Legislators in Albany have a history of getting in trouble and there are many reasons why. Number one reason would be the fundraiser parties they have where the big contributors come into town and throw a party with all the booze and girls a legislator could want. What eles do they have to do, their bosses make all their decisions for them, they are told how to vote so they have all to much free time.

I will say one thing about Mike Cole, I have met him more than a few times. We have discussed matters in Albany and how screwed up it really is. Mike did a stupid thing here, but at the same time he did the right thing. He did not drive while drunk, he escorted a woman home and we know Albany is not the safest area in the state, all well and good. The phone call to report what he did was the right thing to do and an admission of wrongdoing on his part.

How many stories and or articles have we read over the years about the sexcapades in Albany. There are many, many more that are not covered by the media. How many rapes were reported coming out of the office staff of Sheldon Silver… The last one cost us 500 grand. That’s right the culprit didn’t pay the fine or should we say “payoff”, we did. The Speaker had the assembly pay for that crime. Yet for years Silver was told of rapes, sexual abuses that were going on right under his nose and chose to do nothing about it.

We all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. I won’t condem Mike Cole and neither should you. He admitted the next morning his mistake, reported it to the proper authorities and there is a ethics investigation going on. At least Mike admitted it, I wish all would.

The last section of the article covers speeding and drunk driving from Assemblyman Karim Camara… 65 in a 30? And drunk?

They are not above the Law.

While Spitzer and Bruno Do Battle, the Speaker Waits for an Opening
Legislators in Trouble

And now, more entries from the legislative bad behavior blotter.

For starters, there was Assemblyman Mike Cole’s admission last week that, after a night of drinking last month, he had slept on the floor of an Albany apartment where a 21-year-old female intern lived. The incident got the intern fired and landed Mr. Cole, 35, a Republican who represents parts of Erie and Niagara Counties, in front of the Assembly’s ethics committee.

Mr. Cole said in the statement that he walked the woman home after a party on April 16 at an Albany sports bar. (The party was held by Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, a Democrat from Buffalo, in honor of Game 3 of the National Hockey League playoff series between the Buffalo Sabres and the New York Islanders.)

“I ended up spending the night on her floor,” Mr. Cole said. “As wrong as it sounds now, at the time I didn’t think it was such a bad decision to sleep there, being that I was incapable of driving. But it was. I should have taken a cab home.”

There are a number of well-documented incidents of improper behavior involving lawmakers and interns, and the Assembly now has policies restricting their social contact.

“At no point in time did anything inappropriate occur, nor has anything been alleged,” said Mr. Cole, who appeared before the committee on Wednesday.

The panel has not announced whether it will impose sanctions against Mr. Cole.

Mr. Cole, who is married and has two daughters, is serving his first full term in the Assembly.

Then there was Assemblyman Karim Camara, a Democrat from Brooklyn, who was stopped last week for driving 65 miles per hour in a 30 m.p.h. zone in Albany. He “was observed to have glassy/bloodshot eyes, slurred speech” and “a strong odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath,” according to a police report. Mr. Camara failed several field sobriety tests, but he refused a Breathalyzer test, the report said. He was charged with a speeding violation, operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and refusing to take a breath test.