GOP Assumes Control of the New York State Senate

It’s not too often I will ever link to the New York Times, but in the case I will make an exception. To the shock and awe of fellow Democrats, legislators Pedro Espada Jr. and Hiram Monserrate joined Republicans on the Senate floor to stage a surprise takeover of the chamber. As a result, Mr. Espada became the new President of the Senate with the proud backing of other Latino lawmakers.

According to the New York Times, it’s been a long time complaint of Hispanic lawmakers that they are consistently shut out of top positions while losing slots to black lawmakers. As they would have us to believe, the party of diversity has not been so good at delivering on their promise of promotion in an attempt to reflect properly New York’s large Hispanic voting bloc. However, Espada and Monserrate said nothing about identity politics being the prime motivator behind the move. According to Espada, he made the switch because Democrats have failed to enact most of the reforms they promised to do since they first took control in 1965.

Meanwhile, politics is starting to get real dirty as Democrats and the liberal media is about to eat their young. The New York Post ran a nasty hit-piece on Espada and Monserrate of epic proportions. And here I thought the Scott Walker hit pieces by WISN 12 and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel were bad!

Does Gay Marriage Lie at the Center of the Issue?

Wait, it gets better; gay marriage may have a role in the switch. After Democrats took control of the entire New York state government for the first time in 40 years, they’ve been trying to pass gay marriage legislation. Not surprisingly, it hasn’t won the broad support of Hispanic legislators. And although Espada and other Latinos sought assurances from Senate Democrats that they would not vote on the legislation in the current session, the legislation began to gather some momentum regardless.

Ironically, Democrats are acting like babies by locking the chambers until so-called order is restored and threatening a law suit calling the takeover illegal. I say “ironically” because when Republicans switch parties, they are courageously opposing right wing extremism, but when Democrats do it, they are called thieves, traitors, corrupt, crooks, monsters, charlatans, clowns, and criminals. (By the way, this was all found in a single article.) Go figure.

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