Is Mulgrew Ready Now To Return Gov’s Fire?

From Mike Mulgrew’s standpoint, the irony of Shelly Silver sitting next to Governor Cuomo when he gave his State of the State speech in Albany Jan. 21 and being arraigned on criminal charges the following morning in Manhattan was that the man most likely to head off Mr. Cuomo’s full-bore offensive against the state’s Teacher unions was no longer in any position to do so.

Virtually from the beginning of his 21-year reign as Speaker of the Assembly, spanning five Governors and three United Federation of Teachers presidents, Mr. Silver had been the go-to guy for the union on key initiatives in the state’s capital. His having been forced last week to abdicate his position by the colleagues who had stood by him for so long while he weathered criticism for his efforts to make serious charges against other people in his orbit disappear created added uncertainty for the UFT at a time when it could not afford it. Especially not when its other primary champion among elected officials, Mayor de Blasio, is not exactly popular with the new Republican majority in the State Senate after he tried in vain to bring full control of that body to Democrats in last November’s elections.