PAUL RAHE: A Revolution Of Sorts In New York.

Silver’s indictment is big news. If he was on the take for fifteen or more years — to the tune of $6 million — then we can be confident that everyone else associated with him was also on the take. The government of the state of New York is that sort of polity. If Mr. Big is receiving, everyone else is getting some sort of cut.

This would explain why, in March 2014, Andrew Cuomo, the current Governor of New York, suddenly shut down the Moreland Commission, which he had set up in 2013 — no doubt, in anticipation of a presidential run — ostensibly for the purpose of cleaning up politics in New York. That commission was apparently turning up evidence that impinged on people close to the Governor himself, and it had to go.

Well, Cuomo is a threat to some powerful Democrats outside of New York.