It appears that Hiram Monserrate--precisely as hypothesized here on Friday (and picked up by the Huffington Post here and posted to nextgendems here)--was/is in desperate straits for money to pay his newly acquired, $750 per-hour, super-lawyer Joe Tacopina, and keep himself from a seven-year state prison term.

I wrote on Friday:

[Monserrate's] also an ex-cop. Ex-cops don't do well in 7-year state bids--especially for something like beating women in hallways and then cutting their faces. Hiram knows this, and has just one thing on his mind: How he's going to--very-literally--survive in a place like Elmira or Attica.  Doing anything to avoid or mitigate this cannot but control his entire thinking and decision making processes.

Now today, by way of the New York Post, we learn that Monserrate has a "legal defense fund" that was/is soliciting quid pro quo donations. And suffice it to say, I don't think it's an accident that "a lobbyist" has suddenly contacted the Post about it.  In fact, expect more of it.  National exposure at places like the Huffington Post tends to do that. And for the record, I did not shop that piece to them--meaning that somebody else did.

The Post writes:

Turncoat Democrat Hiram Monserrate was accused of soliciting a donation to his legal defense fund from a lobbyist pushing for changes to a bill sponsored by the embattled Queens senator, The Post has learned.

The potentially unethical conduct landed Monserrate in hot water with state Senate leaders in April.

A Monserrate staffer sent the lobbyist an e-mail in mid-April asking for a contribution to help offset the hot-tempered pol's burgeoning legal bills. Monserrate is fighting felony charges that he slashed his girlfriend's face on Dec. 19.

At the time, the lobbyist wanted changes in a gas-pricing bill controlled by Monserrate, then chairman of the Consumer Protection Committee. He stepped down after his indictment but remained on the panel.

The e-mail, sent from the staffer's home computer, angered Senate leadership when the livid lobbyist brought it to them, sources said.

Monserrate and Senate leaders refused comment.

Now, where were Tom Golisano and Steve Pigeon in "mid-April?"  After the budget had passed and Golisano decides he needs to "do something" to save the state's future (and himself from further taxation)?  Did they make contributions to Monserrate's "legal defense fund?"  Did Monserrate solicit donations from them?

Maybe this explains why on Thursday, during Monserrate's agonizing half-in, half-out disquisition on the senate floor, Steve Pigeon covered his face in his hands and looked quite ashen--sick, really--as he departed the Senate gallery?

Go the swine flu or something, Steve?