As I’ve said before, Preet Bharara remains New York’s best and only hope for uprooting corruption in politics and business.

So the news of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s arrest on corruption charges, while jaw-dropping, wasn’t unexpected. As the past six years have shown, US Attorney Preet Bharara always gets his man.

Once Speaker Silver was in his sights, it was only a matter of time (and live, cooperating witnesses) before Shelly would stand before the federal bar of justice.

In the interest of fairness, I should note that Silver stands innocent until proved guilty. In a tepid statement, he expressed his hope to be vindicated.

That said, the evidence cited in the federal complaint makes him look worse than the New England Patriots.

According to the complaint, Silver is accused of directing $500,000 in state funds to a physician in return for asbestos referrals. He’s further accused of using his legislative influence to derail the Moreland Commission investigation into his outside income.

As a former Assembly member, I’m disappointed to see the media and public contempt for politicians justified, again and again.

I feel badly for the great number of my former colleagues who labor honestly on behalf of their constituents and their ideals.

But I fault them — and myself — for not demanding better of legislative leaders and those who put themselves forward for leadership.

The Assembly rated 42 percent favorable, 41 percent unfavorable in the last Siena poll. Speaker Silver scored a dismal 21 percent favorable, 37 percent unfavorable rating.

And in a December Quinnipiac poll, only 28 percent of New York voters approved of the job being done by the Legislature. Fifty-eight percent voiced disapproved of their state legislators.

Gov. Cuomo’s suspension last year of the Moreland Commission’s investigations into political corruption in Albany (investigations that Bharara soon took over) called into question his commitment to ending business as usual in the state capitol.

But to his credit, the governor put a stop to legislative member items. For venal legislators, member items were a trough from which they and their cronies fed. It’s what allowed Silver to allegedly send $500,000 to that physician.

Yesterday’s arrest of and complaint against Silver after an 18-month investigation demonstrate that his office wasn’t working the Moreland investigations on anyone’s schedule but his own.

Bharara and his team of prosecutors and investigators have been meticulous in the cases they’ve put together. At the news conference discussing the Silver arrest, he concluded by saying, “Our unfinished fight on public corruption continues. You should stay tuned.”

Bharara has a righteous and moral purpose not seen in decades. And he has brought cases that were not uncovered by crusading investigative journalists.

Preet has put everyone from the governor to legislators to the lobbyists/consultants (who have replaced the clubhouse bosses) on notice. Absent real political reform and transparency, he’ll continue to prune Albany’s corrupt vineyard.

I’m pleased that higher political powers didn’t trundle Preet off to Washington, DC, and so abort his efforts to completely dissolve “the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics.”

Preet Bharara is like Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp in “Tombstone,” calling out to Albany’s wild cowboys, “I’m coming and Hell is coming with me!”