Paydirt.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo may well have hit the mother lode in his investigation of endemic corruption in the state pension funds.
The AG yesterday brought felony charges against a veteran political kingmaker, accusing him of a "pay-to-play" scheme that essentially bought an Assembly seat for felonious ex-Comptroller Alan Hevesi's son, Andrew.
According to Cuomo, Hevesi's office arranged for Raymond Harding -- onetime chair of the now-defunct Liberal Party -- to collect $800,000 in illegal fees as part of a sham pension-fund transaction in return for political fixes favoring both Hevesi and his son.
The scheme -- in which Democratic Assemblyman Michael Cohen got a six-figure private-sector job with Harding's help, and gave up his seat in 2005 to make room for the younger Hevesi -- also involved two senior aides to then-Gov. George Pataki, a Republican.
The Post's Fredric U. Dicker and Brendan Scott report the indictment's unnamed figures include Hevesi, his then-chief of staff, Jack Chartier, and Adam Barsky, a deputy chief of staff to Pataki.
In other words, the state's constitutionally designated fiscal watchdog -- the comptroller -- was in cahoots with the office of the same official -- the governor -- he was supposed to be watching.
Note: I'm on the road today. Light to no posting from me. Others should feel free to post away.
