The Two Faces of Shelly Silver

Maybe Sheldon Silver’s problem is he’s never grown up. And like a 4yearold, he’s now blaming his own misdeeds on an evil twin.

Silver tried to persuade The New York Times that a dubious scheme to block lowincome families, mostly Puerto Rican, from his Lower East Side district was perpetrated by a different Sheldon Silver. He even insisted on a correction.

“I was forever confused with this guy,” he said at a recent breakfast.

Conveniently, this other Sheldon Silver is now dead. Meanwhile, the Times reports that a recheck of documents confirms it is our Assembly speaker — and not the dead lawyer — who spent decades keeping lowincome Puerto Ricans out of his district.

Confronted with the evidence, Speaker Silver withdrew his demand for a correction. But he continues to insist it’s all a case of mistaken identity, though the widow of the other Mr. Silver maintains otherwise.

Now, a 70yearold man sticking to such a patently ridiculous tale would be funny if it weren’t so sad. Because it’s part of a long pattern in which Sheldon Silver somehow wiggles out of taking responsibility for his toooftendisreputable behavior.

Usually, he has some legalism to hide behind as he excuses actions such as covering up sexual harassment involving fellow state legislators and members of his own staff. This time, he’s blaming a dead man whose misfortune it is to share Shelly’s name — and not be around to defend himself.

If Silver is going to insist on such a childish excuse for his underhanded behavior, let Albany impose a punishment that fits the crime: a permanent timeout from his speakership.