Surprised this hasn't been mentioned today, but late yesterday the New York State Senate voted to expel Hiram Monserrate.
Disgusted Democrats and Republicans joined together 53-8 to make Monserrate the fourth sitting state lawmaker ever expelled - and the first since 1861.
"Sen. Monserrate's abusive and unlawful conduct damages the integrity of the New York state Senate and demonstrates a lack of fitness to serve in this body," Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan) said after the vote.
According to the Journal News, all eight are Democrats from NYC. Disgraceful.
In November 2008, Monserrate was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend. He was initially charged with a felony, which would have meant automatic expulsion had he been convicted. However, this past October he was only convicted of a misdemeanor after the girlfriend refused to testify. Nonetheless, ever since then there have been constant calls for him to resign or be expelled. So this was a long time coming.
As many of you know, the Democrats only had a tenuous two-seat majority in the state senate. While they hold all but three seats in NYC, they only hold seven seats outside of it. However, the Democrats apparently felt they couldn't tolerate having someone convicted for assaulting a woman in their number one minute longer.
Predictably, Monserrate didn't go quietly.
"This is clearly a much, much bigger issue than just me," he told his now former colleagues during a 16-minute floor speech. "This is about the process and the rule of law.
The defiant Queens Democrat told the senators he hopes none of them slip up one day and find themselves "at the mercy of certain colleagues with unfortunate political agendas."
He also apologized to his colleagues and asked for their "forbearance and foregiveness."
"I know that my behavior has brought unwelcome discredit to this chamber, and for that, I am deeply sorry," he said. "But, as Rev. Jesse Jackson once said, 'God isn't through with me yet.'"
He's also vowed to challenge the expulsion in court. State Democratic caucus leader John Sampson anticipated a challenge, and originally wanted to defer Monserrate's expulsion to June 30 in order to give him time to appeal. However, there was more than enough Republican support to throw him out immediately.
The most disgusting moment, however, was reserved for Ruben Diaz, who was apparently one of the eight "no" votes. He claimed that there were ethnic issues at play in the vote to throw Monserrate out. Never mind that the Queens Democratic Party has endorsed another Latino as Monserrate's successor, state assemblyman Jose Peralta. Diaz and the other seven "no" votes hopefully bought themselves a primary challenge.
A special election is due to be held on March 16.
Update: Per the (Albany) Times Union, the eight Dems who voted against the resolution were Diaz, Sampson, Kevin Parker, Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Martin Malave Dilan, Carl Kruger and Eric Adams. All of them should be thrown out on their ears in the next election--and hopefully Sampson and Espada will be ousted from their leadership posts.