I guess that was a half a plate of ziti, and a half measure of justice.
And I guess Preet Bharara wasn't the whiz kid we thought he was.
And I guess New York politics is going to be business as usual.
Which means money talks and bullcrap walks, and pay to play is the name of the game.
No state suffers under greater moral political corruption, and no state seems less able to do anything about it. No state has such a gap between the expectations of the public and the actions of the politicians.
It was a verdict of half measures today as three men facing political corruption charges had a few of them stick while a fourth man was able to walk and the Albany political culture came through relatively unscathed. After almost two months of the Percoco Trial it was justice interruptis. We couldn't quite get the job done.
What began as a pile of lurid accusations ended up being a federal investigation and prosecution that didn't quite seem to have its ducks in a row. Everybody knew things were crooked, but that never quite got proven in court. And as the jury dragged on in indecision, the sick feeling across the state was that they were going to get away with it.
Not just the four men at the defense table, but the "they" who are the entrenched politicians and lackeys of this graft-choked state.
After all this. After Silver and Skelos and now Percoco, nothing is changed. No one was held accountable, for the micro or the macro, for this payoff or that practice.
After press conferences and pronouncements, snits and tweets, it turns out that nothing actually got done.
And Percoco's brother has to be laughing his arse off.
And the people of New York must accept that their outrage and disgust are irrelevant and dismissed.
You know it's wrong, and you know it's not going anywhere.
It's the way it is -- and if you don't like it, you can lump it.
And it's a lot more than payoffs for contracts and jobs, it's an entire system of political contributions that is nothing more than a cross between a bribery operation and a money-laundering scheme.
And what can't apparently be proven in a court of law is known by every man and woman paying taxes.
Namely, that the government and governor of the state of New York are for sale to the highest bidder, and that the same smarmy reality applies to most of the counties and cities across the state. Politicians at all levels of the Empire State have their hand out in a system that functionally fills campaign coffers with taxpayer dollars.
Like the vast amounts of political money Andy Cuomo receives from the entertainment industry -- which he enriches with almost a half a billion dollars worth of tax credits each year. Or the amazing correlation between donors to the governor and the folks who end up getting casino licenses and payouts from the regional economic development councils.
Everything from the Buffalo Billion to nanotech -- to the Syracuse film hub and the innerharbor hotel -- feature big donors getting big contracts. Friends of Andy pocket a lot of state cash which in turn gets donated to Andy.
Either that's an amazing coincidence, or it's crooked. And there's no such thing as coincidences.
That crap you smell in Albany isn't the governor's dog.
And it's just as crooked when the biggest donors to New York mayors and county executives are the developers and construction companies that get special permits and special contracts. When you go to the Republican or Democrat ball and the tables are all bought up by contractors and unions, you know it's crooked. Just like when the consultants are all donors and the legislators cluster as high-paid "counsel" in a handful of connected law firms.
It's all dirty. And it's all New York. Open for business -- the business of empowering and enriching the political class.
Percoco was the last chance to take a stand against that.
And the federal prosecution failed to get the job done.
So it's ziti for dinner tonight at the governor's mansion.
Tonight, and every night.