NYP: BRUNO IN ETHICS ATTACK (on Spitzer and Democrat front groups)

New York Post ^ | January 19, 2007 | FREDRIC U. DICKER

[OESY]

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno yesterday angrily blasted the leaders of the state's best-known good-government groups as "hard-core Democratic operatives" who have given a pass to Gov. Spitzer's "unethical" campaign practices.

Bruno (R-Rensselaer) also accused Spitzer's top political aides of "pressuring people" for contributions of $25,000 or more on behalf of Democratic efforts to win a special Senate election scheduled for Feb 6.

Bruno blasted Spitzer a day earlier for sponsoring a $25,000-a-person fund-raising event despite Spitzer having recently limited contributions to his own campaign committee to $10,000. Yesterday, Bruno said he was outraged that good-government groups that advocate for campaign-finance reform had failed to criticize the Democratic governor.

"What I'd like to know is, where are the good government groups?" a clearly angry Bruno declared on WROW-AM in Albany.

"Silent, that's where they are. Let's tell it like it is. Many of them are hard-core Democratic operatives who want to defeat Republicans, and I am inviting them now to call in to give their opinion."

Bruno said his criticism was aimed at the New York Public Interest Research Group, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, groups that lobby state government for campaign-contribution limits.

NYPIRG legislative director Blair Horner responded by ripping Bruno as "the leading opponent to campaign reform."

But he also criticized Spitzer, saying the governor's fund-raising efforts on behalf of the Democratic Party were proof that "the system stinks."

Bruno refused to say who on Spitzer's staff allegedly pressured potential contributors, although a senior Republican pointed the finger at Rich Baum, the governor's chief of staff.

But Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp flatly denied that Baum had made any fund-raising calls.

[OESY]

NY Post Albany reporter, Frederic Dicker, a fierce critic of New York Republicans, takes a dismissive attitude toward this developing scandal. Don't hold your breather for Dicker to dig into these allegations of corruption by Spitzer. He does, however, expose many of the ethics organizations as merely fronts for getting Democrats elected. I wonder how many Dicker has joined.

[Gay State Conservative]

I'd wager everything I have that Emerson had Spitzer in mind when he wrote "the louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted the spoons."

[Nervous Tick]

Troy, home of RPI, has a (R) state senator? Who knew?

And he hates Spitzer, too?

COOL!!!