Monserrate compares himself to murdered civil rights activists

Call him a martyr!

As the New York State Senate prepares for a probable vote to censure and expel embattled state Sen. Hiram Monserrate [D-Jackson Heights] from office, the former police officer has compared himself to four slain civil rights workers.

"Students from the college [Queens College] that I went to died to help African-Americans have the right to vote," Monserrate told the Daily News yesterday. "Today, the Senate would seek to push back the clock and discredit the major movement that occurred here in the United States to protect the rights of all Americans."

This rather desperate comment comes nearly two weeks after several Albany sources confirmed to EDGE a committee would recommend Monserrate's censure or expulsion from the state Senate after a Queens judge convicted him in October of misdemeanor assault against his girlfriend inside his Jackson Heights apartment on Dec. 2008. The committee released its findings last week. And a vote on Monserrate's future could come within days.

The clock continues to tick on Monserrate's tenure in Albany; and implications he plans to go down as a self-anointed martyr will almost certainly strengthen the resolve of those who want to rid themselves of a tiresome distraction.