NOTE: Today is the 100th anniversary of the fire and sinking of the steamboat General Slocum at Hell Gate in the East River. It was the most tragic day in New York City history prior to September 11, 2001. We should always be thankful that we enjoy the gift of life.

Silver's Troubles Continue.
He Will Survive Complaints,
But Should Do a Better Job

By Henry J. Stern
June 15, 2004

Yesterday's column discussed whether Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver bore any responsibility for not acting to prevent or punish the sexual misdeeds of his former counsel, Michael Boxley. The speaker and the Assembly are being sued by Jane Doe, pseudonym of a second alleged victim of Mr. Boxley. The first victim, Elizabeth Crothers, who was an Assembly employee, supports Ms. Doe's complaint.

Silver is also under fire for not releasing the Assembly Ethics Committee report on gouging and expense account padding by former Brooklyn Assemblyman Roger Green, who the speaker may or may not have induced to resign from the Assembly. By resigning, Green avoided Assembly censure or other punishment for his larceny. He then immediately announced that he was running for re-election in September's Democratic primary.
 
Today we read in Bill Hammond's column that Republican leaders see Silver as vulnerable and are going after him. That theory is buttressed by Governor Pataki's Daily News op-ed piece, which we linked to yesterday. The Republicans cannot and should not be able to drive Silver from office. In fact, if there were a way they could buttress his position among Democrats, it would be by attacking him. Maybe that's what they really want.
 
A further assault on the speaker comes from the State Lobbying Commission, which is curious about the fact that, in January 2002, Silver and his wife stayed at a hotel in Las Vegas owned by Caesar's Entertainment, which thirsted to expand in New York State. The speaker paid $109 a night for a suite sometimes rented at a much higher price. According to Michael Cooper in today's Times and Fred Dicker in the Post, the lobbying commission is considering issuing a subpoena to compel the speaker to testify.
 
These attacks serve to make Silver a more sympathetic figure than recent events entitle him to appear. When the old lion is besieged, people become more supportive, especially when they look at the younger lions that are circling to take his place if anything happens.
 
Still, when one begins to feel sympathy for his beleaguerment, the commuter tax of 1999 — the two billion dollar blunder — returns to mind. As far as I know he has never apologized for this crime against the city, or for pressing other Democrats into supporting the Republican move to repeal the tax.

From a public relations point of view, the speaker's image is that of an old-line local politician. Contrast him with the aggressive, press-conscious postures of Senator Charles Schumer and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. An Assembly speaker should perhaps be a prospect for higher office, in the tradition of Alfred E. Smith, who was first elected to the Assembly in 1903, from some of what is now Silver's district on the Lower East Side. He became Democratic leader in 1913, and speaker in 1915. Smith later served four two-year terms as governor of New York State, and ran for president in 1928, but was defeated by Herbert Hoover, partly because Smith was a Catholic, and partly because the crash of 1929 had not yet occurred. 
 
While Smith was leading the Assembly, the Democratic leader in the New York State Senate was the first Robert F. Wagner (assemblyman, 1905-08; state senator, 1909-18, the last eight years as Democratic floor leader; State Supreme Court justice, 1919-26, United States senator, 1927-49). In 1911, Senator Wagner chaired the State Factory Investigating Committee, formed after the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire on March 25, 1911. His son was elected mayor of the City of New York three times (1953, '57 and '61), and his grandson, once a city councilmember (1974-77), served as deputy mayor and president of the Board of Education under Mayor Koch.

Silver and David Paterson — the Democratic Senate leader whose father, Basil A. Paterson, is a former New York State senator (1966-70) and was later New York's secretary of state (1978-82) — are not exactly Smith and Wagner. But the same can be said of many public officials today, who do not compare in stature with their more distinguished predecessors.
 
Back to the present. The Silvers did get a sweet deal in Las Vegas. They paid what they would have at a decent motel. Caesar's act of largesse may have been as inappropriate as the room's furnishings, but is not a crime, although it may well violate state lobbying regulations that limit gifts to public officials to $75. That is why the commission is pursuing the speaker.

Low room rents are sometimes given to high rollers (e.g. former Education Secretary William Bennett) as an inducement to bet at casinos. We doubt that the speaker's gambling losses, if any, would have repaid Caesar's investment in his comfort or his view. The penalty for an initial ethical transgression of this type should be something like three times the benefit unjustly received, to be paid directly as a supplement to the strained budget of the lobbying commission. But it does not reach any standard that would justify removal from office.
 
It is unfortunate that there is no Democrat senior enough and brave enough to steer the speaker down a wiser path. Now Senator Hillary Clinton is brilliant at politics, and her own grand ambitions are highly unlikely to clash with Silver's. If he were to listen to her, she could really be helpful to him. Silver introduced her with obvious pride and affection at a Sunday breakfast two weeks ago. The two should become better acquainted and develop mutual trust. Then she should offer him guidance about dealing with both parties in the Legislature, as well as the difficult governor, and he should take heed.

Neither the Republicans nor the prosecutors will be able to cook the speaker's goose, so let us hope he listens to the wise words of people who can help him do a better job. As long as we are giving unsolicited advice, it would also help the speaker to give more visibility to the able women on his staff.

The Assembly is the one part of New York State government that the Democrats control. Its leadership should try to make it a model of probity and decency, not a caricature reflecting cronyism, sexism, indulgence of misconduct and petty larceny, in a milieu of strict domination and group submission.