Discussion: Ex-New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver Guilty Of Corruption Charges

Discussion for article #243279

A man with a corruption quotient that would put most old-time Tammany pols to shame. Glad to see him go down!

(In addition to corruption, he’s the primary asshole who delayed marriage equality in New York for years, so that’s another reason to loathe and despise him.)

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To anyone who follows New York state politics this is not surprise. For years this has been one of the most corrupt assemblies in the nation.

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That he is guilty should surprise just about nobody. That he was ever charger & tried? That surprised me.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, once one of New York's most powerful politicians, was convicted Monday of charges that he traded favors to earn $5 million illegally and then lied about it.

So much for his coming out of this with a sterling reputation.

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The Manhattan federal court jury returned the verdict after a three-week trial in which prosecutors claimed that the 71-year-old Democrat repeatedly promised the favors so he could enrich himself. The defense countered that the government was trying to criminalize the longtime routines of politics in Albany.

Probably both are true. It was a crime and routine politics. Just shows how far we need to go to clean things up for the average member of society.

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Hmm…if I could write the story for a Republican ending, Silver would get a reversal on appeal, write a book and successfully run for office after his release. But as a Democrat, he can only hope to write a book and be released on appeal.

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Whether they have a D or an R after their name. You engage in corruption, you go to jail.

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The defense countered that the government was trying to criminalize the longtime routines of politics in Albany.

Therein lies the problem.

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Is it wrong I’m smiling?

TPM:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Goldstein told jurors to reject the defense contention that Silver was just practicing politics as usual.

“This was bribery. This was extortion. This was corruption,” Goldstein said.

Bribery, extortion, corruption … not to put too fine a point on it, but that sounds exactly like NY State Politics as usual to this Manhattanite.

I’m not saying Goldstein was wrong to prosecute, just that his rhetoric is backwards. He should have argued that politics practiced as usual in NY not only should be a crime, but in fact is a crime, and these are the criminals who rigged it to be that way.

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Unfortunately, that’s not quite true. Silver’s main partner in crime, Skelos’ predecessor as Senate president Joe Bruno, took a path that was more like @538Liberal described - convicted, overturned, retried, and acquitted. The two had an uninterrupted run at the top of their respective houses from 1994-2008, mostly serving their own personal agendas.

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