When all is said and done, you are only as good as your word.

Would you believe that half the summer is already over? Which means that half the year is also over. The rent control debate has come and gone and we lost, along with a vast majority of other citizens, for another six years. Court reform was turned off by the legislature, along with the cameras in those chambers. The April state budget was ignored and neglected and no one, not even the markets, seemed to care.

But it is summer-time and the living is easy.

Time seems to stand still, and yet speeds along on a course that will arrive at its destination with or without the chores of life accomplished. Put off the tasks assigned and we think that life along with our responsibilities will be suspended.

Our Mayor is now running 'informational' spots telling us how crime, the schools and even public transit is better than ever. While Ruth, Sal and Al predictably say how much worse New York has become. Rudy's challengers don't even sound convinced of their positions - how can we be? Time rushes forward toward November.

Even as the heat of summer rises from the steamy pavement - life, duty and responsibility go on. We can't shun these things or forget about them, or tell ourselves that they don't matter. For some reason we are held to a higher standard than our leaders are. It somehow is absurd that we elect people to office and then expect that they are not responsible for their actions or inaction.

When do we finally see a politician state that this is a rock solid belief - not to be changed, not negotiated, nor victory claimed when defeated? There is nothing so needed as compromise in political discourse.

Most things in life can be open to accommodation. In order to be open on most matters, a person must be grounded in a few core beliefs. Those principles are so integral a part of the person that he draws his moral substance from them.

Someone who lacks this inner foundation of principle can no more be an ethical person than an animal. In fact, a person would be said to be immoral, or even amoral, when his ethical code is lacking a foundation on which to make decisions. For this reason we have the spectacle of Majority Leader Joseph Bruno claiming that Governor Pataki undermined his position on rent control by coming out with a different plan.

In political circles this may sound plausible - but not in reality. With rent control reform, Bruno was in the driver's seat. First, none of his constituents were effected by the outcome. Second, there was no legislation to pass. The mechanism to have rent regulation would automatically expire without the legislature taking affirmative action. All Bruno had to do was keep his mouth shut and not allow a bill to come to the floor.

Instead, Bruno and Pataki came down with "Foot in Mouth Disease." They just couldn't keep quiet. Six months before the legislation was set to expire, political pronouncements were made that controls were a thing of the past. The macho snorting and stamping of the feet were heard proclaiming a position that was supposedly non-negotiable.

Little did we know that "non-negotiable" means "sell out" in the political language of Albany. Vacancy decentral was nothing more than words to collect campaign contributions. What was achieved at the end of the day was better than what was in place before, but Bruno and Pataki had in their hands the power to change a truly deplorable system. Instead, they chose to sell out in the hope of not alienating tenants, who would never give their votes to the Republicans under any circumstances.

Perhaps you don't feel the way I do about this. Perhaps you believe that these titans of Pericles did the best job they could. That politically, the best was achieved. Perhaps the Real Estate Board, Rent Stabilization Association and other landlord groups are correct when they say great courage was shown by the Republicans. Try telling that to the small owner - that this was the best to be expected.

Rationalization of this fiasco is easy to do. When it comes around for a vote in another six years, none of the players at the table will be wearing the same hat because of term limits. I wonder if we still will be saying then that this is the best they could do.