Sheldon Silver must step down as Assembly speaker — or be ousted from the post that makes him New York’s second-most-powerful elected official.
The Assembly’s Democratic majority has a fleeting chance to avert disgrace by refusing to allow Silver to lead their house while charged with federal felonies. Don’t hold your breath.
After years of enabling his corruption, playing along with a system that put everything up for sale and excusing gross misconduct, the Democrats are standing with the strongman at whose knee they have worshipped.
They bleat that the charges are not proven. This is a convenient lie. While a judge, jury or, more likely, a guilty plea will ultimately determine Silver’s suitability for prison, the facts presented by prosecutors convict him beyond any doubt of abusing his office for personal enrichment.
By giving Silver a pass, the Democrats reveal to constituents their high tolerance for secret deal-making for money — including Silver’s perversion of a health-care grant that was earmarked for post-9/11 programs.
Mayor de Blasio dove into the same moral schmutz, adding to the impression that New York has two standards of justice — one for friends of Bill, and one for everyone else.
While perfunctorily muttering that the accusations were “very serious,” the mayor went out of his way to say that he had “always known Shelly Silver to be a man of integrity.” (Another transparent falsehood, given Silver’s well-documented record.) De Blasio also called for letting “the judicial process play out.”
There, the mayor was a screaming hypocrite. When Rep. Michael Grimm was indicted on far less serious charges than faced by Silver, de Blasio called for Grimm’s resignation. The only distinction: Grimm is a Republican, not a Democrat.
The mayor thus joins Silver’s liberal colleagues in the holier-than-thou, anything-goes progressive chorus that has dominated the Assembly.
The Democrats were okay with Silver when he conducted a joke of an investigation that cleared Silver’s then-chief counsel of raping a staff member. Two years later, authorities arrested the lawyer for assaulting another woman.
And the Democrats were okay with Silver when he squashed an ethics report on theft of travel expenses by Assemblyman Roger Green.
And the Democrats were okay with Silver when he covered up sexual harassment allegations against Assemblyman Vito Lopez.
And the Democrats were okay with Silver when he rigged the rules of an ethics commission to empower him to stifle probes.
And the Democrats were okay with Silver when he killed legislation that could have sent him to state prison for the conduct found by federal prosecutors.
And the Democrats were okay with Silver when he went to court to bar Gov. Cuomo’s ill-fated corruption commission from uncovering the financial dealings at the heart of the U.S. charges.
And the Democrats were okay with Silver when he failed to report the income at the heart of the federal case.
And the Democrats are still okay with affording Silver the high honor of conducting the public’s business on their behalf as leader of the Assembly.
All hail, pay-for-play government. All hail, the conniving, greedy thug.
