[S]tate elections officials in Albany say that Mr. Espada did not register his campaign for Senate this year; and he could face more than $6,000 in fines. It is not the first time he has run afoul of the State Board of Elections: His 2000 Senate campaign was fined for failing to submit finance reports.

In 2005, three employees of a Bronx nonprofit health care company run by Mr. Espada, the Soundview HealthCare Network, pleaded guilty to diverting $30,000 from programs for family care and AIDS treatment to one of his campaigns. Mr. Espada was never charged.”

According to today’s New York Times, California Attorney General Jerry Brown (where have I heard that name before?) has asked the State Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the voter initiative which bans same-sex marriage. Brown said such a review was necessary to provide closure and clarity on the ballot measure, as several challenges to the measure had been filed with the Court.

Apparently, the central argument in the law suits is that Proposition 8 is a significant enough revision to the State Constitution to require the approval of the Legislature.

Kirchik’s article is smart, well argued and neatly sums up Lieberman’s case. Speaking from my perspective as a pragmatic, centrist, Clintonite, neo-liberal, new Democrat with closet DLC tendencies, who’s crazy about Rahm Emanuel, I have to say that Kirchick is dead wrong.

In recognition of the recent departure from the ranks of the Doghouse Democrats (Pedro Espada, Carl Kruger and Ruben Diaz) of Senator-Elect Hiram Monserrate, I’ve marked them down from “The Four Horsemen of the Preposterous," and renamed them "Carl and the Passions" (in memory of what is arguably the worst album ever issued by the Beach Boys while they were still trying). When it comes to loyalty to their political party, the theme song of the Passions is not “Be True to Your School,” but rather “I Get Around.”

I hold no particular brief for Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, and can rattle off the names of several members I think would make a better Party Leader, but, for whatever reasons, Smith was the choice of his Conference by an overwhelming margin, and therefore, he deserves the support of all Senate Democrats when the Senate organizes in January.

Sometime in January, we were driving Dybbuk, then just about to turn five, home from his Aunt Feygeleh’s when he blurted out, “What about Obama?”

Nonplussed, Domestic Partner and I reacted exactly as we had when my youngest brother’s daughter informed us she had just had her First Holy Communion---we fell silent, gave each other a quick glance, and simultaneously yelled “Congratulations!”

In this case, after the silence and the quick glance, we simultaneously said, “What about him?”

Dybbuk had been a wiseass for as long as we could remember. One day during his second year, I found myself covered in regurgitated milk, I asked him whether he’d just spit on me, or if he’d actually thrown up. He answered, “I threw down.” Days later, I stopped him from pulling his mother’s hair and said “that hurts, how’d you like if I did that to you?” I gently gave his hair a yank. He responded by pulling it himself and laughing while repeating, “Daddy, ouch!” His latest forum for mischief was Hebrew school. The teacher had asked the class to improvise a play about the Sabbath, and Dybbuk asked why the topic had to be something Jewish.

The responses to my unapologetically pro-Obama pieces on this election have come in two varieties; The first is where some Cro-Magnon, usually a pro-life lunatic or a Republican operative, vents their spleen:

“So let me get this.. about people of color....yes, because if this election has taught us nothing else it's that any comment made, no matter how true, must be motivated by racial hatred unless it equates to fawning over a candidate. Truly pathetic.”

Miffed by this idiocy I wrote: “Of course, you didn't have the evidence to prove it in court, but when has that ever stopped the Republicans from spreading libelous lies about people of color?

But, as my friend Roscoe Conway likes to say (channeling Ben Franklin) "a Majority, if you can keep it."

On Thursday October, 30 at 7:45 PM, Councilman Lew Fidler’s 41^st AD Democratic Club continues its unexpectedly interesting Speakers Series with a twi-night double header of epic proportions.

Those whose remember the Club’s September candidate’s debate between Simcha Felder (intentionally hilarious), Kevin Parker (hilarious; intentions unknown) and Kendall Stewart (that schtick couldn’t have been serious, could it?) ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

On Thursday Night, Sheephead Bay’s Own reincarnation of The Great One presents Brooklyn’s DA, Charles “Joe” Hynes and it’s Borough President, Marty Markowitz.

MCCAIN: Well, in our nation's capital and New York City. I've seen it. I've lived there. I know the town. I know-- I know what a lot of these elitists are. The ones that she never went to a cocktail party with in Georgetown. I'll be very frank with you. Who think that they can dictate what they believe to America rather than let Americans decide for themselves

“The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August. According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.…September payments were also made to Barney’s New York ($789.72) and Bloomingdale’s New York ($5,102.71).---Jeanne Cummings on Politico

Across the country, voters are preparing to take part in (or already taking part in) a national referendum on such monumental issues as “Smart Diplomacy versus Aggressive Isolationism“, “16 More Months (‘God Willing’) versus 100 More Years (‘Make My Day’)”, “Sensible Regulation versus Adam Smith on Acid and Steroids” and “Guaranteed Health Care versus the Freedom to Die Free From Government Interference in Excruciating Pain” .

And yet, in over 10% of New York’s City’s Congressional Districts, seriously delusioned voters will be unable to cast a vote for a Republican candidate for Congress (although in one of the offending districts, they will have the option of voting for a Conservative).