The New York Times is apparently a master of understatement: “Federal authorities are expected to arrest Sheldon Silver, the powerful speaker of the New York State Assembly, on corruption charges on Thursday, people with knowledge of the matter said, in a case that is likely to throw Albany into disarray.” …Yes. Yes, I imagine that indicting Speaker Silver will cause a certain amount of confusion and delay, as the philosopher once said.  In much the same way that removing a queen ant from her anthill can disrupt the anthill’s normal operating work environment.

Background here: the short version is that Sheldon Silver is probably going to be formally accused of using a law firm to more or less sanitize payoffs via ‘consulting.’ The weird part? Speaker Silver didn’t report the income he was getting via ‘consulting.’  If I were to hazard a guess, it’d be that Silver decided that he was invulnerable, and started acting accordingly.  That never works out well, in the long run.

Oh, and why is all of this important?  Well, you see: this was all being investigated by an anti-corruption group known as the Moreland Commission.  Right up to the point where Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) abruptly shut the Commission down (the feds got interested in that, too). Now, to be fair: because there’s so much corruption in the New York state government, it’s kind of hard to say just who Gov. Cuomo was (allegedly) protecting, there.  But protecting Sheldon Silver would be on the top of everybody’s list.  At any rate… I really wouldn’t count on Andrew Cuomo making a serious bid for President, now.  Particularly if Speaker Sheldon gets convicted.

:brightly: Guess the Democrats really are stuck with Hillary Clinton, then! …I ooze sympathy for them; I really, really do.

Moe Lane (crosspost)