Nathaniel Brooks for the New York Times
Perhaps it's his coffee. Joe "Brunogate" Bruno spoke to the New York Times for today's edition and, man, is that guy grumpy! Oh, and his long time chief counsel hit the road Friday afternoon. The guy just can't seem to catch a break.
His Omnipresence May Show His Clout, but Now Bruno Is on the Defensive
But at what should be his crowning moment, Mr. Bruno finds himself on the defensive as never before. The F.B.I. is investigating his business ties, newspapers are exploring his financial relationships with people seeking help from the state, some Republicans are grumbling that he is tarnishing their troubled party, and for the first time, a member of his conference, Senator John J. Bonacic, a Hudson Valley Republican, is calling on Mr. Bruno to step down.
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"I have 33 votes in my conference, as I sit here, out of 34," he said.
And Mr. Bruno bristled at news reports that the federal government was investigating his decision to award a $500,000 member item grant - the type that goes to individual lawmakers' pet projects - to Evident Technologies, a company with a former director, Jared Abbruzzese, who had business dealings with Mr. Bruno. Mr. Bruno said that the state gave aid to Evident before he did, and that the money was intended to keep the company from moving out of state.
"It gets me a little bit excited, because they all want to moan and groan and point to Evident," he said in his office. "Evident is one of the most worthwhile projects to be funded that I have funded. Now the fact that a friend of mine, it turns out, that I had a financial relationship with - too damn bad. What am I, a second-class citizen? Is he a second-class citizen? We vetted that through the whole process, O.K.?"
"I'm getting crucified," he said. "And you know something? Tomorrow, if I had that situation to do over, I'd do exactly what I've done."
More on the flip.... |
Although throughout his political career, Mr. Bruno has been dogged by questions of whether his public and private roles were in conflict - from the state contracts won by his telecommunications firm, Coradian, to how legislation he worked on could affect investors - he has never before been accused of wrongdoing.
"My attitude has been, you think I'm in a conflict, then you prove it, and if you're right I'll pay the consequences," he said in an interview in 1994, shortly after he ousted the former Senate majority leader, Ralph J. Marino, in a coup orchestrated in part by Governor Pataki and Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato.
"But I'm not going to ever back off because somebody alleges there's a conflict," he said, "because I have spent my life in business and government trying to prove that businesspeople can be effective in government."
Yes, business people can very effective at selling telephony to, um, government while they were working in, uh, ya know, government. Of course, you can always sell that company and start up a "consulting" firm. Well done, Joe!
As for their effectiveness IN government, one need only look to our President and Vice-President for sterling examples of "effectiveness".
"Everything I have done, we have done to the letter of the law," Mr. Bruno said. He added that he had disclosed all the information the state required, and that he did not think it would be fair to clients who expected confidentiality to disclose their names now.
"We are a part-time Senate, a part-time Legislature," he said. "Everybody here does something else, almost everybody, and I think that's right, that's the way it ought to be. Do you remember this from your civics class? We are a citizen Legislature. Citizens, farmers, lawyers, businesspeople, doctors, retirees, that's what we are."
Whatevs.
In other Bruno News, the long time chief counsel to the Majority Leader slipped out the back door on the Friday before New Years.
Legal adviser to Bruno retires
Chief counsel's decision is not related to federal probe, spokesman says
A lawyer who for decades has provided key legal advice to state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno -- and whose name recently surfaced in a swirling FBI investigation into his boss -- has retired.
Chief Counsel Kenneth Riddett filed his retirement papers earlier this month after 33 years of public service, Bruno spokesman John McArdle confirmed Saturday.
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McArdle also said Riddett's decision to leave public service after 33 years is not related to the investigation of Bruno's private business dealings in recent months.
The U.S. grand jury investigating the link between Senate Majority Leader Bruno and a suspected lobbyist has been taking testimony since at least April 13, according to a subpoena disclosed last week.
Riddett's name surfaced in the investigation as a passenger, along with his boss, in a plane owned by Richmor Aviation on Dec. 1, 2005, which handles planes owned by Jared Abbruzzese, a businessman who has used Bruno's private consulting business.
Maybe Riddett's departure has nothing to do with the FBI investigating his boss, but I'll need more than John McArdle's word on that one. I have a pretty low opinion of that wormy little freak.
But there is definitely something odd about the way Riddett left. Liz at Capitol Confidential adds this:
The retirement, effective today, of Kenneth Riddett, chief counsel to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, was not related to the FBI investigation and has been planned for some time, according to Bruno spokesman John McArdle.
But it caught senior Republican senators by surprise.
Aides to two longtime members of the GOP majority said their offices did not receive the fax announcing Riddett's imminent departure, which also indicated that he had filed his retirement papers "last month," until well after 5 p.m. on the Friday before New Year's - a day when few, if any, staffers were on hand to receive such a document.
One of those faxes arrived at 7:15 p.m. at a senator's district office, according to a member of that lawmaker's staff. A general announcement was never made to the whole majority conference, which seems to be the norm these days.
Odd, that.
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