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A Special Counsel for Spitzer
WSJ ^ | August 2, 2007 | JOSEPH L. BRUNO

Posted on 08/02/2007 5:26:48 AM PDT by Brilliant

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is now traveling the state trying to put a scandal behind him...

Here's what we know, thanks to some enterprising reporting ...and an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo: Two close advisers to the governor apparently used the New York State Police to carry out a political smear campaign against me by creating documents designed to generate negative press reports... And it nearly worked.

...there is only one way forward for Mr. Spitzer. He needs to support a full airing of the truth. That support must include publicly testifying under oath, and making advisers available to publicly testify under oath, as part of an independent investigation...

The abuse of power now being alleged is a very serious... It is especially damaging because the scandal involves misusing state troopers and alleged misconduct by the governor's top aides... New Yorkers have made it clear ...that they believe the governor knew about the smear campaign and should publicly testify about what he knew and when he knew it.

It is troubling that a governor who campaigned on ethics, openness and accountability, is now trying to sweep the "Troopergate" matter under the rug. But it is not surprising... It is just the most serious example of a pattern of behavior...

When Mr. Spitzer took office ...the Republican Senate majority ...pledged to work with him on critical issues... But we quickly found that we did not have a willing partner. We found a man who did not respect opposing viewpoints and who verbally threatened those who disagreed...

...the governor has refused to work in a bipartisan manner. Instead, he has politicized his office like no other governor in history. Rather than negotiating and compromising with people who challenged him, Mr. Spitzer tried to eliminate them...

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: bruno; bully; eliotspitzer; ratcorruption; socialist; spitzer
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To: rawhide
How serious are the voters taking this in New York?

You're talking about a voting population that was stupid enough to elect this idiot, not to mention Hitlery Clinton. They won't take this too seriously. They drink the koolaid from the socialist trough of the Grey Lady, and are presumably too stupid to tie their own shoe laces without a government grant.

21 posted on 08/02/2007 6:00:30 AM PDT by meyer (It's the entitlements, stupid!)
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To: Travis McGee
"At his core, Spitzer is a fascist goon who will destroy anyone to advance his power-lust."

And I bet that's why we haven't seen many (if any) high profile NY dems come rushing to his defense. The guy is so vicious even his political synchophants think he's a jerk and are probably getting no small satisfaction watching him squirm.

22 posted on 08/02/2007 6:01:44 AM PDT by joebuck
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To: xcamel
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550991/posts

New Threat Charge Leveled vs. Spitzer (gov't powers used to terrorize Hannity--Sean has audiotape)

23 posted on 08/02/2007 6:02:19 AM PDT by mware (By all that you hold dear..on this good earth... I bid you stand! Men of the West!)
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To: mware
He actually threatened to use all the power of his office against Sean Hannity once. Luckily Seans producer had the comment on tape and Spitzer backtracked saying he did not mean it the way it sounded.

The vigilant citizen should be armed with not only a sidearm but a tape recorder, video camera, and/or still camera at all times. We need to keep these thugs in check.

24 posted on 08/02/2007 6:02:36 AM PDT by meyer (It's the entitlements, stupid!)
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To: Brilliant
I wouldn't give a bucket of cold goat phlem for ANY of the actors in this drama.
25 posted on 08/02/2007 6:03:47 AM PDT by Roccus (Who knows? Who cares? Why bother?)
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To: mware

Yup.. That one too...
Anyone read Joe Bruno’s full text?


26 posted on 08/02/2007 6:04:39 AM PDT by xcamel ("It's Talk Thompson Time!" >> irc://irc.freenode.net/fredthompson)
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To: Roccus

phlem -S/B- phlegm


27 posted on 08/02/2007 6:05:57 AM PDT by Roccus (Who knows? Who cares? Why bother?)
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To: xcamel

Not a subscriber so I can not read the whole thing.


28 posted on 08/02/2007 6:07:15 AM PDT by mware (By all that you hold dear..on this good earth... I bid you stand! Men of the West!)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

New Yorkers love authoritarian government.


29 posted on 08/02/2007 6:08:31 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Brilliant

Keep in mind that the author of this piece, Senator Bruno, has an agenda of his own.

Not that Elliot Spitzer isn’t a slimeball - he certainly is.


30 posted on 08/02/2007 6:10:44 AM PDT by Redbob (WWJBD -"What would Jack Bauer do?")
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To: Redbob

Bruno’s no angel, but he’s not Governor, either. Personally, I don’t care who takes down Spitzer, as long as someone does. A guy like Spitzer should not be Governor in any state.


31 posted on 08/02/2007 6:12:49 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: mware
Spitzer backtracked saying he did not mean it the way it sounded

My memory's too fuzzy here, but my recollection is that Spitzer never means anything the way it sounded -- once he's called on it!

32 posted on 08/02/2007 6:13:42 AM PDT by maryz
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To: Brilliant
"The truth is that what Spitzer did is done by every Democrat. Spitzer is just less subtle, and therefore got caught."

Yep. Cuomo could be found guilty of the same charge.

Hmmm...on the other hand, nothing happens when Democrats DO get caught. Look at all the abuses of power committed by the Clinton administration, rapes and bodies everywhere. What happened to him? In the end, he was only impeached for perjuring himself over Monica, and THEN congress wussed rather than forcing him to resign. (Lucky for us in the short run, since it saved us from President Al "Cow Fart" Gore.

33 posted on 08/02/2007 6:14:23 AM PDT by cake_crumb (May I never live to see the day America has a 'popular war'. God bless our troops.)
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To: Brilliant
"Personally, I don’t care who takes down Spitzer, as long as someone does. A guy like Spitzer should not be Governor in any state."

