State Senator Greg Ball: he’s got some…well you know

Senator Goofball. There you go, Senate staffers. I just created a new nickname for you to use.

Various behind the scenes maneuverings and goings on were unveiled over on the New York Times’ City Room blog, including this little tidbit concerning Greg Ball’s public wishy-washiness over his vote and eventual “no” vote despite the last-minute inclusion of the very same exemptions he publicly stated would allow him to vote for the bill:

It was a brazen request, gay marriage advocates thought.

Senator Greg Ball, a Republican, told them that if he voted to legalize same-sex marriage, he wanted assurances that national Republican leaders would campaign for him.

His top choice: former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The advocates privately chortled. Mr. Cheney had recently had major heart surgery and the possibility that he would travel to New York to endorse a state senator seemed beyond slim.

Mr. Ball, of Putnam County, eventually voted no. But he said he did not regret his request.

“As far as Cheney,” he explained by e-mail, “we suggested the need to have nationally prominent conservatives ready to support moderate Republicans willing to support either civil unions or marriage equality, in tough primaries.

“Hopefully, they listened, because some of these voting yes are going to have a tough re-election fight.”

Amongst Ball’s other choices: George H.W. Bush, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

I kid, of course, but that’s ludricous! Justify it all you want, but Ball looked more than a bit wonky telling same-sex marriage advocates “hey, get me Dick Cheney and you got my vote!” Not to mention the fact that he shouldn’t have openly conceded to the opposition that they were right and that his vote wasn’t a vote of conscience but of political necessity. In fairness to Ball, he’s far from the only Republican that played the “woe is me, I’m so morally conflicted” card when in actuality the only thing weighing on him was politics.

It’s certainly embarrassing, though not nearly as embarrassing as his own planned version of Peter King’s Muslim Radicalization hearings would have been had he not relented after King was basically roasted on a national stage for it.

No, that one’s not a joke. He was planning on having Muslim Radicalization hearings. Greg Ball. The State Senator.

Look, I know State Senators and Assembly members aren’t usually the sharpest knives in the drawer, but what is up with him lately?