Is today Mike Bloomberg's big, free-at-last day of victory? Hardly. Tally up the politics of the last 24 hours, and a different man comes out on top: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the most powerful man in New York most New Yorkers won't recognize. Late Monday, for instance, Assembly Democrats have gathered for a three-hour meeting to discuss Bloomberg's push for congestion pricing in Manhattan. Yesterday, the Post reports, many of Shelly's pols then pronounced the plan "likely dead for good." This is the man, remember, who killed the West Side Stadium and any number of Pataki's proposals. But right now it seems nothing's quite, finally dead till the legislative session ends on Thursday night — so it seems that Mayor Mike will spend at least a part of his first day as an even-more-non-presidential candidate on the phone, being nice to Shelly Silver. As the Times puts it in a well-timed front-page profile today, "Even popular New York City mayors must approach him on bended knee." Billionaires included.

Mike's Auto-Cratic Plan 'Dead For Good': Pols [NYP]
Silver Wields Power by Keeping Albany Guessing [NYT]