Senator Rubén Díaz Questions the Integrity of the Senate in Monserrate Expulsion

February 10, 2010
For Immediate Release

Senator Rubén Díaz Questions the Integrity of the Senate in Monserrate Expulsion

Albany, NY - The decision of the New York State Senate to expel Senator Hiram Monserrate has brought many other questions to my mind.

 During the four hour Democratic Conference in which we decided Senator Monserrate’s fate, I heard so many of my Democratic Party members express themselves by saying how Monserrate brought shame to this honorable body. From Tom Duane to Liz Krueger to Diane Savino to Neil Breslin to Brian Foley to Eric Schneiderman, etc., etc., they all expressed how Senator Monserrate has put the New York State Senate to shame.

 It is true that we have to condemn and reject Hiram Monserrate’s actions in the strongest way. But nonetheless, I have to ask myself the following questions.

1) “Is it not also shameful for the Senate to have a president that is being accused of being involved in a very shaky deal whereby he used his powers to get a multi-million dollar contract for his friends?”

2) I again ask myself, “Is it not also shameful for the Senate body to have a president being accused of raising money for the needy people affected by Hurricane Katrina and the money never reached the people for whom it was intended?”

3) I ask myself, “How come when Senator Marty Markowitz declared himself guilty of a misdemeanor for money-laundering, he was received as a hero by a member of  this chamber and the Senate Democrats in turn supported him in his campaign to became Brooklyn Borough President? Weren’t Markowitz’s actions shameful for this body? How come there was never a committee formed to investigate him and expel him from the Senate? Are we selective in what is shameful for this body?”

 With these questions and many, many others that I will continue to expose in the future,  I hope that the so-called “Distinguished” and “Honorable” members of this Senate body, who felt so ashamed for what a Hispanic Senator did, will feel the same level of shame and be inclined to initiate similar measures toward expulsion when others commit shameful actions such as the ones already mentioned, regardless of  a person’s ethnic background. 

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