Foreign Policy Magazine released its annual “Failed States Index,” a list that looks at countries that have hit rock bottom. The normal suspects were there -Somalia, Zimbabwe and Sudan made the top three. In looking at the list, one might wonder, especially in the last month, where New York, if it was a country (it would rank 16th economically, just behind Turkey), would rank in the Index.

Let's face it. Minus AK-47s and grenade launchers, Albany has had all the makings of a third-world nation, not the Empire State it claims to be. Even before the June 8 coup, New York has been the butt of jokes, because of the Eliot Spitzer scandal. Yet, while that may have been about personal failings, and was fodder for late night comedians, this last six weeks calls into question most, if not all the tenets of a civil representative democracy.

Look at some of the facts:

In an interview, just after the coup, Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, indicated that besides preparing for the parliamentary fight that he masterfully waged - forcing the Senate's presiding officer, Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Albany, to flee the rostrum - that Republicans were prepared for possible fisticuffs. So let's get this straight - our elected leaders were willing to have a fist fight on the floor?

Then, days after the coup, the GOP-led coalition was locked out of the chambers; as if no one had access to a locksmith. We then had Sen. Pedro Espada, D-Bronx, in a photo op, flash a key as if he and his compatriots had found the Treasure of the Sierra Madre. But when they got there the bill jackets they needed to transact business were locked away #- apparently the information age, with high speed printing, hasn't carried to the Senate chambers.

Sen. Dean Skelos, R-Rockville, the Republican leader, publicly promised that his members, weeks after the coup, when the Democrats had previously walked into the chamber earlier than scheduled and seized the rostrum, would not rush it to capture it back. Democrats worried about such, posted a guard to prevent it. Does that mean we might have seen a southeast Asian-type rushing of the podium, which we often mock here?

And then there was last week. We have a governor who, with questionable legal authority to do so, appointed a lieutenant governor. OK, we might be able to understand that. But then, he had his office announce a swearing-in ceremony for his pick at 11 a.m. Thursday, only to later disclose that Richard Ravitch was, without the media present (when does that ever happen in America?), secretly sworn in the night before at a steak house.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com