No more need for Skelos-style Republicans in the NYS Senate — they won’t even be a speed bump for Cuomo and the Democrats

People like Dean Skelos and Marty Golden don’t even have the force of a sneeze in Albany. In the past they were rightfully called RINOs, it's time for Republicans in Brooklyn  to cure themselves of RINO-itis or the RINO Virus ASAP 

--- Brooklyn Republicans can start by running a strong Republican conservative against Democrat City Councilman David Greenfield, who is supported by Golden and Golden's Chief of Staff Jerry Kassar;  and for 2014 by getting ready to run a strong Republican conservative against Democrat State Senator Simcha Felder, who is supported by Skelos and Kassar

Maybe, it’s just a bad day, but it seems that Sean Skelos is coming up on the wrong side of things in altogether too many of today’s posts on the Capital Tonight Blog ( Capital Tonight, 4/23/13 [http://capitaltonightny.ynn.com/]).

A perfect example is the way Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos telegraphed that New York GOP State Senators see some wiggle room for nine out of the 10 points in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s women’s agenda proposal. Skelos began by saying more abortion rights are off the table. Then Skelos indicated by cleverly using the word “compromise” that Republicans would be willing to go along with some kind of legislation on the remainder of Governor Cuomo’s women’s agenda. “...For a refresher, the women’s agenda includes pay equity, curtailing sexual harassment and employment, [dealing with credit and lending discrimination], strengthening human trafficking laws, ending housing discrimination of domestic abuse victims and blocking pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.” (See “GOP Flexible On 9 Out Of 10 Points On Women’s Agenda” by Nick Reisman, 4/23/13, Capital Tonight [http://capitaltonightny.ynn.com/2013/04/gop-flexible-on-9-out-of-10-points-on-womens-agenda/]). Oddly, how can Skelos know that his side is willing to compromise, when Skelos acknowledges that the Governor has only “... given us a broad outline of a number of the other nine issues which we will discuss... I  have not seen a specific proposal.”

Another bizarre appearance by Skelos was beside Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver, as Silver pushed for anti-corruption measures that included public financing of elections to NYS offices. Skelos is reported to have said, ““It’s like everybody is just trying to outdo each other right now....  So I think we’re going to have conversations where there could be agreement, where there won’t be agreement, and then we can move forward.”  For his part, Silver said “I would just suggest we intend to pass our bill, he should pass his bill, and we’ll open conference committees to discuss the issue in an open and public forum.” (See  “Skelos: Public Financing Wouldn’t Stop Those ‘Crooks And Idiots’ ” by Nick Reisman, 4/23/13 [http://capitaltonightny.ynn.com/2013/04/skelos-public-financing-wouldnt-stop-those-crooks-and-idiots/])

There were several other posts that indicated that the Republicans in the New York State Senate were going to be rolled on issue after issue after issue  –  including increasing abortion rights in New York –  if votes on any of those matters are scheduled in the State senate.

What will Skelos and his acolytes, like State Senators Martin Golden and Simcha Felder do next ?