The New American Dream

Sponge off the taxpayers, flaunt your ill gotten gains and ignore any semblance of legality...

Don't worry Senator Espada, the knuckleheads in the Bronx will keep returning you to office.

Remember what Alexis de Tocqueville said: we get the government we deserve. Can you imagine what someone like Alexander Hamilton would think of this asshat Espada?

The one-time Democratic turncoat controls the money flow as CEO of Comprehensive Community Development Corp., which he founded in 1978 and which is the umbrella organization for Soundview HealthCare Network.

The corporation's five clinics serve more than 40,000 people each year, but critics say Espada has put to personal and political use some of the $15 million the organization pulls in annually.

"For Pedro Espada, politics is a route to wealth and power," said a Bronx political insider.

Even as the geyser of cash rains on his family and on his political campaigns, Comprehensive Community Development owes some $347,000 in federal and state income tax withheld from employees, as well as unpaid unemployment taxes.

Seriously, what separates someone like Espada from a run of the mill grifter doing 3 to 6 in the state penitentiary?