Let me see if I have this right:

State Sen. Perdro Espada, a Bronx Democrat, stabs his party in the back a month ago by joining the Senate's Republican caucus — giving the GOP control of the chamber in the process — in return for a ledership post in the new majority.

Thirty-one days later, he jumps back across the aisle, returning the Democrats to the majority, and is given the leadership post (Senate majority leader) in return.

In my world, the rough equivalent of this would be quitting my job as the Freeman's city editor with no advance notice, going to work for, say the Poughkeepsie Journal, and then agreeing to come back to the Freeman a month later — but only on the condition that I be made managing editor or publisher.

That's not the way things work in the business world. And they shouldn't work that way in government, either.