Dean Skelos says "I'll Show You Mine, If You Show me Yours First"

In the wake of more Albany scandals, there is a push to have Legislators disclose their outside income. A Skelos told the NYTimes "Senator Skelos is on record as saying that the Senate will act on legislation to strengthen the state’s ethics laws to include greater disclosure of the outside income of legislators.”

But over at the NY Sun, "Mr. Skelos, in an interview with the Sun last month, said he would have "no problem" sharing a full version of his forms. A spokesman for the Senate leader later clarified that Mr. Skelos was unaware that the income details were redacted. He said Mr. Skelos would make that information available as long as the rest of the Legislature followed suit."
He will do it if everybody does it as well," the spokesman, John McArdle, said. "He did not realize it was redacted."

What a great ethical standard Skelos has. If he believes in more disclosure why does he have to wait for legislation or "everybody" else to do it too.

So far only a 29 year old Assemblyman is not afraid of disclosure "...Assemblyman Micah Kellner stands apart.
Unlike most of his Albany colleagues, the 29-year-old Democrat of the Upper East Side has no problem providing an unredacted review of his financial disclosure forms. Not that his forms disclose terribly much: The only income Mr. Kellner earns comes from his $79,500-a-year salary as a legislator."

Before election day, Skelos and his colleagues should volunteer their outside income information. Anything less just proves how bad the corrupt culture in Albany is.

Skelos Gets Slapped Around

In his do-nothing response to Sen. Malcolm Smiths call for a special session, Skelos lies about the Democrats' intention.
Sen. Smith hits Skelos back hard (via Capitol Confidential)
"Maybe Dean Skelos thinks raising taxes is the answer to the financial crisis which was caused in part by the Republicans failure to address the housing crisis, but Democrats don’t. We need to focus on rebuilding New York’s economy by cutting property taxes, creating jobs and reducing wasteful spending."

Why Does Dean Skelos Lie?

Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm Smith called on Skelos to convene an emergency session. Smith wants the State Senate to "protect the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been put at risk by the extraordinary challenges facing New York’s financial markets.
"The collapse of Lehman Brothers, sale of Merrill Lynch and the extreme financial distress of AIG demand immediate action by the Legislature. Lehman Brothers alone has over 8,000 New York State employees who contribute more than $250 million in State taxes. New York State faces a potential loss of 35,000 jobs in the financial sector for calendar year 2008 and a potential $18 billion decrease in wages and bonuses, which would represent a decrease of approximately $1 billion of Personal Income Tax revenues to New York State this year.

The possible loss of jobs and revenue pose unprecedented challenges for our State. While the $20 billion that Governor Paterson made available to AIG is significant, the Legislature must get back to work to determine what can be done to provide further relief for policy holders and AIG employees.

Coupled with the rapid rise in home heating costs, it is absolutely essential that the Legislature convene an emergency session to protect working families.

The Legislature, together with Governor Paterson and the Executive Staff, should immediately convene a meeting of the state’s leading financial experts to provide advice and counsel, and assist us in designing and implementing the steps needed to mitigate the impact of these challenges, and take every action necessary to protect New York’s future.”

That's what Smith said.
So why does Skelos in his response say "However, we will not raise taxes as Senate Minority Leader Smith and the Democrats have called on us to do. In a fragile economy, it would be disastrous to support the Democrats’ efforts to raise taxes, as it would only exacerbate the crisis we face."
What????
Smith didn't say anything about "raising taxes."
Why does Skelos have to lie when Smith wants to get to work to figure out how to blunt the impact of the disasters on Wall Street?
Skelos' course of action? "We will continue to monitor the fiscal situation, and if legislative action becomes necessary we will partner with the Governor and the Assembly to address this crisis and its related impact on New York State."
I guess Skelos wants to keep his republican senators out campaigning instead of trying to deal with a very real crisis.

Dean Skelos - Man of Inaction!

GOP Declines in Nassau, Dean Gets Nutty

From a story in the NYTimes about the voter registration in Nassau County and the Democrats close to over-taking the republicans. 

Does Dean believe his own BS?

"Senator Skelos said he remained optimistic for Republicans. “Politics is cyclical,” he said, “and I think that it will turn around,” especially with the right candidates. He noted that even overwhelmingly Democratic New York City elected Republicans as its last two mayors — Rudolph W. Giuliani and Michael R. Bloomberg, who is now unaffiliated."

Note to Dean-O: Rudy ran as an anti-gun, pro-choice, liberal republican. He was endorsed by the Liberal Party! 

And on top of that, he ran against David Dinkins who made a mess of the city.
And Bloomberg? A Democrat turned republican (to get elected w/o a primary fight) turned independent. Bloomberg is also anti-gun, pro-choice and pretty darned liberal.
Skelos gets an "F" for Current Events.

Does Baby Skelos Need a Hug?

Somebody call the WHAAAAAA-mbulance for Dean. In a speech the other day Governor Paterson said "I used to sit in my legislative office and think about how difficult it is to travel 150 miles to Albany on a bus ... and how there were legislators, who I used to think practiced their own versions of being Count Dracula."
"In that they [legislators] would be very nice to advocates when they came to Albany and then they [advocates] would get back on the bus around 4 o'clock. By 5 o'clock the sun would go down, and they'd [legislators] go back to who they really are - a bunch of bloodsuckers."

Needless to say, prickly uber-baby Dean Skelos was not amused "The governor's comments were flip and not very amusing - in fact, they were Spitzeresque."

OH NO! Skelos compared Paterson to Spitzer. How dreadful.
The fact is, advocates who come to the state capitol do feel ignored after they leave.