Agreed, They guy acts as though he's working toward the presidency. That is a scary thought.

34 posted on 08/02/2007 6:18:41 AM PDT by cake_crumb (May I never live to see the day America has a 'popular war'. God bless our troops.)
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To: meyer

New Threat Charge Leveled vs. Spitzer (gov’t powers used to terrorize Hannity—Sean has audiotape)
NY Post ^ | January 3, 2006 | FREDRIC U. DICKER

Posted on 01/03/2006 7:54:11 AM EST by Liz

EXCLUSIVE

AG General Eliot Spitzer is being accused again of threatening to use his office to punish an opponent — this time, nationally syndicated radio talk-show host Sean Hannity.

Eric Stanger.....said Spitzer was a telephone guest on the Hannity show in 2000 and at first hung up in anger in response to comments made by the conservative-oriented host.

“A minute later, the hot line was ringing. It was Spitzer, very angry, very agitated, very upset....’Let me tell you something: I fully intend to use the capacity of my office to act on this,’ “ Stanger told The Post.

“I was really floored, and I said, ‘Is that a threat, sir?’ “ ......Spitzer “quickly changed his tone,” insisting, “No, no, no. It’s not a threat.”

.......Spitzer then threatened to organize a boycott of the Hannity show, saying, “ ‘I have a lot of friends in government, and I’m going to organize a boycott of the show.’ And then he hung up.”

Stanger said he immediately went on the air and described what had occurred, noting that “Sean definitely took it as a threat.”

Stanger told The Post the alleged threat reminded him of the charges now being leveled by Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Chairman John Whitehead......

.....Hannity has ordered that a search be made for the audiotape of the incident and, if found, may play it on his show this week.

A Spitzer spokesman complained Hannity made outrageous attacks on Hillary [Clinton]...........

.......Whitehead, former chairman of Goldman Sachs and longtime GOP contributor, leveled his bombshell charge that, after writing an opinion piece for The WSJ, he received a call from Spitzer.

Spitzer said, “.... it’s now a war between us and you’ve fired the first shot . . . I will be coming after you. You will pay the price.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


35 posted on 08/02/2007 6:19:13 AM PDT by mware (By all that you hold dear..on this good earth... I bid you stand! Men of the West!)
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To: Pharmboy
He is like a combination of Bill and Hill in one scary person: smart, ruthless, holier than thou, self-possessed AND a liar.

That's the best description I've heard of him yet.

One thing they have that he doesn't: patience.

President Clinton was happy to wait out seven gubernatorial terms until the time was ripe for national office.

Senator Clinton was happy to wait out 8 years of President Bush before taking her shot.

Spitzer has no patience.

He went to Harvard Law.

He became an associate at Paul Weiss and stayed there just long enough to get the necessary experience to get a job in the DA's office - less than two years.

At the DA's office his sole goal was to become an ADA chief as quickly as possible - rather than wait his turn to be assigned to a big case, he convinced Morgenthau to let him set up his own major sting operation - and only told the cops about it later. He then worked the media hard crowing about his "get" and Morgenthau gave him the position of ADA chief in charge of labor racketeering.

He was barely in that job for a year before he quit to become a partner at Skadden Arps in order to reestablish corporate contacts and prepare for a run for Attorney General on the strength of his ADA experience.

He quit Skadden after 18 months and campaigned hard. He lost.

He then spent four years in private practice preparing for another run - his longest period of relative inactivity.

He won the AG election in 1998, got reelected in 2002 and then ran for governor at the earliest opportunity.

If he had been elected AG in 1994 he would have run for governor in 2000 and would have run for President in 2004: that was his game plan.

His plan until this happened was to run for President in 2012.

As an ADA he intefered in the state police's jurisdiction to aggrandize himself.

As AG he interfered in the SEC and Federal prosecutor's jurisdictions to aggrandize himself.

As Governor he has ovverreached again, trying to usurp the power of the Senate.

The Clintons learned from their Hillarycare lesson.

Spitzer hasn't learned his lesson yet.

36 posted on 08/02/2007 6:23:36 AM PDT by wideawake
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To: mware

Acting Superintendent Preston Felton....appointed by E.Mess! Wonder what it will take to turn this acting sup’t?
Oh boy, I hope the NY R’s can get the Mess out!!
Herr Spitzer needs to go!


37 posted on 08/02/2007 6:27:43 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: rawhide

The Albany Times Union, which I’d say is further to the left than the NYT and was the paper complicit in the fraud, ran two editorials from the editors one on top of the other yesterday.

The top editorial whined that an investigation is unwarranted, that NY should focus on problems, not investigations on Spitzer. News articles regarding the issue focus on how the Republicans are wasting time and being partisan.

The bottom editorial cried out for investigations into the US Attorney firings and the misleading statemtents by Gonzales, ignoring the possibility his statements could be true and that the President had every right to fire the attorneys no matter the reasoning.


38 posted on 08/02/2007 6:30:45 AM PDT by soloNYer
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To: bert

This would be a great time for Spitzer to endorse Hillary for President.


39 posted on 08/02/2007 6:34:20 AM PDT by no dems (Dear God, how long are you going to let Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd and John Conyers live?)
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To: Brilliant

Spitzer is one part arrogance and two parts ambition. It is heartwarming to see the son of Mario the Pious getting a pit bull grip on his throat. They are both fighting to be NY leader of the young Dems.


40 posted on 08/02/2007 6:43:26 AM PDT by Inwoodian
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