Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver will never be removed from his job, state reps said yesterday — shooting down a proposal Gov. Cuomo floated to oust the powerful legislative leader over two new corruption scandals.
“Everything I hear is that Shelly is as popular as ever,” said a former Democratic Assembly member. “These things [corruption scandals] are terrible, but nobody’s saying it’s Shelly’s fault . . . Shelly will stay as long as he wants.”
“Andrew had a chance, when he got elected, if he wanted to, he could have taken Shelly out,” the Democrat said. “It would have been bloody . . . but I don’t think he could now if he tried.”
The Post reported yesterday that Cuomo and his top aides this past weekend discussed deposing Silver, a Lower East Side Democrat, as speaker.
The catalyst was the recent federal corruption charges against Assemblyman Eric Stevenson (D-Bronx), which came just days after state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) was busted in another federal corruption case.