Common Sense: Knee jerks

I would hope most New Yorkers can see through the shallow political motivation of Governor Cuomo and Attorney General Schneiderman in proposing special prosecutors in all cases involving criminal complaints against the police.

The governor is becoming notorious for knee jerk reactions to emotional, politically charged issues and Schneiderman simply wants the publicity that comes from these high profile cases.

The attorney general’s office in New York State historically and primarily deals with civil matters. Criminal matters are in the jurisdiction of the 62 district attorneys who are completely independent from the attorney general.

Frankly, to make such a significant change because some do not agree with a grand jury. decision would set a terrible precedent. The state’s district attorneys — all of whom are elected by the people — are not surprisingly opposing the change. At its heart is a philosophical view that justice must be blind and equal for all.

To take this authority away from them by creating a special class of prosecution regardless any special circumstances beyond the question involving a member of law enforcement is to undermine the very premise of their responsibility.

Brooklyn District Attorney Thompson has been very vocal in his opposition. So too has State Senator Marty Golden, whom I serve as chief of staff, and who will be playing a powerful role on all criminal justice issues in Albany next year.

The Sony hacking incident confirmed my strongly held belief that liberals, and in particular liberals in the entertainment business, are some of the biggest hypocrites around.

I am very glad that Producer David Rudin  and Sony’s top executive Amy Pascal got caught at their little game of expressing their politically correct view in  public and a quite different, maybe even a bit offensive view in private that apparently reflected their true feelings.

I can only wonder what other scandalous e-mails will come out in the future as new information is dribbled each week into the public venue. Rudin and Pascal had serious egg on their faces and needed to issue apologies. At the rate things are going, probably a lot of  entertainment industry types should prepare apologies and put it in their desks in preparation for their day on “Page Six.”

It’s official, as I suspected and noted right after the election — the most expensive state Assembly race from the standpoint of both money spent and cost per vote was in the 48^th Assembly District which is Borough Park and Midwood.

Republican Nachman Caller, who was defeated by Democrat-Conservative Dov Hikind, spent $876,000 to receive just 3,384 votes. That translates into an unbelievable $259 per vote in what amounted to almost four to one defeat.

One consultant in  particular was paid in the neighborhood of $100,000. Talk about political malpractice.