The Issue: Speaker Sheldon Silver’s involvement in Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s sexual-harassment case.
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I wish Gov. Cuomo much success if he puts meaningful effort into reforming Albany (“Cuomo Tightens the Screws,” Editorial, Sept. 11).
But that effort will prove fruitless so long as his fellow Democrat, Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver, remains in power.
I’ll believe in his success when Silver resigns in disgrace, as he should. Unfortunately, pigs may fly first.
Mark Kalinowski
Clifton, NJ
Silver should resign because of his underhanded dealings with Assmblyman Vito Lopez, authorizing payoffs to two female victims. He now admits it was a terrible mistake.
Nobody wants a tarnished Silver, who blatantly misused his office.
Herb Stark
Massapequa
For the first time ever, a governor has Silver on the ropes, ready for the knockout, but Cuomo melts like a bowl of jelly left out in the sun.
One of the first things Cuomo said when he took office was that he would clean up Albany — no more business as usual.
Silver is just that. He hides the dirty laundry of his sidekicks and party members by burying their sins under a pile of taxpayer money. No wonder he’s been so powerful all these years.
Jeffrey Rickey
Manalapan, NJ
What Lopez did was lechery, a misdemeanor crime at best, involving two alleged victims.
What Silver did was a felony, because he authorized the use of taxpayer money for personal use, and involved the state attorney general’s office and the state comptroller in his conspiracy to cover up the crime.
Silver’s crime involves thousands of victims: taxpayers.David Barth
Huntington
Silver has claimed that he welcomes an ethics investigation into his “public” $103,000 payoff in the Lopez case.
I wonder if he truly welcomes being investigated any more than a mouse welcomes a cat.
Richard Siegelman
Plainview