News and Notes (Off topic)

Amidst a continuing downpour of gloomy news - down to an unbelievable 18%(!) approval rating in the latest Siena poll and more grim news on the budget deficit, it was a rare moment of triumph for Governor David Paterson when the state's highest court surprisingly upheld his appointment of Richard Ravitch as Lt. Governor.

Of course, given the situation, there was immediate speculation that, with a successor in place, the governor would not even serve out his term. However, no Sarah Palin he, Paterson affirmed his intention to ride this out until the very end.

Minority Leader Dean Skelos, the named plaintiff in the lawsuit to deny the appointment, said “The court’s decision to allow the state’s highest offices to be filled with no accountability whatsoever to the public or to their elected representatives in the Legislature, is dangerous to democracy." An interesting choice of words for one of the main players in the GOP's attempt to hijack the Senate on a parliamentary technicality in June.

The assault trial of one of the temporary party-flippers continued, and featured the long-awaited release of the surveillance tape of the defendant Sen. Hiram Monserrate and his girlfriend Karla Giraldo. You can watch it here. The prosecution contends that the tape clearly shows a stricken women desperately ringing the downstairs neighbor's doorbell (confirmed by that woman in her potentially damaging testimony) and trying to hang on to a banister and before being violently dragged away and out of the building by Monserrate. The defense, which says it will analyze every frame and pixel of the tape, will insist that the victim was drunk and therefore resisting going to the hospital, and that the Senator used "reasonable force, but not violence" to get her there. You can watch and decide for yourself. Personally, I think the defense has a lot of 'splaining to do.