The State Senate chaos was an embarassment to the state. But a good time for photo-ops!

Here, Jimmy Vielkind brings you timeless moments from the endless coup.

White House Flickr

Relax

Read Chris Smith’s profile of Pedro Espada Jr., who crows, “Same-sex marriage—as suggested by Espada! No vacancy decontrol! All Pedro!”

(If Espada brags about blocking vacancy decontrol, what does that do to Hiram Monserrate’s explanation?)

Kirsten Gillibrand will speak to N.Y.S. Young Democrats on July 7. Email your questions!

Washington Monthly calls Bill Clinton’s fund-raiser for Carolyn Maloney “a bit of a surprise.”

Hot Air doesn’t buy Clinton’s line that it’s not tantamount to an endorsement.

Blogger Andrew Carden gives the edge to Maloney over Gillibrand.

Here's a fun photo of Maloney.

Bloomberg runs ads about mayoral control.

I just spoke to John Liu about the Bike Access Bill, which would require landlords to provide storage space for bikes. The legislation, which has fairly broad support, is sitting in the Transportation Committee, which Liu chairs.

Liu told me that the legislation has been radically diluted from a similar initiative he supported earlier, equating it to adding “a gallon of water to a half a cup of orange juice.”

Bicycle activists and the bill’s author, David Yassky, say the bill should have been voted out of committee on Tuesday, and have been criticizing Liu because it hasn't.

ALBANY—There's news from Western New York that Henry Wojtaszek, the chairman of the Niagara County Republican Committee, is leaving his job at the law firm Harris Beach in preparation for a run at Joe Mondello's seat as chair of the state party.

"I'm exploring a run, but it's a full-time endeavor to get out and talk to the people," Wojtaszek told me in a brief phone interview. He left the firm, effective Thursday.

Wojtaszek has been in Albany recently as an ancillary player in the Republican coup of June 8 that sparked a still-unresolved leadership struggle. One thing working against Wojtaszek is that he's not particularly close to Manhattan's wealthy.

At the Working Families Party's mayoral forum yesterday, one moment that stood out to me was when Bill Thompson was asked, basically, if he has any chance of beating Michael Bloomberg.

If there was a moment to rally the troops, prove doubters wrong, and summon the courage of their convictions, this was it.

“Let me quote somebody who said rich guys don’t always win,” said Thompson, borrowing a line from Bloomberg, who, earlier in the event, defended his unlimited campaign.

Then Thompson spoke of his grass-roots campaign, "The likes of which New York City has never seen,” he said.

Tensions surfaced this week between members of the city's cycling community and Councilman John Liu over a piece of legislation—the Bicycle Access to Buildings Bill—that has yet to make it out of the City Council Transportation Committee, which Liu chairs.

The bill, which was first introduced back in 2003 and has resurfaced in various incarnations since then, would require office buildings to let tenants store bikes in the buildings, hence encouraging more people to commute to work by bike, hence advancing the bike-friendly, semi-car-hostile transportation agenda being pushed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn.

The bill was expected to be voted out of the transportation committee on Tuesday afternoon and passed by the full City Council the following day.

Here’s Michael Bloomberg at the Working Families Party forum last night, where he was asked, “Why not agree to a level playing field on campaign spending?”

“You can’t have a totally fair, equal election,” Bloomberg said, making air quotes with his fingers on the words "fair" and "equal.'

“Some people went to better schools than others," said Bloomberg, who went to Johns Hopkins and Harvard. "Some people are luckier with the families they were born into. Some people are members of parties that have enormous numbers of people that automatically vote that line."

“I’ve used my money only to talk about what I would do and what I have done. That’s—nothing wrong with that, as far as I can see," Bloomberg said.

The answer drew some groans from the crowd, but overall, the reception was fairly respectful.

Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has initiated the process of not paying state senators until they resolve their leadership dispute.

The freeze takes effect next Wednesday.

The Post is worried about the effect on separation of power.

The News is happy that its ‘don't pay the bums' campaign has worked.

David Paterson is now trying to mediate the dispute.

John Sampson has a reticent demeanor.

Michael Bloomberg ripped him Thursday for not acting to reauthorize school governance legislation.

In a story about state senators' Fourth of July plans, Marty Golden proposes a drinking contest to settle the dispute.

Kristen Artz/nyc.gov

Bloomberg and FEMA folks

Charlie Rangel said, "I really don't understand why President Obama got involved in our primary."

