| There's plenty of coverage this morning of the "Air Bruno" flap. Here's a sampling from around the state:
The Albany Times Union:
Interest grows in Bruno's travels
Soares, Cuomo seek documents on senator's flights; Spitzer orders review of alleged threats
The flap surrounding Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno's use of state aircraft widened Monday, with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Albany County District Attorney David Soares requesting documents related to the Brunswick Republican's flights to New York City on state aircraft.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer's office also ordered State Police to conduct a formal "threat assessment," which could clarify whether Bruno was entitled to State Police drivers who transported him from New York City airports and helipads to his destinations in the city.
...
Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp said Bruno's requests for police escorts were in New York City, not the Capitol Region. Dopp also said Bruno has a "standing request" that police be allowed to use their sirens and emergency lights when they drive him in New York City to speed his progress through traffic.
"Numerous times he requests lights and sirens and we say no," Dopp said, explaining that even the governor doesn't get such escorts.
A "standing request" that cops use their sirens and lights so he can get to fund raisers around NYC faster? Whatever, Uncle Joe.
Investigating Air Bruno
There was state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, indignantly demanding the resignation of then-state Comptroller Alan Hevesi last fall for using state employees as drivers and aides for his wife. When the question came up as to whether Mr. Bruno had also used state employees as drivers, he dismissed it as inappropriate.
Almost a year later, the answers to similar, and entirely appropriate, questions about Mr. Bruno's use of state resources reveal that he can't dodge such questions. Mr. Bruno seems to have no reservations about using state-owned helicopters to fly to political fundraisers in Manhattan, or having the State Police chauffeur him and his aides around.
Nothing short of a vigorous inquiry by a government entity with enforcement power can satisfy the questions that arise when it's clear that Mr. Bruno requested the use of the state's helicopters for "legislative business meetings."
...
It's well worth remembering that Mr. Bruno is not, say, the governor, with whom he has engaged in a power struggle that overshadows so much of state government. He's instead one of the leaders of an ostensibly part-time Legislature.
The New York Times
State-Financed Trips Weren’t Improper, Bruno Says
Mr. Bruno also said he used State Police transportation in part because he was the target of threats.
“They told me, the authorities, not to open mail at my home at times, not to open packages,” he said
He said a “deranged” man had been stopped outside of his office door once. “He was trying to get in, and when they asked him he said he was going to kill me,” he said. “So, you know, give me a break.”
Newsday
Spitzer wants Bruno's travel records reviewed
"I'm not concerned about anything," he told reporters. "We have not done anything illegal, we have not done anything improper." Asked whether he'd ever used state aircraft only for political events, Bruno said: "Of course not. That would be just plain stupid.
The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
Bruno rips Spitzer: Governor a 'dictator'
"That would be just plain stupid ... It would be criminal. It would be dumb. It is dumb for anybody stupid enough to allege that somebody would do that," he said.
I'll be posting the most hilarious and bizarre bruno quotes of the last 24 hours shortly. I think Uncle Joe is losin' it...
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