Chris Smith writes in a recent issue of New York Magazine:

Optimists want to see the current mess as the stirring of real democracy, finally, in Albany. That would be swell, especially if public campaign financing is one result.But like Yugoslavia after Tito’s death, the short-term effect is to expose the legislative functionaries for who they really are. “Of the 62 senators, maybe five have the intelligence and integrity to actually accomplish anything,” a former Paterson administration official says.

Ouch.