by Rick Karlin [2]
This will be something the political junkies will want to see — the Senate’s Deputy Democratic Minority Leader Mike Gianaris and GOP Sen. Greg Ball will be appearing tonight on “Hannity” at 9:00 p.m.
With host Sean Hannity’s well-known dislike [3] of liberals, he’s likely to tear into Gianaris while giving Ball, who has emerged as an outspoken proponent for gun privacy (as well as voting “no” on Cuomo’s gun package), a wide berth.
One thing that’s not clear, however, is whether Democratic Sen. Mike Gianaris is stepping up as the sacrificial New York liberal — taking a metaphorical hit for the cause, or if it’s a gambit to get some credit for the Democratic conference in the gun package law, which the Assembly is debating and expected to pass in the next few hours.
That’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. Since the IDC-Skelos coalition was announced late last year mainstream Democrats have been grumbling that Republicans and Independent Democratic Conference members will end up getting credit for the progressive ideas that they — the Democrats — have long pushed for. In addition to gun laws, Dems have pushed for a higher minimum wage, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also endorsed and a womens rights package. Remember, when IDC members met [4] with Cuomo earlier in the month, the governor’s people were happy to publicize that meeting, at which they hammered out a gun law strategy, thus putting pressure on Republicans to support the plan.
While Hannity may take some rhetorical slaps against Gianaris, it’s also a chance for him — on national TV — to remind people that the state’s mainstream Democratic senators are still very much in the forefront of the progressive movement, even if they may have some real difficulty getting recognition for their votes. (ARTICLE [5])
