It would be hard to find three politicians who are more plain-spoken and direct than Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani and Mario Cuomo. Each man had his supporters and detractors, but none of the New York City-bred trio was ever known for mincing words, either from the mayor’s office in New York City, for Koch and Giuliani, or the Governor’s Mansion in Albany for Cuomo. They knew doubletalk when they heard it, so when their nonpartisan grass-roots group challenged state legislators to come clean on reform, the challenge went beyond the for-it or against-it approach.

The group, New York Uprising, spelled out three reform proposals vital to changing the way New York is governed and promised to let voters know how legislators responded. Sign on to the reform plan before last Friday and you were a reform “hero.” Fail to pledge to work for the changes and you were an “enemy” of reform. And names would be taken and published.

Well, the pledges are in and the lists are posted, and at the top of the enemies list are the Democratic leaders of both legislative houses. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader John Sampson, both of whom speak constantly of reform, refused to sign the pledge. Worse, they pointed at the Republican Senate minority, all of whom signed on, as a reason of sorts for ignoring the Uprising pledge. Democratic leaders argued that the GOP has had years to work for reform when it had a majority in the Senate, but did nothing, so Republicans signing the pledge now is disingenuous.