With Joe Bruno under investigation by the FBI, Shelly Silver flexing his muscles over Atlantic Yards, and a new governor coming in, Albany is getting some much-needed attention. And let's face it, that's a good thing, because Albany is broken.

Today's Bruno and Silver headlines illustrate two different aspects of what is wrong with our dysfunctional, crippled and embarrassing state government. Capitol Confidential:

Bruno read a prepared statement and took very few questions. He seemed ill at ease and spoke haltingly, but said he hasn’t done anything wrong and insisted all his outside business has been cleared by the Legislative Ethics Committee.

Clearance by the Ethics Committee isn't enough, I guess, to ward off a Federal criminal investigation. Certainly not when Senator Bruno has a major say in who sits on that committee and what that committee decides to do. It's not necessary to take a position on Bruno's guilt or innocence to state the obvious: that's not much of a control mechanism. When you consider that nine, count them, nine state legislators have been indicted in this decade alone (and it's only 2006), there's a problem. When the state's top accountant is under a legal cloud, wins re-election, and still clings to his seat, there's a problem. Part of that problem is that someone like Bruno – or, say, Diane Gordon – doesn't need to worry about getting re-elected once he or she is actually in office. We think so little of our state representatives, and by extension of ourselves, that even crooks will do fine.

Part of the reason for this lack of esteem is that our legislators basically do not matter. Witness Shelly Silver's ability to hold up, single-handedly, the gargantuan development project that is Atlantic Yards. No matter how you feel about that project – full disclosure: I think it's pretty much the worst idea I've seen in a long time – it's downright appalling that one legislator, Speaker or not, can hold up or greenlight an investment of this size at his own discretion and pleasure. To be sure, this is a controversial project.

So hold debates.

Let the legislators from the area convene hearings, hold floor votes, introduce legislation, exercise oversight.

That's what they were elected to do, and what many people believe they do; but they don't.

Because all power in the legislature, down to the ability to get pencils for legislators, is held by two men: Joe Bruno and Shelly Silver. They're also responsible for that Ethics Commission and its spectacular track record. They also draw the districts that get people like Diane Gordon elected over and over and over again. They allow and protect the earmarks that get them into trouble; they even fight a lawsuit to make sure you don't know who introduces earmarks, or what's in them. You see, it's not your government; it's theirs.

But here's the thing: it's easy to rail against Bruno and Silver and blame them for all the woes and ills afflicting Albany, certainly if you throw in the execrable departing governor. And they are responsible.

However, someone once said – maybe Barry Popik can help me out here – that every people has the government they deserve. We've made it abundantly clear as citizens that we don't care all that much what happens in Albany, or how well we're represented. Until we get interested, Albany is not going to change. It can only be fixed if we do the fixing. Get busy.