. There is not the slightest hint that the speaker was in any way involved in this obscene crime. (Cynics do ask if the key investigators, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, even dared to look.)
Still, there is the question of how Silver couldnât have noticed something. (The questionâs even more obvious in Mrs. Rapfogelâs case, though she remains Silâverâs chief of staff.)
Surely the speaker, a man who could take great pride in his lifetime of achievement, must wonder every time he meets anotherâs eyes in temple: What is he thinking? Does he wonder what I knew? If I just ignored the warning signs? Do they all think I just didnât care?
His colleaguđŽes in đAlbany surely have unvoiced questions, too:
How could they be so amateurish? Why didnât Shelly teach him better? Everybody milks nonprofits â thereâs plenty of legal ways, if you donât get greedy. Did the master of Albany really miss what was going on at the top charity in his community?
Is the speaker losing it?
That lđ șast may be the most crippling doubt â for Silver, at 70, is surely in his last decade of power. The jockeying for succession is quiet for now â after all, the speaker ruthlessly crushed past revolts. But at some point it will get ugly indeed â especially if the speaker seems weak or distracted.
Yet the Rapfogel affair actually postpones any Silver departure. The only way to handle such a stain is to move on and let it slowly fade; expect the speđ§žaker to stoically go about his affairs.
And to get even with anyone who tries to rub salt in the wound by smarmily asking him if heâs heard howđ Willieâs doing.
The concerns over on the Senate side are more mundane. Dean Skeà± los, for one, is surely taking pride in having defied expectations by winning back a straight Republican majority.
Well, at least until thàče next election, or prosecution, takes out one or more of his members.
The fragility of his grasp on power must haunt Skelos: It took truly egregious gerrymandering plus a national Republican wave to put him back in the driverâs seat. (Some charge it took even more: a secret deal involving Gov. Cuomo as well as Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano to protect the ê§interests of all three.)
And the 2016 election, not an ođŠff year, is likely to put him back in the minority.
Longđer term, redistricting after the 2020 Census is a strong bet to kill any hope of a Republican đŽSenate majority until the end of time.
Which means that Skelos will be looking either to just âtake his opportunities while he canâ â or to find some genuine game-cđ haà”Čnger that will change those future odds. (Or maybe both.)
And thđ„is brings us to Jeff Klein, the head of the Senateâs Independent Democratic caucus.
Heâs in a bind, 1) having burned bridges with so many other Democrats by siding with Skelos, and so shutting theê§m out of power, the last two years, yet 2) having promisedđ in this fallâs campaign to reunite with those other Democrats next session.
If Skelos, his eye on the longer game, is willing to take Klein back, the question isnât so much whether Klein will find a face-saving way to break his word as when.
(Skelos and Klein are even now.)
On the other hand, if Klein and his âindependentsâ donât get to share some of the GOP majorityâs power, theyâll đ»surely find themselves reflecting on the fate of the last bunch of Democrats to (briefly) cut a deal to hand the Senate to Skelos: Both Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada, the two âamigosâ who backed the 2009 âcoup,â wound up in prison.
đ Klein will surely tell himself heâs smarter than the likes of Espada: He washes âany hint of influence-peddling through the purifying font of his law firm, just as other Albany leaders do.
On the other hand, all Albany now has to beware of new advances in listening-deviceđ technology: US AttornêŠey Preet Bharara is still there off-camera, looking for more scalps.
cunningham@btc365-futebol.com