LAWMAKERS FOR RENT - New York Post Online Edition: Postopinion
Such is the culture of corruption

Queens Democratic Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin has stepped aside as the salaried president of the Central Labor Council, the million-member umbrella group for organized labor in New York City, after being named as the target of a federal bid-rigging probe.

Officials said he’s been granted a six-month paid leave of absence from the council position; he also heads Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Shunting McLaughlin aside to avoid political embarrassment while investigators look into his affairs is a decision for the unions to make, of course. (He has denied any improprieties and has not yet been charged with any crime.)

But why is Assemblyman McLaughlin being paid by a coalition of unions formed effectively to influence the Assembly?

It’s hard to imagine a more blatant conflict of interest (unless it’s Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s gig with the state’s largest tort law firm).

McLaughlin’s extracurricular work certainly appears to be at odds with the state’s Public Officers Law, which directs that no legislator “should have any interest, financial or otherwise, direct or indirect” that substantially conflicts with his public duties, and which seemingly even bars lawmakers from giving “the impression that any person . . . unduly enjoys [his or her] favor.”

How droll.

Obviously that section of the law means nothing to Silver, either.

He draws a fat paycheck from Weitz & Luxenberg, which he cashes even as he engineers roadblocks in the Legislature to derail any and all efforts to bring meaningful tort reform to New York.

Such is the culture of corruption in New York’s capital - and the way the “people’s business” is conducted.

FYI… I don’t want to be continually accused of Democrat bashing..
I postem as I getem.