ALBANY – What do television host Bill O’Reilly and the editorial pages of the New York Times, the Daily News, and the New York Post have in common? They have all taken turns heaping scorn on New York’s Democratic Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, the poster boy – or, some would argue, whipping boy – for Albany’s troubles.

In recent weeks, Mr. Silver, the laconic litigator from the Lower East Side who has dedicated almost half of his 62 years to the world of Albany politics, has had a truck-full of bad press delivered to his doorstep – the type of press generally reserved for tabloid villains given monikers like “fiend.”

Mr. Silver has taken hits for his positions on a broad range of legislative issues from the expansion of the state’s DNA database (he opposed taking samples from all convicted criminals) to jury awards in public employee disability cases (he blocked a measure that would prevent workers from collecting twice for the same injury).

His close ties with a former aide who is now one of Albany’s most sought-after lobbyists, Patricia Lynch, is under increasing scrutiny. And there have been reports about how the man who is looking to become New York’s most powerful Democrat, Eliot Spitzer, is distancing himself from many of Mr. Silver’s policies.

Judging by the newspapers, one might think that Mr. Silver was beleaguered, isolated, unpopular. But the reality – at least in the ornate halls of the state Capitol building – is a different story. Like a critic-proof Hollywood movie, Mr. Silver, as he wraps up his 13th year as speaker, is not only surviving the onslaught of miserable publicity, he’s thriving.

His standing in his Democratic conference is firm, and he’s ending this year’s session having outmaneuvered Governor Pataki in most stages of the budget process. Despite his low public opinion poll numbers, he’s not expected to face any serious – if any – opposition in running for re-election.

“He doesn’t live or die by the press,” the Democratic leader of Kings County, Assemblyman Vito Lopez, said. Negative publicity, he said, “only increases his credibility. It only results in a greater respect for him.”

A scan of recent headlines in the newspapers would suggest that Mr. Silver is due a lot of respect, even veneration.

In the span of just over a month, the New York Post has accused Mr. Silver of “refusing to put the safety and well-being of New Yorkers ahead of his own narrow interests.” The Daily News said Mr. Silver was “sticking it to taxpayers, coddling special interests and trashing the democratic process.” The Times has attacked him for giving Ms. Lynch such exclusive access.

Also piling on is a former New York City parks commissioner, Henry Stern, who responded with an outburst of rage to Mr. Silver’s derailing of a bill that would close the “double dipping” loophole in injury lawsuits against municipalities.

“An event occurred yesterday in Albany which to us is so egregious that we want to set it out in full, for you to read and digest its significance,” he wrote to readers of his online newsletter. He urged readers to pick up the Times, which ran an article about the doomed legislation, to view an unflattering photograph of Mr. Silver that accompanied the piece.

Mr. O’Reilly on his Fox News television show also weighed in: The speaker, he said, “has to be a sex criminal’s best friend.”

Asked to pinpoint the source of Mr. Silver’s political staying power, current and former assemblymen interviewed offered a variety of reasons.

For one, Mr. Silver, is willing to take the flak for unpopular positions held by his conference, the lawmakers said.

Mr. Silver backed a bill that would require all convicted criminals to submit DNA samples, but it was met with stiff opposition from New York City members of his conference who didn’t trust the state to handle the DNA appropriately, according to an assemblyman of Brooklyn, Joseph Lentol. Mr. Silver then proposed a bill that excluded many misdemeanors from the database, a move that provoked the ire of Messrs. Pataki, Spitzer, the majority leader, Joseph Bruno, and a number of editorial boards.

“He is smart enough to know his constituency is 105 Democratic members of the Assembly. … He’s often taking the brunt of criticism for his members and that only strengthens his standing with the conference,” a Democratic lawmaker who requested not to be identified said. Many lawmakers view an attack on Mr. Silver as an attack on themselves, leading them to rally behind him, he said.

Those who oppose Mr. Silver’s policies don’t have many options, as Mr. Silver also controls all the main levers of power. Democratic lawmakers who challenge Mr. Silver risk not being able to get their bills passed, losing funding for their districts, and missing out on preferred committee assignments.

After staging a failed coup against Mr. Silver in 2000, the Assembly majority leader at the time, Michael Bragman, was stripped of his office and leadership post and resigned in a year.

“Bragman was an outcast,” a Republican assemblyman of Staten Island, Vincent Ignizio, said.

The Democrats’ dominance in the Assembly also has helped Mr. Silver because he doesn’t need any one member’s vote. The four-seat Republican majority in the Senate, on the other hand, has created multiple centers of power, with some Republican senators in Democratic districts having leverage over Bruno.

While lawmakers have predicted some divisions between Messrs. Silver and Spitzer, who is running as a reformer, they say they are sticking with their leader for now.

“He has to look after the needs of 104 Democrats who range from very liberal to very conservative,” Mr. Lopez said. “It’s a challenging position and many can’t do it. And he does it well.”