Like Father, Like Son?

For those following New York politics, Pedro Espada Jr., is the lightning rod for the clown circus that has described the Albany legislature and how the State Senate devolved into a abject mess. Espada, along with Hiram Monserrate, both Democrats, led a month long revolt against Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (another Democrat). Their actions led to the GOP recovering control of the chamber for a month, although Democrats protested and claimed that Espada and Monserrate's actions never gave Democrats control.

Espada used the episode to force Smith out, insert John Sampson as a party leader, and had himself installed as a party leader himself as he switched affiliations back once he secured the changes to the Democrat leadership. It was always about his own power, not about the business of the people of the state of New York.

Apparently, he also managed to get his son, Pedro G. Espada, a cushy job at the State Senate as well. It was a $120,000 annual salary, and apparently it didn't require him to show up and may involve double dipping and nepotism.

I know what you're thinking.

Like father. Like son.

Pedro G. Espada's sudden departure as the Senate's "deputy director of intergovernmental relations" came as Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began looking into whether the elder Espada had arranged for the position in violation of state law.

The resignation also follows The Post's discovery yesterday that the younger Espada was MIA from his new state job -- which a source in Cuomo's office said triggered his decision to bail out.

Since last Thursday, when he was put on the state payroll, Espada was supposed to be working at 250 Broadway, where the state Senate has a suite of offices. But yesterday, The Post watched him arrive at the Soundview Health Center in The Bronx in his white GMC Yukon at about 10 a.m.

His appearance at the center, where he has worked for eight years -- and where his stepson told The Post Tuesday he was still working -- comes after a source said this week that he hadn't been seen at 250 Broadway.

Yesterday, the elder Espada walked outside the health center and insisted his son was no longer employed at Soundview as "director of environmental care" and was working full-time at his state post.

When pressed on why his son was in the building, the senator groped for an explanation: "His official date of resignation is when . . . I really don't know. He's cleaning out his personal stuff."

Soon after, the son called a Post photographer's cellphone and insisted he was in fact already at the Senate's offices at 250 Broadway.

Later that afternoon, Senate Democrats agreed to show The Post a room purported to be the younger Espada's office in the Senate's 19th-floor suite at 250 Broadway.

But Espada -- who arrived at the building only after being told that The Post was on the scene -- seemed unfamiliar with the layout of the office suite. At one point, he appeared to take direction to his office from a Senate spokesman who chaperoned the interview.

So, let's recap. Espada's son appeared to get a job in the State Senate paying $120,000 a year, had yet to show up for the job even though he was on the payroll, and was still apparently working at his former job, all while the Attorney General was looking into just how exactly he got the job.

I'm sure there's an innocent explanation for all this. Or not.

I'm leaning towards the "or not." Espada clearly doesn't think that rules and laws apply to him as per his conduct during the Senate upheaval. This is just more evidence of same.

Cuomo needs to put the hammer down on Espada and Monserrate and the other politicians who think that the law doesn't apply to them.