In Name Only

Hey everyone who voted for Kathy Hochul for New York Governor, guess what?  Less than a month into her term, she has a new boss! 

Friend, have you lost whatever is left of your limited intellect?  Kathy Hochul beat Lee Zeldin in a hard fought race and was sworn in as governor on January 1st.  What in the name of Eliot Spitzer are you talking about?

Settle down and I’ll tell you.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins no longer just represent Yonkers, she runs the entire New York State executive branch.

It all started when Governor (in name only) Hochul nominated Justice Hector LaSalle to be the state’s Chief Justice.  She had a list to choose from to replace Chief Justice Janet DiFiore who was reviled by the leftists.  Remember, she threw out the Democrats’ partisan Congressional redistricting plan and as it turned out, handed the GOP control of the US House of Representatives.

Hochul could have chosen one of the faves of the Working Families Party or of organized labor, the groups that pulled her chestnuts out of the fire in the last election, but she chose Justice LaSalle.  LaSalle is certainly not a conservative justice.  He is admired by his peers and would have been New York’s first Latino chief judge.

But the leftists went nuts.  He wasn’t left enough.  After nitpicking over some of his rulings, they fulminated that he was anti-abortion and anti-union.  

In order to get her nominee approved, Hochul needed the rubber stamp of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  It has always been a routine process for a Democrat governor with a Democrat legislature, except Stewart-Cousins and her progressive posse put their rubber stamp away, unsheathed their court cudgel, and turned down Justice LaSalle.  This is the first time such a thing has happened in the Empire State since this legislative approval system went into effect in 1974.

Hochul was told to save face and save her political capital and pull the nomination, but noooo.  She double and tripled down to try to swing the committee’s vote in her favor.  She called in chits, she got New York Hispanic politicians to line up with her.  She even got US Senator Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to support her choice.  

But none of that mattered because Stewart-Cousins wanted to show Kathy Hochul who’s the real boss in Albany.  Stewart-Cousins sensed she could bulldoze Kathy Hochul and she did.  Big time.  What should have been a layup appointment has turned into a hail Mary for Hochul. 

Hochul had no clout with her renegade Democrat pals because she had already allowed them their 29-percent pay raise with no quid pro quo.  

As you know I’m no fan of the previous Governor, Lord Andrew Cuomo, but he would never have acquiesced to that without getting something in return.

Now, Hochul is huffing and puffing about going to court to get around the committee’s vote.  She says the full New York State Senate should vote on the nomination.  

Well, even if by some stroke of legal luck she pulls that off, she still has a huge mountain to climb to get LaSalle approved.

She probably won’t get enough Dems to vote yes, so she’ll have to get some Republicans to vote for him.  Do you think they’ll hand her a victory without something in return?

We kinda knew Hochul was a lightweight politician.  Let’s face it, Cuomo the control freak would have never picked a political powerhouse as Lieutenant Governor.  We saw how she ran an awful campaign against Lee Zeldin, burying her head in the sand about the crime issue until it was almost too late.  She almost snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory by almost losing to Lee Zeldin in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans two-to-one.

But this chief judge debacle is truly something special.  She has lost power in a state where the chief executive has enormous power. 

The leftists in the legislature are now firmly in control and the issues at the core of what makes life in this state unlivable will only get worse. 

Mayor Adams, you want those bail laws changed?  Good luck!  Andrea Stewart-Cousins thinks they’re fine just the way they are.  Let’s see what the voters think about New York City crime when you come up for election.

Want some of those sky-high New York taxes reduced?  Read my lips, not gonna happen.

Say sayonara (can I say sayonara without being accused of cultural appropriation?) to lots more taxpayers fleeing to Florida, where I hear woke goes to die.

The New York GOP should right now be grooming a credible, pro-abortion, anti-election denying candidate to run in 2026, because what life is like in New York ain’t gonna change much.

Hochul has one last chance to reassert her power over her own party and that comes next week during the crucial state budget negotiations.  If she fails once again, for the next four years she’ll be sitting behind her desk in the governor’s office answering the phone saying, “Ms. Stewart-Cousins line, how may I help you?”