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Joe Bruno: A Reaction
I have two responses to the conviction of Joe Bruno on two counts for petty corruption. First, if Joe Bruno is guilty they all are (or rather since Joe Bruno is guilty they all are). And second, considering what this generation of state legislators have done to the common future of the state and anyone who will be living in it, this is the equivalent of convicting Al Capone for tax evasion rather than murder. While petty corruption is annoying, there is a limit to the extent it is damaging. Far more damage has been done by deals and non-decisions for which no one has been put on trial. I never cared about the helicopter rides, etc. The problem was and is the transfer of resources from everyone in the future (now the present) to provide unearned privileges to those manipulating the system in the present (now the past), all without any public accounting or debate, all hidden, all lied about.
Ironically, the strategy of going after public officials for their petty venalities rather than their broader unprincipled actions was the that of former Governor Eliot Spitzer, who turned out to have some petty venalities of his own. So I guess Spitzer lives. Joe Bruno: A Reaction
Do you don't think there is a difference between a pol committing a crime and a pol who makes a foolish policy decision? I agree with you that many of the actions in Albany are terrible and cost us billions but they are not crimes. They are things that the pols do that you & I disagree with them about. What Bruno did, by taking money from a businessman/friend to perform no real work but to instead help him get state contracts was a crime. And I don't think "everyone" does it. I don't think many legislators get the mail for their outside businesses delivered to their legislative office and have their State empolyeed secretary write checks & keep their personal books
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Policy decisions you disagree with don't necessarily result from corrupt practices. This State needs a "big picture" discussion of ethics. It needs to have an idea what it wants from its politicians. To say "it's simple, we want non-corruption! We want integrity!!" is not an answer. It's a vapid platitude with no specific meaning. "What Bruno did, by taking money from a businessman/friend to perform no real work but to instead help him get state contracts was a crime."
Bruno is guilty of being a pig, but no one up there is making policy decisions in a public and deliberative fashion after collecting the relevant information and considering the alternatives. They are doing deals. Rather than rehash all the "non-profits" owned by state legislators, just consider one deal of particular interest to me. The UFT promises to support a Republican in an Upstate special election for State Senate, and the Republican State Senators suddenly pass a bill allowing existing NYC teachers to retire at age 55 instead of 62. Two years later, the take home pay of future NYC teachers has been cut five percent, and the education of current NYC children has begun to be gutted, to pay for it. Silver and his were on board with the same paymaster. Spitzer signed it.
Given a choice of that and Bruno getting his mail at the capitol, I'd rather have Bruno getting his mail at the capitol. But we don't have a choice. We get both.
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