Our so-called leaders at the federal level could learn from New York State Governor Elliott Spitzer. He’s showing more fight than I ever expected.
Less than two months in office, Spitzer is putting members of the assembly who are impeding his reform agenda on notice, whether they are Republicans or Democrats. The most recent imbroglio occurred when the legislature nominated one of their cronies for comptroller over more well-qualified candidates. Spitzer is calling out legislators who supported this nomination one by one. His approach is to go to the legislator’s home district and bash them on their home turf. He was in Syracuse last week to complain directly to the Syracuse Post Standard about Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli (a fellow Democrat). "Bill Magnarelli is one of those unfortunate Assembly members who just raises his hand when he's told to do so, and didn't ever stand up and say, 'Whose interest am I representing?” The next guest on Spitzer’s version of “You Got Served” was Westchester’s George Latimer. Watch to see if the governor comes to your district to give you a report on your representative. Today, Spitzer is expected to hit Assemblyman Bob Reilly (D-Colonie); later this week, he's slated to head to Niagara Falls to criticize Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte (D-Lewiston).
All the Assembly can do is whine that Spitzer is not playing by the rules, which are the rules of the state government that was judged most dysfunctional in the country by the Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law. When the Assembly Republican Leader and Democratic Leader both complain about Spitzer’s tactics, you know he’s on the right track.
This is just the start. I think if true reform is going to happen, the voters of the state need to let the assembly know that we won’t tolerate an obstruction of true reform, and those who get in the way are going to be voted out. You don’t have to have a political nature to just be totally sick of the taxation in this state and the loss of jobs. State government is run for its own sake at our expense and it’s enough.
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As reported in today's New York Times:
"Steamroller Style" - That phrase apparently figured prominently in questions posed of New York voters by Quinnipiac University’s polling operation in a survey released today.
Some details: voters approve 61 - 11 percent of the job Gov. Eliot Spitzer is doing and say 61 - 24 percent that his “Steamroller Style” is good for the people. Voters disapprove of the job the legislature is doing and give negative ratings to its leaders, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno.
To quote a fantasy football legend, "There's a mighty steamroller that's not afraid to pave everything before it that refuses to behave!"
http://www.steamroller.com/
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