| Ugh. Eliot Spitzer's bad week is turning into a really, REALLY bad month. And, by association, March may end up being the lowest point in the year for progressives and the former governor's reporters.
Via the Front Page of the New York Times and into the Metro Section, the former Governor's claims that he had nothing to do with a "conspiracy" to discredit Bruno are bogus:
The governor has previously said he was not personally involved in the effort, suggesting only that he was vaguely aware that his aides had responded to a reporter's inquiry about Mr. Bruno's travels on state aircraft.
But testimony and other information gathered by the Albany County district attorney, P. David Soares, indicate that the governor's participation was extensive and reflected Mr. Spitzer's intense desire to damage Mr. Bruno, the people with knowledge of the case said.
Sadly, there's more below the fold... |
The local nightly news broadcasts are going nuts with this one also. Fred Dicker is calling David Soares stupid. I just don't know what to make of this. Was the Albany Times Union complicit in a conspiracy with the District Attorney's Office? Is the New York Times trying to save face with paragraphs like this:
The effort to tarnish Mr. Bruno was the first major blunder of Mr. Spitzer's first term. A report by the attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, on July 23 said that the Spitzer administration had improperly used the State Police to assemble records on Mr. Bruno's flights. Mr. Spitzer apologized, placed Mr. Dopp on indefinite unpaid leave, and said he would not tolerate such behavior.
But according to the people with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is not over, Mr. Dopp described a meeting he had with Mr. Spitzer just before releasing the records assembled on Mr. Bruno to a reporter from The Times Union of Albany.
Ouch. This seems to be very much at odds with what was blogged about the Soares report here on The Albany Project.
And the NYT's Empire Zone in the Metro Sectio below the extended story has an even more damning tone, suggesting that Spitzer's trip to DC was a front to meet up with his prostitute and could face the same allegations he (apparently) sought to hit Bruno with.
So a question for a state investigation would be whether Mr. Spitzer arranged the trip as a pretext for a rendezvous with a prostitute, and therefore improperly used state funds for what was principally a personal excursion.
The former governor had not originally been invited to testify before Congress - his insurance superintendent had been - but sought to join the trip, aides to Mr. Spitzer said.
.....
If the commission were to investigate, it would probably wait until federal prosecutors had sorted out their case. Another state investigative agency, the Office of the Inspector General, approached federal prosecutors but was asked to not to pursue its own inquiry. "We were in contact with the feds, and they requested that we not investigate, as they are looking into all aspects of this matter," said Stephen DelGiacco, a spokesman for Inspector General Kristine Hamann.
At the time when the Spitzer administration made the inquiry to the ethics commission, the controversy over whether the governor's aides had improperly used State Police officers to try to discredit Joseph L. Bruno, the majority leader in the State Senate, was at its height.
My head hurts. Because honestly I never followed either Troopergate or Brunogate much at all. At the time, I considered them distractions from implementing then-Governor Spitzer's progressive agenda. That, of course, went the way of the do-do completely in recent weeks, but was also hampered by the obvious turning point in his administration, the undocumented workers driver's license fiasco.
I really can't comment on whether these NYT articles are right or wrong, or whether either Spitzer or Bruno engaged in illegal activities in either case. But I will say this: after watching Governor Paterson's inaugural speech, it's quite clear that at this point in New York State history, the page has been turned. We're no longer trying to keep old wounds open and bleeding...we're trying to heal them.
And with that, I believe the Old Gray Lady has taken out their scalpel with these two pieces rather than a needle and thread. After all, it's Monday, and there's work to be done.
Someone should tell the Times that there's news to report, too. |
