How much did it cost the State to oust abusive boyfriend and all-around-special-guy Hiram Monserrate from the State Senate? Would you believe $376,464?
The Daily News today digs up that figure, which is what the senate paid to the firm Kaye Scholer for legal assistance deciding if it had the authority kick the jerk to the curb. A travesty, the paper thinks, because the Senate has more than a hundred in-house staff lawyers already.
But before you get too up in arms, a spokesman for the Senate Democratic Conference has a pretty valid sounding explanation: "The committee voted to retain a criminal law expert because there was an inherent conflict in having Senate lawyers who reported to Monserrate advise the committee on matters which would determine his future in the Senate."
Now if the state paid that much and he hadn't gotten the boot...
