Fire them all
You're the president of a company. You have an important project that could be life or death for the company. You assign it to a team that had been reasonably successful before. They promptly fall apart in petty squabbling and the project does not get done, costing the company millions of dollars. What would you do? I'm not an MBA, but I suppose a smart executive would fire the whole bunch. I don't want to hear their excuses, who started what, who did what to whom. You're a drag on the company. Out - all of you!
That is the situation we New Yorkers face with our State Senate. A couple of ethically challenged Senators switched parties, causing a deadlock over control. For several weeks the Senators have been acting like a bunch of kindergarten kids arguing over their toys. They have not had a proper legislative session, despite the best efforts of our inept governor. For weeks urgent public business has not been attended to. Among other items, mayoral control of New York City's public schools expired because it had not been renewed by the deadline, June 30. Whatever one thinks of mayoral control, administrators, teachers, parents and students have a right to know who is running the joint. The mayor is doing his best to reconstitute the system as it was before mayoral control, but the new Board of Education does not know for how long they will be in charge, or indeed what the limits of their power are right now. That is no way to run a railroad. The Markey bill, needed to protect yeshiva and other private-school students from sexual predators on staff, was passed by the Assembly and remains in limbo until our Senators start acting like adults. There is no end in sight. New York is the laughingstock of the nation. The terms of the Senators expire next year, as does that of the governor. I say we get rid of the whole Senate. We have long had too high a tolerance for crookedness in Albany, but we did expect the Legislature to hold sessions and get the job done. Now the Senators are simply not doing the job we elected them - and are still paying them - to do. So let's start grooming credible candidates - honest and upright men for a change - in each district to run against the current senators in the primaries and general election. And let the next legislature amend the state constitution to allow us to recall politicians who don't know the meaning of honesty, integrity and work ethic.
That is the situation we New Yorkers face with our State Senate. A couple of ethically challenged Senators switched parties, causing a deadlock over control. For several weeks the Senators have been acting like a bunch of kindergarten kids arguing over their toys. They have not had a proper legislative session, despite the best efforts of our inept governor. For weeks urgent public business has not been attended to. Among other items, mayoral control of New York City's public schools expired because it had not been renewed by the deadline, June 30. Whatever one thinks of mayoral control, administrators, teachers, parents and students have a right to know who is running the joint. The mayor is doing his best to reconstitute the system as it was before mayoral control, but the new Board of Education does not know for how long they will be in charge, or indeed what the limits of their power are right now. That is no way to run a railroad. The Markey bill, needed to protect yeshiva and other private-school students from sexual predators on staff, was passed by the Assembly and remains in limbo until our Senators start acting like adults. There is no end in sight. New York is the laughingstock of the nation. The terms of the Senators expire next year, as does that of the governor. I say we get rid of the whole Senate. We have long had too high a tolerance for crookedness in Albany, but we did expect the Legislature to hold sessions and get the job done. Now the Senators are simply not doing the job we elected them - and are still paying them - to do. So let's start grooming credible candidates - honest and upright men for a change - in each district to run against the current senators in the primaries and general election. And let the next legislature amend the state constitution to allow us to recall politicians who don't know the meaning of honesty, integrity and work ethic.
posted by Zev Stern at 8:50 AM
2 Comments:
Wolf, you have a government that can't print money fast enough to give to the executives who screwed up the economy in the first place.
You have a president who's more worried about Jews in Israel building homes for their kids than mullahs in Iran getting The Bomb.
The New York Senate is nothing compared to that.
You're right of course, but we're stuck with Obama for the next four years, and we can replace the Senate next year if we start working on it now.
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