Do you get the feeling that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is more than happy to take a victory lap with this one?

Former Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada, D-R-D, Bronx, pleaded guilty today to the remaining charges of corruption, including a tax evasion charge, ending a years-long saga.

Espada was previously convicted of embezzling money from a non-profit health-care operation he was in charge of based in the Bronx.

Espada, one of the architects of the Senate leadership coup, came to epitomize every that was wrong with Albany before he lost his primary two years ago to Democrat Gustavo Rivera.

And in a statement this afternoon, Cuomo, who had slapped Espada with a lawsuit while AG over the state funding funding of his health care network, gave Espada the last word, but the governor surely got the last laugh:

“Nearly three years ago, my Attorney General’s Office brought a case against then Senator Pedro Espada for looting his taxpayer-funded not for profit and abusing his position of public trust.

“Mr. Espada’s reaction was to lash out again and again and to falsely disparage and accuse my Office of engaging in a politically-motivated witch hunt. Today, I give Mr. Espada the last word – when he says, ‘guilty.’”

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