The real reason Ruiz made a hurried trip to Smalbania (as us locals call it), is Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno abruptly resigned his leadership position Monday and is not planning on running for reelection.

Senator Bruno, as majority leader, was one of the three real decision makers in state government, along with the governor (de jure), and Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver. All the other state senators and assemblypersons were merely their serfs. The state legislature is truely a bicameral dictatorship.

Joe was also the man behind the efforts to entice AMD to build in Luther Forest. Shelly Silver, as a Jew from the east side of Manhatten, thinks that all land north of Yonkers is "unexplored territory", and the new governor, as a black from Harlem, probably thinks the same, so it was Joe that stood up for upstate New York, as long as it was in his district, of course.

Ruiz came to make sure that the deal wasn't going into the can along with Joe.

BTW, the local press is reporting the FBI carted 30 boxes of documents from Joe's Senate offices earlier that day. Just a coincidence, said Senator Joe. The FBI has been investigating for the past three years his private business dealings.