Yesterday was beautiful, bright and crisp in Albany, with just the earliest hint of spring. But before I could even make my way to the Capitol to gather up a new pile of reaction statements, my cell phone was ringing from a place even nicer than this.
The call-back number said 202, for Washington. But the sunny voice on the other end could only be in Miami.
Yes, it was Roger Stone. And the exuberance in his voice made high-fiving Albanians sound almost morose.
"I didn't make him go to a prostitution ring," said the most famous and ruthless Republican dirty trickster who still walks the earth. "He did that all on his own."
Stone said that even before I asked if his hand was somehow in Spitzer's latest trouble. I figured, somehow or another, it had to be.
"No comment on that," Stone said. "I will say I knew it was coming. That's why I wasn't too upset about the results of the special election," where a Democrat grabbed a supposedly safe Republican State Senate seat, leaving Democrats just one vote shy of control.
Conversations with Stone often go like that. Always cocky. A little cryptic. Leaving you wondering about more.
He set up a 527 political-hit committee. He's been shopping anti-Spitzer stories for months. He's been warning darkly about some "really ugly" stuff to come.
Even though there's no evidence he sent the governor to a hooker or made the Bush Justice Department follow up on a banking tip, he's been energetically working to undermine the governor.
And he may not be done.
"Everything's about to change," Stone said.
Well, sure.
Of course it is. Spitzer, mortally wounded, will almost certainly have to resign. Standing ready to take his place and make double-big history, too, Lt. Gov. David Paterson would be the first black governor of New York - and the first nearly blind one.
That wasn't what Stone meant.
"My work isn't done there," he said.
"Just watch."
Anyone else not surprised by this? He's trying to act like he knew all along. That's a little worrisome to say the least.
