Juan Gonzalez: Malcolm Smith Scheme Dumbest Thing Ever

Juan Gonzalez gets this exactly right:

Federal prosecutors allege that state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) conspired to bribe two key Republican Party bosses in a failed attempt to capture that party’s nomination for mayor.

What could Smith and his alleged co-conspirators possibly have been thinking?

Did they learn nothing from watching a string of fellow lawmakers in Albany and on the City Council carted off to jail?

Did they imagine they could simply fix political races by passing tens of thousands of dollars in unmarked envelopes in shadowy meetings?

Even if this outlandish plan had succeeded and Smith had landed the Republican endorsement, did he really think he could win a Republican primary against far better financed candidates like supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis or former Deputy Mayor Joe Lhota?

And what chance would Smith have on a Republican ticket against any of the Democrats who have been building their campaign organizations for years?

Simply delusional. 

But having watched Smith just a little over the past couple of years after his various charter school scandals (you can see information about two of them here), he had gotten away with his unethical behavior and crookery for so long that perhaps he thought he could get away with this too.

Impunity breeds arrogance and it seems that Malcolm Smith thought he was both immune from accountability and was as arrogant as could be.