With Shifty Monserrate, It Is Time For Smith To Take A Stand

The aftermath of what happened early Friday morning between Karla Giraldo and her abusive boyfriend Hiram Monserrate is nothing short of a textbook case of domestic violence that could easily be transcribed and put on Lifetime. The facts of the case are tragic and even more so that Ms. Giraldo stopped working with investigators after she had been treated at Long Island Jewish Hospital.

At first Monserrate claimed that tripping and falling caused Ms. Giraldo to suffer a bruised eye and severely lacerated face. Now he has his friends circulating news that Giraldo had a drug problem and that he was trying to take the drugs in her purse away (despite none being found on her by police that night).

From The NY Daily News:

Sources say Monserrate backers have told people the outgoing city councilman was upset to discover drugs in girlfriend Karla Giraldo's purse after they attended the Queens Democratic Party's holiday dinner on Thursday.

"He has been making calls and saying, 'It's not what you hear; I'm innocent,'" one state Senate Democrat reported.

"The story his people are spinning now is that [Giraldo] had drugs in her purse and he tried to take them away from her and there was a struggle."

How sad is that he is now blaming the victim for all of this. While Monserrate exhibits the typical "bastard" behavior for a man that beats up women, there is another man in the picture that needs to stand up and be a leader in all of this.

The next probable Majority Leader, Malcolm Smith has so far played it safe with this news. As the article states, while Monserrate was making calls to various State Senators to proclaim his innocence, so was Smith in order to get people to not immediately castigate the Senator-Elect. That type of position is not surprising coming from Smith, but it is still far different from the man that just recently said he'd rather let the Republicans have power so that "we would rather wait to take charge of the Senate than to serve the interest of a few."

Well Smith, are you trying to serve your self-interest in taking the Majority Leader position now by making excuses for the legal interests of Mr. Monserrate?