Monserrate Won't Be Expelled

In case you have the political perspicacity of a dead fish, be hereby informed:   girlfriend mutilator Hiram Monserrate will not be expelled from the New York State Senate.

We knew this as soon as the State Senate's bipartisan special committee on the matter offered a loophole the Queen Mary could sail through, in saying that he should be expelled, "or censured."

Yesterday, State Senate President Malcolm Smith, succumbing to pressure, issued a feeble statement saying the senators would resolve the matter before they go on vacation later this month. (Here's an idea:   how about if we offer to pay state senators double -- no, triple -- what they're paid now, if they go on vacation all year.   A bargain at twice the price, but clearly too much to ask for.)

The majority State Senate Democrats simply are unwilling to unseat one of their own, and are signaling they won't do it.   And make no mistake, the Republican political whores in the State Senate, and that's every one of them, would do exactly the same thing if it were one of theirs and they had the majority.

From the perspective of us outsiders, at least there's a discernibly principled basis for the senators punting on the Monserrate expulsion.   One would think you'd expel a senator for committing an act that would degrade the status of the State Senate.   As far as we can see, if you had a New York State Senate consisting entirely of girlfriend beaters-mutilators -- that would amount to a moral and ethical upgrade of the State Senate we tolerate now.