by
Yori Yanover, Editor
The local Democratic club (David Weinberger Presiding) arranged for a bus to take local folks up to Albany as guests of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for Governor Elliot Spitzer’s State of the State address. My daughter and I took the ride two years ago and I recall waxing philosophically at the time, about democratic institutions and similar important things. This time I brought my wife along, and it turns out I was less interested in the foundations of the American system of government and more in just having a good schmooze with the gang from Grand Street.
 Here they are, the delegation of Lower East Siders, fresh from the bus, in the visitors’ gallery above the Assembly chamber.  The first order of business was to re-elect Shelly Silver to the post of Speaker of the Assembly, followed by electing several key officials and passing a resolution approving the new governor’s request to speak to a joint session of the legislator.  The members were sworrn in and recited the pledge of allegience.  You're not allowed to drop a quarter from the gallery on members of the assembly and then ask for a refund.  Governor Spitzer spoke for about half an hour - a huge improvement over his predecessor, Pataki, who took hours to say nothing. Spitzer managed to say nothing in much less time. Basically he promised to improve a lot of stuff without raising taxes. OK.  Speaker Silver invited everybody to a wonderful spread. I stayed away from the carbs (really proud of myself). The fish was fabulous.  Spitzer dropped in for all of 180 seconds and rushed out. Very busy day. Two years ago he spend almost an hour schmoozing the crowd. I suppose at this point the crowd was already schmoozed.  I got this happy picture of Shelly Silver (left) and Heshy Jacob. Neither one seemed especially worried about the sometime impatient tones in the new governor's speech. But you and I know we're looking at a tough couple of years.
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