Tarnished Silver

January 22, 2015 10:28 AM

The New York Times is reporting that Speaker of the New York State Legislature Sheldon Silver has been arrested on federal corruption charges related to income received from a NYC legal firm specializing in real estate. New York has background on the investigation and charges.

As Charlie Pierce put it, this is a "serious Holy Fking Hell moment" in New York politics.

posted by NoxAeternum (43 comments total)

About damn time.
posted by spitbull at 10:30 AM on January 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

It's going to be hard for Albany to deal with its very first case of corruption.
posted by Sticherbeast at 10:36 AM on January 22, 2015 [29 favorites]

this is a "serious Holy Fking Hell moment" in New York politics.

Or, as we call it, Thursday.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 10:46 AM on January 22, 2015 [19 favorites]

It's really hard to believe that the New York real estate market could have gotten to the state that it's in now without massive corruption going on behind the scenes. Unfortunately, people like Sheldon Silver are symptoms of the problem, not the cause. There's no real change that is going to come from this.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 10:49 AM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's a remarkably weak for a public corruption indictment. Fair chance he walks, although his enemies will likely put him out of business even so.
posted by MattD at 10:52 AM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Unfortunately, people like Sheldon Silver are symptoms of the problem, not the cause.

I hear what you're saying, and I don't think you're wrong in locating the root cause elsewhere; but don't forget that things like fevers are symptoms, too, and are still very dangerous in their own right.
posted by clockzero at 10:54 AM on January 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

Most of the recent corruption cases in New York have involved legislators at the periphery of the corruption. Those people, while certainly just as corrupt as the rest of Albany, were relatively minor operators who were also pretty poor at selling their influence. For example, Malcolm Smith was indicted for taking $40,000 in bribes. That's peanuts in the greater scheme of legendarily corrupt Albany politics.

This isn't just another corrupt political hack. Sheldon Silver is the second-highest ranking political force in New York State. This is the difference between arresting the guy collecting "protection money" for the mafia and arresting one of the dons. He's at the center of too many deals and schemes to count. He knows where all the (figurative) bodies are buried.

The implications of this indictment and the continued investigation by the US Attorney are quite broad. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens.
posted by dominicmauro at 11:00 AM on January 22, 2015 [12 favorites]

Or I guess my complete lack of surprise is a very upstate reaction to have (it was upstate that tried to oust Silver 15 years ago, and that was after a long period of, let's say, chafing. And it was upstate that elected George Pataki). Upstate resents New York City's (to us) outsize influence on state politics and to some extent state culture. I think there is also probably some subconscious or at least veiled anti-Semitism in upstaters' dislike of Silver in particular that gets him judged more harshly as "greedy" or "sneaky" when he is not unique among state politicians for having those qualities in whatever quantity he has them.

Upstaters are probably also not unique for finding Albany generally and predictably corrupt and thinking that state legislators are capable of both enacting complicated and bizarre conspiracies and being complete idiots.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 11:03 AM on January 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

It's also worth pointing out that the root of the investigation was the Moreland Commission, which Cuomo the Lesser killed, and whose documents were then seized by the US Attorney's office.

So the fallout isn't just limited to the NYS Legislature.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:06 AM on January 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

Failed Messiah is having a field day with this one, heh.
posted by Melismata at 11:18 AM on January 22, 2015

Maybe he'll plea bargain his way into shedding light on a lot of other corruption.
posted by kokaku at 11:36 AM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Snarl Furillo's comment is pretty much 100% the same as the impression I've gotten from my relatives and friends in upstate NY.
posted by Wretch729 at 11:43 AM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

As a Jew who is originally from Schenectady County, I'm admittedly bemused by the idea that anti-Semitism could be fueling the dislike for Sheldon Silver. I don't see it.
posted by Sticherbeast at 11:47 AM on January 22, 2015

