Henry J. Stern
May 4, 2007
    
I was pleasantly surprised by the number of comments I received in response to Tuesday's article, "Growing Up In Inwood."  If any of you missed the article and are curious, you can find it by linking here.
 
This reaction showed me again that many people are similarly  more interested in local history than they are in politics or public issues.   This makes sense because stories of our place and time tend to be more interesting than tales of ethical deficiency.
 
Sometimes the punishment meted out for alleged moral lapses is more interesting than the act itself.   In today's Times, pB2,c1, Nicholas Confessore's account is headlined: ASSEMBLYMAN IS CENSURED FOR FRATERNIZING WITH INTERN . The lede: An upstate assemblyman was removed from his post as ranking member of the Assembly Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse on Thursday after revelations that he slept at the home of a 21-year-old female intern last month after a night of heavy drinking.
 
"The assemblyman, Mike Cole, a Republican who represents parts of Niagara and Erie Counties, also received a rare letter of censure from his colleagues, citing his violation of a policy banning lawmakers from fraternizing with interns.  Mr. Cole will also be stripped of his seniority, and prohibited from taking part in the Assembly's intern program in the future."
 
The story continues for eleven more paragraphs, and is worth reading if only because the event is so unique (the punishment, not the fraternization).  We will have a better sense of whether ethical standards have in fact improved when a Democrat is taken to task for a similar offense.  One fact unstated in the Times account is who blew the whistle on the consensual sex between adults which occurred in this situation..  Did the erring Assemblyman tamper with someone else's intern?
 
You can see from this somewhat tongue-in-cheek account that even a decision enforcing standards of morality, when it emerges from the legislative leadership is viewed with some degree of skepticism,  This is a result, in part, of the prior incidents recounted in the last paragraph of the Times story.
 
"Those rules were instituted after a spate of controversial incidents including an encounter between a male lawmaker and a female intern in a motel and the arrest of a top Assembly staff member after allegations that he had raped a female staff member."
 
It is widely known that sexual encounters between interns and other interns are not unusual.  Less likely, but far from unknown, were affairs between interns and staff members or legislators.  The interns are young people, far from their homes or colleges, in a chilly and unwelcoming city.  Is their desire for companionship to be unrequited? 
 
 On the other hand, we do not want lawmakers and their staffs to exploit the young, innocent, star-struck or just sex-struck students who travel to Albany to learn about state government.  On balance, the rules adopted by the Assembly in 2004 are fair and reasonable, and state legislators or employees should not "fraternize", as the rules quaintly state, with their undergraduate assistants.
 
The issue will now devolve on whether these rules are enforced.   As we said, we are waiting for the first Democratic violator.  It is difficult to believe that donkeys are less passionate or more discreet than elephants.
 
BTW, is the 35-year-old Cole to be a pariah for the rest of his career in the Assembly, or can the penalties be lifted after a defined period of good behavior?  In this case, abstinence from liquor as well as from dalliance would be a start.  If Albany were Hollywood, Cole could go into rehab, and be a hero.  The irony of his being ranking member (that means senior member of the minority party) on the Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse should not be lost.
 
If you are interested, you might want to proceed to Assemblyman Cole's web page, which carries his picture.

If the decision is fair and just, it is a step forward and the Speaker, who obviously decides these matters, deserves credit.
If there is more to the situation than has been revealed through the Times, we cannot make a judgment.  But give the committee the benefit of the doubt, whether Cole was on the floor or in the bed during the night he should not have been drinking with Intern Doe through the afternoon and evening, even if two New York State teams in the National Hockey League were competing in a playoff match.  The Sabres won the game, 3-2, which may have contributed to the Niagara assemblyman's enthusiasm and excitement.

This is no Chappaquiddick, but New York State has to start somewhere.
 
 
#370  5.4.07  771wds