ALBANY – Two Bronx Democrats may be getting cold feet in their threat to force a government shutdown over Gov. Paterson’s proposed budget cuts.
Sens. Pedro Espada and his sometime ally, Ruben Diaz Sr., are each equivocating on the threat to vote against emergency spending legislation next week in the wake of an angry denunciation from Paterson this morning.
Diaz, for his own part, expressed concern of comparisons to last year’s Senate coup fiasco, since the shutdown would require another alliance between coup-chief Espada and his former coup co-conspirators in the Republican minority.
“I didn’t know that Pedro Espada was going to jump on it,” Diaz told The Post. “People are tying this to the coup and I don’t like the whole idea of people tying this to the coup. I don’t know what’s going to happen now. I might leave Espada to do what he says. Maybe Pedro Espada will do it alone.”
“By Pedro Espada jumping on it, it gives the whole thing a different look,” Diaz continued.
Meanwhile, Espada, who received a concerned phone call late last night from Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson of Brooklyn, equivocated on his unequivocal threat Monday to shut vote against emergency spending bills that contain piecemeal cuts.
Espada suggested he might not have a problem with the cuts mental health and human services programs Paterson now says he’ll put in the emergency budget extender.
“It need not be the line in the sand, but I have to see what else he puts in there,” Espada told The Post. “If there are unacceptable budget cuts in these unilateral actions by the governor – a governor that is now a lame duck governor that New York State has lost interest in – that I cannot support that.”
Paterson had harsh words for Espada and Diaz – though he did not name the pair by name – during a contentious budget summit this morning.
“I’m not going to respond to any threats, any thug activity,” Paterson said. “I’m not going respond to any black mail in that respect.”
Diaz said he was smarting from the governor’s characterization.
“The language that the governor used to describe me doesn’t help,” Diaz said. “It makes it difficult for me to draw back. Bye-bye.”