ZOPA, BATNA and the politics of reform

Here’s a quick take on the current dust-up in Albany between the Executive and Legislative branches over the comptroller.

One of the truly weird things that emerged from the flap was the business argot or framing by members of Spitzer’s people…they absurdly were using Harvard B-School language while playing hardball with New York politicians. It struck me as hollow, pathetic and in many ways symptomatic of what is so wrong with political life today.

I say this because all of this blather about ZOPA “zone of possible agreement” was absolutely idiotic…what ZOPA did they have with the legislature? The whole idea of ZOPA is to avoid obdurate and intractable behavior in negotiating an issue. The key here is "possible" agreement. You don’t run around and draw lines in the sand! The purpose of ZOPA is to PERSUADE and CO-OPT your opponent. But, IMO most of the ruling class are used to snapping their fingers and having their minions do the dirty work. This is a bad sign of who has been admitted in the Spitzer inner circle...methinks there are too many yes folks.

In other words NO ONE, I mean absolutely NO ONE on Spitzer’s team seems to have the cojones to tell him to F**king cool off and finesse the situation because EVERYONE knows before you have a ZOPA you need a BATNA (better alternative to a negotiated agreement). The three steps are:

1] develop a list of actions you might conceivably take if no agreement is reached;
2] improve some of the more promising ideas and convert them into practical options; and
3] select, tentatively, the one option that seems best.

A pocho would have advised Spitzer -- OK we gotta dump Hevesi – so let's nuzzle up to Silver and then co-opt Silver’s choice, in this case DiNapoli, in order to make him part of the Spitzer reform team. Now that's how Pochos get the whole zopapilla!

Spitz’ team has threatened DiNapoli. Now they are going to have to do something - IMO those threats will eventually come back to haunt them...again it was the sign of a lack of long-term strategic thinking. What do you think the chances are that someone/somewhere in the Executive team will mess something up resulting in DiNapoli doing his best “I’m shocked... I’m shocked” routine ala the Captain Renault in Casablanca. It will make him look like a million dollars and a real reformer. I suspect that his pals in the Leg will make sure DiNapoli gets tons of money to run IF the Spitz team puts up a candidate against him.

I just don’t understand why Spitzer drew the line in the sand over this issue. He’s not going to get EVERYTHING he wants...so why spend political capital on this issue. The state constitution DOES NOT give the Executive the power to replace the Comptroller; that power is reserved for the Legislature. At the same time, creating and influencing a committee to pick only your candidates with a lame endorsement from the Grey Lady struck me as being too clever by half.

Well I can only hope that Spitzer’s team gets outta the Twilight ZONA [zone of no agreement] because this state is in bad shape and needs some many things like universal health care, a first-class public education system, etc. You get my drift. IMO we are not going to get there this way...it looks like we are on a one-way train to Palookaville if this keeps up.