The New York Post editorial board encourages Carolyn Maloney to run, and says “her positions on most major issues give us hives. But she has principles.”

“Carolyn Maloney will win the primary the same way Barack Obama won Iowa, not as the faux sure thing but as the outsider who stands for hope and change,” says a blogger.

Michael Bloomberg defended his record-setting campaign spending. “There’s nothing wrong with that as far as I can see.”

At the Working Families Party forum, Bloomberg didn’t tell them exactly what they wanted to hear.

Getty Images

Jerry Brown’s career serves as a four-decade testament to the idea that politics is a means to a means. Every time he gains an office, he almost immediately sets out to parlay it into a new one.

Which is why the prospect of his return (after a 28-year absence) to California’s governorship next year is so fascinating. At 72 years old, he’ll be too old to shoot for a higher office. For the first time in his life, he’ll have to devote himself entirely to the job he was elected to.   

Just consider Brown’s career to date.

At 32 years of age, he won election in 1970 as California’s secretary of state—and promptly set about positioning himself for the governor’s race in 1974, which he won.

Jimmy Vielkind

These two men haven't been holding joint press availabilities lately.

ALBANY—They're meeting. With the governor.

Both sides in the State Senate leadership fight sat with David Paterson and...they've agreed to meet again Friday. This is the first resumption of talks since Democrats claimed they passed legislation in the coffee-run coup on Tuesday.

There is no deal, all parties insist.

"The governor has brought us together," Senator Malcolm Smith, a Queens Democrat who is one of his party's leaders in the chamber. "He is attempting to mediate so we can move this process along by getting the bills passed and restoring the confidence of the people of our state."

Smith continued: "Both Senator Espada and our conference, we have a short-term and long-term agreement.

The AP calls Bill Clinton’s fund-raising help for Maloney a “slap” at Obama.

Which makes the headline-writing easy.

Daily Intel’s headline is fun too.

First Read notes that Clinton already helped Maloney raise money earlier this year.

All the money Maloney raises at the July 20 event can be transferred to a senate race.

Tucker Carlson says, “Clinton's famously brilliant about politics, but I've noticed that almost nobody he supports for office actually wins.”

A feminist blogger wishes “that rather than a primary that leaves one or both of them damaged, there were a way that both of them could continue to build their public service careers."

Dana Goldstein says Maloney may have to stay clear of Geraldine Ferraro, who went a little off track during the '08 primary.

Getty Images

Misty Coney Island

There’s a common tactic that accompanies most development fights: packing a public hearing.

Usually this is carried out by a variety of groups fighting or supporting a given project—advocates, unions, angry neighbors, wary businesses—who enlist (ideally) scores of people to testify at a hearing in favor of their position, filling a room with sign-holding supporters and making it seem like their argument has more support than the opposition's.

But for a City Council hearing on Coney Island on Wednesday, the Bloomberg administration bused in supporters of its own plan, only to provoke sharp criticism from the Council, as members alleged a misuse of taxpayer funds.

Toward the end of the exhausting hearing—the eight-hour-plus event examined the administration’s plans to redevelop the amusement area—Councilman Simcha Felder asked a person testifying in favor of the city’s plan how he got to the hearing, and learned he had been bused in by the Coney Island Development Corporation, according to multiple people at the hearing.

ALBANY—Here's yet another sworn affidavit related to Tuesday's coffee-run quorum.

Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director of the League of Women Voters, affirmed that she was sitting in the gallery of the still-feuding State Senate and saw Senator Frank Padavan, a Queens Republican, on the chamber floor after Democrats had convened their session.

Ten Democrats--mostly staffers, but also some senators--have filed affidavits saying as much. Bartoletti, who is often quoted as an independently affiliated good-government advocate, is supporting the Democratic position with her affidavit.

In another affidavit, Padavan swears any attempt to count him toward a quorum was "fraudulent." Democrats used his presence to pass over 100 local bills.

ALBANY—As the State Senate dithers, Yonkers is "running on fumes," a spokesman for Mayor Phil Amicone said.

"We're going to be the first casualty of this political war," David Simpson, the spokesman, said. "The whole city is being held hostage."

Yonkers needs the State Legislature to reauthorize its mortgage-recording tax as well as its income tax. Both kick in later this year, but Simpson explained that because Yonkers operated under a financial-control board in past decades, its budget must be certified each year by the Office of the State Comptroller.

"He has said he is not going to certify Yonkers' budget without all the revenue sources being accounted for," Simpson said.