A Reckoning for Felonies Political

[jimmy olsen]

Douchebag deserved it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/nyregion/10about.html

A Reckoning for Felonies Political
By JIM DWYER
Published: February 9, 2010


ALBANY — Very last chair, back row, right-hand side, chamber of the New York State Senate.

Every senator, from the most senior to the least, sits in a handsome high-backed burgundy leather chair. The chairs have identical brass plaques, held on by two screws.

"Hiram Monserrate

New York State Senate

13th District

2009 —"

On Tuesday night, the Senate decided he deserved a distinction rare in the history of a body that has had its share of scoundrels: expulsion from the Senate without benefit of a felony conviction.

"A day of infamy," Mr. Monserrate said in the afternoon, standing in a vestibule outside the Senate chamber.

In December 2008, he sliced his girlfriend's face in what he said was a bedroom accident with a broken glass. A judge acquitted him of felony assault for the facial wounds he inflicted but found him guilty of a misdemeanor for grabbing her by the arm and dragging her through a lobby, a moment captured on a security camera.

At the Capitol on Tuesday, he spent much of the day declaring that he was going to fight to keep his seat, and that the very rule of law was at stake.

"There was one, sole conviction on reckless assault misdemeanor, which is under appeal," Mr. Monserrate said. "This is not about the underlying incident."

What, then, was shaping the debate about throwing him out?

He spoke in a low voice: "There's a lot of politics driving this."

The point was inarguable. Mr. Monserrate had committed multiple political felonies, and Tuesday was as much the day of reckoning for them as it was for the crime he was convicted of.

During his 13 months as a state senator, both parties found Mr. Monserrate to be a useful bug to have in the bed. He was elected as a Democrat in 2008, when the party gained a majority in the Senate for the first time in decades. Six months after taking office, he switched sides with Senator Pedro Espada Jr., who was given various emoluments and a splendid title by the Republicans so that they could recapture control of the Senate.

A week later, Mr. Monserrate jumped back to the Democrats — who rewarded him by ousting a Monserrate enemy, their majority leader, and giving him a committee chairmanship, which came with a $12,500 stipend.

For the Republicans, the loss of their fleeting majority with Mr. Monserrate's double cross — or was it a triple cross? — probably didn't seem so bad when he was convicted of the misdemeanor assault and it was left to the Democrats to figure out what to do with him. A felony conviction means automatic expulsion, but not a misdemeanor. The Democrats met in private for much of Tuesday.

"I'm sitting out here; they made me leave," Mr. Monserrate said, flagging down a reporter and asking for the latest rumors.

The senators could talk all day about their deep concern for domestic violence, but it's hard to know if their high-minded gas would have solidified into a vote for expulsion for a senator who had not been so nakedly treacherous as Mr. Monserrate.

It is one thing to cut a woman's face with a broken glass, drag her through a hallway and then drive her, bleeding profusely, past several hospitals to an emergency room far enough away from home where no one would be likely to recognize him.

It is quite another thing for a politician to be bought and paid for, and then not to stay bought.

"People are upset about the coup," Kevin S. Parker, a Democratic senator from Brooklyn, said earlier in the day. He said he did not support expulsion of Mr. Monserrate but believed the tide was against him.

Told that other senators were angry about the coup, Mr. Monserrate nodded glumly. "I heard that from a number of senators," he said. "But that's not a proper reason for expulsion."

As he sat outside the chambers, staff members were quietly making plans to remove the Monserrate desk and chair in the chamber if the expulsion vote went forward. Mr. Monserrate said lawyers would go to court on Wednesday to try to block his expulsion.

If, however, he is unsuccessful, Mr. Monserrate will at least be able to get a souvenir of his year and one month: the beautiful burgundy chair with his name on the back. By act of the Legislature, all former senators are entitled to purchase their chairs for $25. The Senate will deliver it to him anywhere in the state, at no charge