Gung Hei Fat Choi

The characters are for “Happy New Year.” I thought that folks might be interested, using Chinese astrology, to see what this year would bring for state politicians. And perhaps we could also look at the compatibility and incompatibility issues those five or six guys in a room might have in the year of the pig. I hope you'll find this little project to be divertingly funny.

The Chinese ideogram for pig is:

The positive attributes of the pig are that they are sincere, gregarious, diligent, generous, obliging and unpretentious. Negative attributes are that they can be: naïve, materialistic, superficial, pigheaded, gullible and lazy.

Some famous pigs are: California’s Governator, Maria Callas, Julie Andrews and Western New York’s favorite daughter Lucille Ball.

Pigs will generally have a good year in a pig year and get along with rabbits and goats. However, the nemesis of a pig is a snake!

OK so let’s go through the six fellas:

Spitzer is a pig. This will be Eliot's year. BTW, pigs get along best with rabbits or goats and have incompatibility problems with snakes. It just so happens that Joe Bruno is a snake – so it looks like fireworks are in store for the “Eliot and Joe Show.”

Patterson is a horse. They get along with best with tigers and dogs and have incompatibility problems with rats. Which might explain why Malcolm A. Smith is now the minority leader in the Senate; he’s a tiger.

Senate

Joe Bruno is a snake. They get along best with an ox or a rooster and have incompatibility problems with pigs. Like I said before – Joe’s woes are only beginning. BTW people born in the year of the snake are usually viewed as possessing great wisdom, for example two famous people born under this sign are Oprah and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Malcom A. Smith is a tiger. They get along with best with horses, dragons and dogs and have incompatibility problems with monkeys. As I noted above, perhaps this explains why Patterson elevated him in Senate leadership fight. BTW, tigers are notorious for getting into battles with older people or folks in authority. Hey looks like its going to be “Lucha Libre or ECW for those of you that are monolingually challenged” in the Senate this year.

Assembly

Sheldon Silver is a monkey. They get along best with dragons and rats and have incompatibility problems with tigers. BTW, Ron Canestrari is a goat and goats get along famously with pigs – which means that Canestrari will have a good year this year!

Tedisco is a tiger. They get along with best with horses, dragons and dogs and have incompatibility problems with monkeys. Again, Shelly is a monkey so they’ll have their spats.

ZOPA, BATNA update

Back to BATNA:

"Having a good BATNA increases your negotiating power. Therefore, it is important to improve your BATNA whenever possible. Good negotiators know when their opponent is desperate for an agreement. When that occurs, they will demand much more, knowing their opponent will have to give in. If the opponent apparently has many options outside of negotiation, however, they are likely to get many more concessions, in an effort to keep them at the negotiating table. Thus making your BATNA as strong as possible before negotiating, and then making that BATNA known to your opponent will strengthen your negotiating position. "

Good grief, it makes you wonder if anyone on the Spitzer team ACTUALLY thought that the Legislature was "desperate for an agreement?"

Shelly had counted all of the votes when he said: "“(Spitzer) relies on a process that was flawed outright. In his heart, he knows it was flawed.” Which was followed by: "“This is one of 200 to 300 issues that will be contentious in the course of the legislative session. I have reason to believe that we could probably agree with the governor on 195 out of 200 issues, and I think there has to be respect that there may be some times when we will disagree with him. Period.”

That was a stiletto hidden behind Silver's cloak -- they never saw it coming -- which makes you wonder how they'll manage to outlast the legislators.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Benjamin reports in the Times Union Capitol Confidential blog: "At least four aides to Gov. Eliot Spitzer were in the chamber during the vote: Communications Director Darren Dopp, Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Clancy, Deputy Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs Marty Mack and Senior Advisor for Intergovernmental Affiars Mike Schell.

Clancy, Mack and Schell were in the balcony; they were spotted flipping through the “face book” - the directory that includes legislators names, photos and contact information - while votes were being cast. Dopp was standing against the rear wall of the Assembly chamber. "

They were going through the FACE BOOK?

Youch, it makes you wonder WTF is going on with Spitzer's team? I guess this means they don't know each and every legislator's strength, weakness and above all where their skeletons are buried.

This is pitiful and reminds me of the photo today's New York Times.

We are whistling while NY crumbles all around us.