The second person in the "politician's react" video is one Mickey Kearns: one of the dumbest men I have ever worked with when he was but a lowly city councilmember. It is my great hope that he is elected speaker and is unable to cover up the corrupt dealings of that august body.
posted by munchingzombie at 12:15 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, it's definitely a very personal observation and I don't know that it's precisely accurate. I'm not an expert on anti-Semitism or anti-Jewish stereotypes. It occurred to me as I was writing the comment that a lot of the criticisms I hear/know of around Silver overlap with some common stereotypes about Jewish people. I wondered if maybe part of the opposition was that background/general cultural anti-Semitism was coming into play, making people view Silver as sort of especially personally corrupt while "white ethnic" politicians like Mario Cuomo (and I guess Pataki? Honestly I just picked up that phrase from Metafilter like three weeks ago so I'm probably using it wrong.) were "just doing politics" or "getting things done in Albany." I think it's probably a more implicit bias if it's there. I'm not an expert in any relevant issue here and I wouldn't defend any of my impressions to the death.

(Also, upstate is really such a huge region that I shouldn't make sweeping generalizations. You can't really compare, say, Westchester and Lewis counties.)
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:16 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

He's going to get off relatively easy. Powerful people are often only punished when they have angered people who are even more powerful.
posted by Calloused_Foot at 12:17 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Two things: First, I've always had a problem with that upstate attitude since the entire state taxation system is a giant vacuum cleaner that sucks money out of NYC and gives it to people upstate.

Second, the last minimally corrupt person we had in state government IMO was Eliot Spitzer. And while frequenting prostitutes is not a smart thing to do while in public office, I suspect the public scandal over it only took place because he wasn't playing well with the corporate/real estate interests that Silver has always been in bed with.
posted by overhauser at 12:18 PM on January 22, 2015 [14 favorites]

Westchester County is not upstate (source: grew up in Westchester).

While I joke that upstate is defined as "more than 15 miles north of where I live" (I know of Staten Islanders that, unironically refer to the Bronx as upstate) any legitimate answer excludes counties with strong economic ties to NYC, and probably any county with direct commuter rail service to Manhattan.
posted by thecaddy at 12:36 PM on January 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

Interesting; the dynamic between NYC and the upstate that is going on in this thread is reminiscent of Atlanta and the rest of GA where I live. I wonder if you see the same thing with Chicago/Illinois and other states where there is one large city with a tendency to exert a lot of influence on state politics.
posted by TedW at 12:42 PM on January 22, 2015

As Charlie Pierce put it, this is a "serious Holy Fking Hell moment" in New York politics.

After 25 years in this damn state, anything short of Bill DeBlasio openly blowing a goat on the steps of the state capital honestly doesn't get much more than a raised eyebrow from me.
posted by Itaxpica at 12:44 PM on January 22, 2015 [7 favorites]

Regarding public perception of corruption, living around Albany and Schenectady counties gives me the stereotypical Upstate reaction of "well, yeah, of course". People have the same attitude of learned helplessness with regard to Schenectady PD. I certainly agree with you that attitudes vary across the state - I rarely ever travelled north of Glens Falls myself.

Bear in mind as well that most people assume that the legislature is where the real filthy stuff goes down: from what I can tell, unpopular governors are seen as feckless at dealing with such corruption, rather than actively corrupt themselves, in the sense of calling the shots. Contrast with the SNL parodies of Mario Cuomo, in which he was portrayed as a charismatic, confident mobster type.

As for Spitzer, I always thought that it was pretty transparent how he had been set up. It was hypocritical of him to enforce prostitution laws while also breaking them, but I'd rather put up with that kind of problem than other kinds of problems.
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:48 PM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I've written and deleted several drafts today of comments along the lines of overhauser's, but more annoyed in tone... I'm glad he/she articulated it so well.

I've lived most of my life in upstate NY and I'm no fan of Silver, and imagine the charges brought against him are legit (the prosecuting U.S. Attorney, Preet Bharara, is a Democrat and Obama appointee) but much of the coverage so far, much of it positively gleeful, makes my ass tired. We're going to see a lot of smug schadenfreude from upstaters (mostly right-leaning) in the coming days that feeds off all more general upstate biases and prejudices about the city.

