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December 11, 2008
NY Dems change their minds
Posted by: Andoni
There are reports today that New York state senator Malcolm Smith has changed his mind on throwing gays under the bus in exchange for promises from three Democratic dissidents to vote for him as majority leader. Originally he was willing to exchange his promise not to bring up same sex marriage legislation in the state senate in 2009 for the votes of three members of his own caucus. The three had threatened to cross the aisle and join the Republicans if Smith did not agree to this.
For whatever the reason, angry calls from gays or simply not being able to live with his conscience, Smith has decided that it is better to wait for two years to gain control of the senate without a deal, than making this deal now. So he called off negotiations. Now we'll see if the three Democrats were bluffing or they will actually join the Republican caucus.
I give credit to Evan Wolfson, who through all my getting angry and jumping to conclusions, told me that all this was simply posturing, and not the final act.
(photo credit: this comical photo is from toole.blogspot.com)
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Lucrece on Dec 10, 2008 5:38:53 PM:
Or, it wasn't about the gays, rather the rift between his not wanting to give full power of leadership position to one of the renegades. The real deal-breaker for the renegades was how supposedly the deal would give an empty title.