Silver Talking Points Are Really Lead

In the wake of the failure of congestion pricing to go to the Assembly floor for debate or receive a vote (at least a public one), several Democratic legislators are singing a similar-sounding tune—the bad news is really good news.

In defense of the non-vote they point out that the practice of mulling things over in party conference has yielded many progressive victories by blocking consideration and (they claim) likely passage of a new capital punishment law or of choice issues like parental notification and consent

Without commenting on those specific issues, the problem with this explanation is that it’s a tacit admission that the Assembly speaker retains top-to-bottom control over the body.