Westchester County is not upstate (source: grew up in Westchester).

Yeah, speaking as a Hudson valley native and current Finger Lakes region person, in my mind upstate is the rest of NY state north of Rockland and Westchester counties.
posted by aught at 12:48 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

At long last, Staten Island has its revenge for the secession stall.
posted by corb at 12:53 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

We're going to see a lot of smug schadenfreude from upstaters (mostly right-leaning) in the coming days that feeds off all more general upstate biases and prejudices about the city.

Hey, now, I'm sure there will also be plenty of mud slung by leftist city folks. For example, this Brooklyn socialist would like to take this opportunity to point out Silver's long history of fighting tooth and nail to protect rapists.
posted by Itaxpica at 12:54 PM on January 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

But that's the thing - this is pretty damn close to your "mayor publicly practices unique form of animal husbandry" scenario. In a very real way, we're seeing the end of an era here. Even if Silver avoids criminal charges like Bruni, the political damage is done - even if he managed to retain the Speakership, he would no longer be the force that he has been. Furthermore, the fact that this ties back to Moreland means that this could very well dredge up that mess for Cuomo the Lesser.

This is a tectonic shift in NY politics, and we're going to be seeing aftershocks for some time.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:56 PM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Hey, now, I'm sure there will also be plenty of mud slung by leftist city folks. For example, this Brooklyn socialist would like to take this opportunity to point out Silver's long history of fighting tooth and nail to defend rapists.

I'm pretty sure that loathing of Silver is a wholly bipartisan affair.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:58 PM on January 22, 2015 [7 favorites]

For example, this Brooklyn socialist would like to take this opportunity to point out Silver's long history of fighting tooth and nail to defend rapists.

Heh, sure. I was just thinking of what they'll be saying in the upstate papers. I'm a lefty myself and as I mentioned I am no fan of the guy's.
posted by aught at 12:59 PM on January 22, 2015

First, I've always had a problem with that upstate attitude since the entire state taxation system is a giant vacuum cleaner that sucks money out of NYC and gives it to people upstate.

Well, if NYC kept its laws to itself, I don't think upstate would hate them nearly half as much.
posted by corb at 1:07 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Westchester County is not upstate (source: grew up in Westchester).

Yeah, speaking as a Hudson valley native and current Finger Lakes region person, in my mind upstate is the rest of NY state north of Rockland and Westchester counties.

The Bear Mountain Bridge is a handy line of demarcation, given its eponymous Compact.
posted by Etrigan at 1:30 PM on January 22, 2015

Well, if NYC kept its laws to itself, I don't think upstate would hate them nearly half as much.

So long as they get to keep the tax money, I think lots of people would take that deal.
posted by PMdixon at 2:23 PM on January 22, 2015 [10 favorites]

Can Gov. Christie be next? Pleeeeeeeeeeasssssse?
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:33 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

So long as they get to keep the tax money, I think lots of people would take that deal.

They can keep the tax money, we'll keep our water...
posted by madajb at 11:10 PM on January 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

Turns out everything has its price in New York.
posted by spitbull at 7:29 AM on January 23, 2015

Upstate resents New York City's (to us) outsize influence on state politics and to some extent state culture.

Metro New York (ie Rockland and Westchester through Suffolk) has almost two-thirds of the population of the state. Its influence isn't outsize. Even if it got its way 100% of the time, it wouldn't be outsized.

Don't understand this attitude at all; without being linked to NYC, upstate is just more of Ohio. But, having lived in states with actual shitty governments, I don't get most of New Yorkers grousing about Albany.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:29 AM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Metro New York (ie Rockland and Westchester through Suffolk) has almost two-thirds of the population of the state. Its influence isn't outsize. Even if it got its way 100% of the time, it wouldn't be outsized.

