More Espada Crookedness! Now With Extra Slime!

Last week Attorney General Cuomo (along with the FBI and IRS) brought a bombshell lawsuit against Senator Pedro Espada for looting up to $14 million dollars from his non-profit Soundview Medical Center. Espada, not one to take responsibility for himself, immediately lashed out at Cuomo for perpetrating a political vendetta against poor Pedro. Today the good Senator is lashing out again, this time for yet another set of crimes alleged against him and his son for their dubious operation up at Soundview.

Here's what Cuomo announced today, via The Daily Politics:

Labeling workers as "trainees" who were then paid wages far below the required state levels -- some making less than $70 per week.

These workers "typically worked for a two-week period with little training or direction and performed tasks such as cleaning bathrooms, mopping floors, and sweeping - the same tasks a full-time janitor performed.".....

Cuomo says workers were duped into joining the program with promises of jobs and training that never materialized. Instead, they were just replaced by other "trainees."

The full complaint can be read in the link to the DP above. Eighteen pages isn't much in lawyerese but damning enough for Pedro Espada. He can blame the Attorney General and call it politics as much as he wants, but the facts are not boding well for him. There is a tidal wave of evidence against him and when this comes to trial, his political career will be under water. And then of course there's that place called the state penitentiary with a special cell waiting just for him.

While Palin Is Wrapped In Controversy, Biden Goes After Bush

Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin has had a rough few days since she started off as McCain's VP choice, in fact rumors are swirling that she could be dropped. While the GOP plays defense over Palin's record (or lack there of) and her atrocious behavior, Obama's number 2 is not sitting back. In fact, Joe Biden is going after the Bush Administration, and we aren't just talking about in the rhetorical sense.

From ABC News:

Looking to the future but with one eye on the past, Biden also promised that an Obama-Biden government would go through Bush administration data with "a fine-toothed comb" and pursue criminal charges if necessary.

"If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation," he said, "they will be pursued, not out of vengeance, not out of retribution - out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no one, no attorney general, no president, no one is above the law."

That is a sentiment not shared by the current President nor the Vice President. Bush and Cheney are aware of the laws but they most certainly think they are above them. Biden frames the issue perfectly by saying that it isn't about partisan attacks (something the GOP cares about solely, party above country always) but accountability for the actions of those that govern and their crimes against the governed. Biden is well aware of the crimes that the current Administration has committed, but he talks in the manner of someone that wants to take this matter seriously and leave no room for the die-hard partisans on the right to claim that this is anything but the quest for justice.

It is nothing more, nothing less.