OMGWTF?!? STOP THE PRESSES--NEW YORK SENATE IN TOTAL CHAOS AS TWO DEMOCRATS DEFECT TO UNSEAT MAJ. LEADER MALCOLM SMITH!

UPDATE: SENATOR SMITH: "I'm still leader." SENAOR MONSERRATE: "I'm still a Democrat."

UPDATE 2: WSJ is now reporting on the coup.... Apparently ESPADA has been named PRESIDENT, and SKELOS named VP and Majority Leader. DEMOCRATS tried Shenanigans to stop the vote--like leaving and turning out the light, but to no avail.

Update 3: From the NYT article:

But his own record could undermine his positioning as a reformer. Mr. Espada has been fined tens of thousands of dollars over the years for flouting state law requiring disclosure of his campaign contributions.

Mr. Monserrate was indicted in March on charges that he stabbed his companion late last year with a drinking glass, leaving a gash that required 20 stitches to close.

UPDATE 4: The New York Times gives us a really complete picture of what happened today. It seems that nobody really knows, however, what the effect of this will be and what this means for Smith.

So... yeah... Democrats in New York may be a LITTLE BIT mad at gays tomorrow. Apparently--and this is unconfirmed, but the big blogs are following the New York Daily News on this--two less than gay-friendly NY State Senators, Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr., have caucused with the GOP on an emergency 32-30 vote to unseat NEW YORK Democratic Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith in favor of anti-gay Sen. Dean Skelos. Our big gun enemy in the senate, Sen. Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr. has also indicated he might switch if it takes it. This is all but defeat for a Marriage Equality bill in the Senate that openly gay Sponsor Sen. Tom Duane was just last week almost certain had the votes to pass. New York City had been so sure that the bill was ready to pass that they had begun printing gender neutral Marriage Certificates and preparing for staff increases. While Monserrate had been an undecided (we all pretty much assumed he was going to turn out a no), Espada Jr. had been placed in the possible 'Yes' column in several polls. Though this change does not necessarily change how Senators would have voted on the bill, it does mean that--with an anti-gay GOP Senator now in charge, the bill will surely never see the light of day again.

Also in the NY negative news today, NYC Assemblyman Dov Hikind is trying to block the city's decision to add non-Jewish Holocaust victims to the Memorial in his Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn neighborhood. Looks like he's pissed that people might mourn the senseless death of stupid gays as much as real human beings.