This is a time-old discussion dating back to the forming of the United States. Should population matter, or should distinct cultural places of land matter? It's why we have the Senate /and/ the Congress, among other indicators.

I think a delicate balance needs to be found. No, enormous populations should not be controlled by vast swaths of lightly populated land - but neither should vast swaths of land - and more importantly, the culturally coherent people who reside there - be controlled by a large metro population that doesn't understand them at all.
posted by corb at 9:26 AM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

No, enormous populations should not be controlled by vast swaths of lightly populated land - but neither should vast swaths of land - and more importantly, the culturally coherent people who reside there - be controlled by a large metro population that doesn't understand them at all.

Why should they remain in the same polity then if their interests are that divergent? And why should the amount of land matter? Should Alaska get an extra senator?

(I say this as someone who doesn't really see a need for political units sized between a metro area and a national government.)
posted by PMdixon at 11:50 AM on January 23, 2015

But, having lived in states with actual shitty governments, I don't get most of New Yorkers grousing about Albany.

And even the worst US state government is still better than that of a true tinpot dictatorship - we could just keep on skipping down this spiral until no one can complain at all.

Anyway, most of Upstate New York really is, as you say, just more of Ohio. Not nice Ohio, but a degraded portion of Ohio. The jobs left a long time ago. Hence the lingering bitterness. Corruption in Albany and jealousy towards NYC/LI exacerbates the feeling.
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:03 PM on January 23, 2015

Why should they remain in the same polity then if their interests are that divergent?

They shouldn't - but it's actually extremely difficult to separate in this day and age. The most notable example was when Staten Island voted to secede from New York City. It's a large borough geographically, but at the time, had a radically lower population (200,000). The vote carried with a roughly 2/3 majority - but it was stalled by Sheldon Silver and legislators from, you guessed it, the rest of New York City.

Areas with natural resources, even if they wanted to secede, have difficult times doing so. As someone noted, upstate provides NYC with water. If it became a different state, New York Metro would have to pay Old New York for that privilege.
posted by corb at 12:05 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Not to mention that we actually have a very similar problem as states faced in the buildup to the Civil War. Would a state come in free or slave? Either way could swing the Senate. So if we created new states - would they come in Democrat or Republican? Either affects the desire of the other party to brutally stomp any intentions of doing such a thing.
posted by corb at 12:06 PM on January 23, 2015

If it became a different state, New York Metro would have to pay Old New York for that privilege.

Absent another area that would have the same demand for water as NYC and the delivery infrastructure to get the water to that area, Old New York would not be in much of a position to use this as leverage against NYC, and that's before things got to the point where the federal government would intervene to ensure that the distribution of water is equitable.
posted by tonycpsu at 1:24 PM on January 23, 2015

My friend pointed out this line in the original NYT arrest story.

"State lawmakers who are arrested can continue to serve. Upon conviction of a felony they must leave office."

Weird.

Hah. I wonder what Wayne Barrett is thinking now. As others have said, this is a mindblowingly huge story in the state and local politics scene.

What happens next will be fascinating. No one thinks Cuomo is out-and-out corrupt, but he's basically the only person after Silver in NYS politics where a corruption scandal -- which landed -- would be a bigger deal. (Save maybe Mr. DeBlasio).

I used to cover (for school) and watch the NYS legislature quite closely. This one takes the cake.
posted by niphates at 1:26 PM on January 23, 2015

I wasn't really familiar with Silver's reputation downstate, so I thought my impression of him was somewhat regional in nature. That's the only reason I mentioned it. I didn't know mentioning the longtime tensions between the two regions would hit such a nerve (or get people plotting secession schemes). If I had I wouldn't have brought it up.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 8:23 PM on January 23, 2015

(the prosecuting U.S. Attorney, Preet Bharara, is a Democrat and Obama appointee)

The Most Dangerous Man In American Politics: Preet Bharara goes to war.
posted by homunculus at 11:13 AM on January 24, 2015