The biggest story out of Albany since Governor Spitzer resigned under fire in March broke Monday.  Senator Joseph L. Bruno, majority leader of the Senate since 1995, has been the state's leading Republican since the departure of Governor Pataki. He surprised everyone by declining to run for re-election in his Rensselaer-Saratoga district and stepping down from an active leadership role in the Senate.

Bruno will no longer be next in line for governor if legal or physical misfortune afflicts Governor Paterson. That role will fall to Senator Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre, his successor as majority leader. If Skelos should falter, Speaker Sheldon Silver is constitutionally next in line, although he has indicated he would forswear the lesser office.

There is considerable speculation that Bruno's departure was hastened by law enforcement officials, who have been leaking stories about his  prospective indictment for three years, without bringing him before a court. Certainly the Federal prosecutors who seized thirty boxes of his Senate records Monday morning did not help induce him to stay. 

Bruno had other reasons to retire. His wife, who had been ill for years, passed away in January.  And, on April 8, he entered his eightieth year. The prospects of the Republicans retaining their 32-30 edge in the senate are not the brightest, with fifteen of his members eligible for social security, and three octogenarians who are older than Bruno is. BTW, there is nothing wrong with being an octogenarian if you are fortunate enough to become one.

By leaving now, Bruno avoids responsibility if the Republicans lose the Senate. If they retain control, his strategy of installing Skelos will be regarded as brilliant.

The senator's departure was very well timed, as befits a professional. It came the next business day after the legislature adjourned, a few weeks ahead of the petition period for aspirants to his senate seat, and well before the Feds had a chance to read and act on the documents they sequestered that morning. Presumably the senator is bright enough not to describe his crimes, if any, in writing. He is not like the Bear Stearns executives who exchanged e-mails on the worthlessness of their hedge funds.

Those who excel at politics know when to leave the stage.  The right time is when you are at the peak of what power you have. You leave on your own before the people start demanding that you go. You leave before you are enmeshed in the coils (or the toils) of the law.

We have been complaining about Joew Bruno for years, with justification.  During his tenure, the progressively became less fiscally responsible, like the House Republicans in Washington. An excuse is that he was trying to keep a minority party afloat, making alliances wherever he could while persuading superannuated colleagues not to retire. They ran for re-election because they feared their seats would fall to the Democrats. Recent by-elections showed their concerns were justified.

Bruno also survived his bitter opponent, Eliot Spitzer.  I heard a story about Alger Hiss (1904-1996), who was asked what kept him alive so long.  He is said to have replied: "I wanted to live long enough so I could spit on Nixon's grave."  Nixon died in April 1994 and is buried in Yorba Linda, California, on the property of his Presidential library and birthplace. We do not know whether the nonagenarian Hiss fulfilled his desire. In the public conflict between the two, Nixon emerged victorious.

Back to Bruno and Spitzer, as far as fighting words were concerned, the Republican who called the governor a "spoiled brat" was more accurate than the Democrat who first called himself an amorous road flattener and later evoked the image of Vlad the Impaler in describing his designs on the Senator's innards.

The day of departure may not be the best time to judge a man's life and works.  After all, we're still waiting for the grand jury which may or may not come up with an indictment. One law that Bruno passed should, however, be mentioned.   In 2002, he put through the Republican senate a bill banning discrimination against gays and lesbians.  The vote was 34 - 26, which is a very close vote for the state senate.  There were Democrats and Republicans on each side, but it would never have been adopted without Bruno, who on this issue differed from most of his caucus. 

His last political act was one of irony and sophistication.  He offered privately to have the Senate pass the property tax cap that Governor Paterson made the keystone of his fiscal program. The teachers union opposed the tax cap because they want all the money they can possibly squeeze from taxpayers to pay for increases in their salaries and number of duespaying members.. Isn't that what unions are for, the economic interest of their membership?  If the senate passed the bill, as they are said to have offered to do, then Speaker Silver would have to kill it in the Assembly, on the demand of his caucus, of course.

The governor did not want to endure such a painful rebuff, which would have made it crystal clear who is the most powerful Democrat in New York State.

We offer a new rule, 27P: "Power derives from proficiency." What do you think?