Now the biggest outstanding source of internal tension within the conference is timing. How many days and weeks does “expeditiously” and “as quickly as possible” translate into?

“In general Carl is thinking, the one thing he’s gonna do is the right thing, and do it right, and not be political, he’s gonna listen to his lawyers and follow the rules. It’s just his thing to be meticulous in these kinds of situations,” said the Democratic consultant. “These are very high stakes. The last thing you want is to make a mistake.”

“Of course you’re dealing with a person who is very vindictive and crazy,” the Democratic consultant said. “You suspect anything you do, he’s gonna try to retaliate.”

Multiple lawmakers who spoke with Intelligencer echoed that assessment that Cuomo could take advantage of any little slip up or error in the proceedings to embarrass the Assembly and hang on to power. Several members in Tuesday’s meeting were “stressing that it’s really important that this be done as ironclad as can be, because we’re going to be walking into a legal buzzsaw from the governor,” Gottfried said. “We don’t want to put together something that’s going to get cut to ribbons by very talented lawyers on the governor’s side.”