"This way you do business . . . is against the law."

That is the essence of the federal charges against former Senator Majority Leader Joe Bruno, and, in a way, all of Albany. Or so says an unnamed political operative in a New York Times article by Nicholas Confessore entitled "Bruno's trial seen as a hearing on Albany."

I made much the same point in an AP article authored by Michael Virtanen. Regardless of what the eventual outcome of the Bruno trial, the trial itself is bound to give us weeks of headlines that highlight the pay-to-play culture that so many in Albany take for granted. We can only hope that this will shame the legislature enough to force more reforms, and continue to chip away at the stranglehold party leadership and certain vested interests have over the state.