Free Republic

A number of years ago -- almost all the way back, it seems, to the birth of Jeannie herself -- there was a script by "National Treasure" writers Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, who sought to offer a feature take on the Barbara Eden-Larry Hagman series. That didn't work out, so Sony brought on "Mulan" writer Rita Hsiao. That didn't make the grade either. "Bend It Like Beckham" director Gurinder Chadha was signed on to direct at one point, then fell off. Linsday Lohan was on board to star as Jeannie. That one really didn't work out. At some point the...

(Albany - WABC, November 3, 2006) - Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office determined Comptroller Alan Hevesi owes the state at least $90,000 more for the use of a staffer as a driver for his wife, lawyers for Hevesi said Friday. A Hevesi official says the comptroller delivered a check for that amount later in the day. Officials say Spitzer aides ordered the money placed in escrow until an investigation is completed. The order to pay the additional money comes as Hevesi seeks re-election to a second term while dealing with the driver scandal that has damaged his standing in the...

Pataki appoints special prosecutor Albany — Gov. George Pataki appointed a special prosecutor yesterday to kick off an extraordinary process that could lead to embattled state Comptroller Alan Hevesi being forced from office for using a state worker as his wife's private driver. Pataki asked David Kelley, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to help him decide within a week whether to make the unprecedented request of the Republican-controlled state Senate to vote for Hevesi's removal. "It is an extraordinary act for officials to overturn an election of a statewide elected official after a vote by...

--snip-- He is also a conservative on nonfiscal matters, whose political views would put him at odds with many New Yorkers. In interviews and in this week’s debate, he has been extremely unimpressive, hardly the man whom voters would normally want to hire as the state’s chief fiscal officer and sole trustee of New York’s $140 billion pension fund. But one of the main jobs of the comptroller is to make sure people who handle taxpayers’ money understand the very clear line between their personal expenditures and the public treasury. There is no way Mr. Hevesi can fulfill that vital...

Looking out your window this morning, don't be surprised to find not one, but two pigs flying, in tidy formation. As we noted here, on yesterday's 'Today' show, Matt Lauer eschewed the Rush-bashing bandwagon that developed in response to El Rushbo's remarks about the Michael J. Fox ad. As Matt put it: "if Michael Fox goes out there politically and puts himself into the fray, he has to expect to be, you know, taken to account."If that was enough for Hell's equivalent of Al Roker to issue a frost warning, an editorial in this morning's NY Times is enough to...

On Tuesday morning, Chris Callaghan got something he had been asking for since July. State Comptroller Alan Hevesi agreed to debate Callaghan right away. But Hevesi's Republican challenger, largely unknown until Monday morning, suddenly was too busy. His schedule was packed and he had a fundraiser Tuesday night. Instead, the two will debate tonight. Things started looking up for Callaghan, a 59-year-old, bow-tie-wearing government accountant, on Monday. That's when the state Ethics Commission accused Hevesi of breaking the law by using a state employee to drive around his ailing wife. Within a half-hour of the report's release, the state Republican...

J. Christopher Callaghan, the Republican candidate for New York State comptroller, has a secret friend. “I don’t know his name,” Mr. Callaghan said in an interview. But one thing is clear: For some reason, he said, the person clearly despises his opponent, the incumbent, Alan G. Hevesi, a Democrat. It was this secret friend who whispered rumors to Mr. Callaghan that Mr. Hevesi’s wife was being driven around by a state employee at taxpayer expense. When Mr. Callaghan made the charges public last week, his long-shot candidacy was given new life, and Mr. Hevesi was forced to apologize. The comptroller...

DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF Republicans are gloating that Democratic state Controller Alan Hevesi's chauffeur scandal is driving up donations to his GOP opponent. Chris Callaghan began the race with only a paltry campaign war chest but has seen a sharp uptick in contributions as a result of the revelation that Hevesi used a state employee to chauffeur his ailing wife, Carol, Republican officials said yesterday. "We're just now seeing a huge increase in donations for Chris," said state GOP Executive Director Ryan Moses. "People are telling us they are very upset that Alan Hevesi stole money from New York...

<p>The trashing of the idea of commemorating the great Marine Fighter Pilot, Greg "Pappy" Boyington, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, by the student leadership of his alma mater, the University of Washington, is nasty and ignorant.</p> <p>A student leader proclaims she "didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce." Another complains "many monuments at UW already commemorate rich white men."</p>

The past may be, as L. P. Hartley wrote, another country, but it’s rarely as foreign as Britain in the l970s. Viewed from the United Kingdom of 2005, the day before yesterday is a banana republic without the weather. Inflation was up over 25 percent, marginal tax rates were up over 90 percent, and the only thing heading in the other direction was the pound, which nosedived so suddenly in 1976 that the chancellor of the exchequer, en route to an International Monetary Fund meeting, was summoned back from the departure lounge at Heathrow to try to talk his currency...