Late this afternoon all hell broke loose in the New York State Senate chamber after a failed attempted coup by Senate Republicans:
A raucous leadership fight erupted on the floor of the Senate around 3 p.m., with two Democrats, Pedro Espada Jr. of the Bronx and Hiram Monserrate of Queens, joining the 30 Senate Republicans in a motion that would displace Democrats as the party in control.
While Republicans claimed in an email sent out to reporters, that a "new bipartisan, coalition is being established," President pro tempore and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith said that:
... the Republican-engineered vote was illegal and violated parliamentary procedure ... illegal because it had already taken place after the meeting was already brought to an end.
Brian Keeler, the Director of Communications for the New York Senate Majority, described today's events in a phone interview as, "a failed attempt to return the Senate to the dysfunctional status quo":
A motion was made to adjourn, the motion was accepted and the session was gaveled to a close. The rest of the dumb show, the circus, the theater, has no legal standing. Nothing has changed and Malcolm Smith is still in control and we will continue to do the work the people of New York elected the real Senate majority to do.
Later tonight, our own lipris (Philip Anderson of the Albany Project) will give Daily Kos readers a background look at the players and the issues that have brought the New York Senate to today's dramatic crisis.
Stay tuned.
For more discussion, please see MBNYC's diary.