Defying Paterson, New York Senators End Session

[lindisfarne]

Source: NY Times

Gov. David A. Paterson raised the possibility on Wednesday that the State Police could be summoned to compel state senators to return to work if necessary, after they defied him and refused to take any action during a special session he convened.

Senate Democrats, who in a rare rebuke of Mr. Paterson, their party leader, spent only five minutes in the Senate chamber on Wednesday afternoon and then announced that they would be going home.

They later backed off their threat to leave and said they would return for another session that the governor has called for 3 p.m. Thursday. But the governor’s threat clearly left many of them embittered.

In an angry, lectern-pounding appearance outside his office in the Capitol on Wednesday evening, Mr. Paterson also threatened to file a suit to force senators to come back to work, and said he would look into whether he could direct the state treasury to withhold their pay indefinitely.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/nyregion/25albany.html?hp

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More funny details at link. I'm so glad NY is keeping us entertained, although they did get co-opted by South Carolina today.

And for Tuesday's events, see
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5912501
(2 separate sessions by Dems & Repubs; different bills passed by each; no one knows what is valid)

[ccharles000]

1. I feel bad for NY

[ThirdWorldJohn]

2. Doesn't with-holding pay violate due process???

[shadowknows69]

3. I wish my Governor wasn't blind

So maybe he could smack some of these Senators up side the head. I was encouraged when I heard last night he was ordering them into session, but once again politicians prove they only follow the rules they like.

[shadowknows69]

4. If anyone will buy this theory I have charles it might be you.

I can't help but wonder if this whole power grab really took place because Gay marriage legislation was looking like nearly a sure thing, and they knew Patterson would sign it. I'm sure it is deeper than that, but I know it has to be a factor. Slowly but surely the RW has been getting its hooks into NY. I swear we're their "White Whale" if you will. They are turning big chunks of this State red slowly. I live in one of them.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. this istn about gay marriage. its about taxes. this whole thing is funded by tom galisano

[DarthDem]

5. This Whole Thing Is Hilarious

Reading the New York Times reports about the standoff, almost very key senator involved in the dispute is under investigation or indicted. Then there's the utterly impotent, sure-to-be-voted-out Paterson - - and the fact that there is no Lt. Gov. (who could break the 31-31 tie) because the office was never filled after Paterson ascended to replace Client 9. Awesome. This member of the New York Bar finds the whole thing frankly pretty amusing. I imagine some sort of power-sharing arrangement will be brokered, Cuomo will be the next governor, and the Democrats will take back the state senate in the next cycle. In the meantime, I wonder what will become of the gay marriage legislation, which, as astutely pointed out upthread, is probably the impetus for all of this horsepuckey.

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. They should all go for a hike on the Appalachian Trail

[No Elephants]

8. Governor suing the Legislature.. Potential Constitutional crisis.. Primary all of them!