Search
Savino: "He has to fire them"
There's an overlooked news story in the Staten Island Advance that I'd suggest is a harbinger of things to come:
A scathing report from state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo this week said top Spitzer aides plotted to smear GOP Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno by leaking information to the press about Bruno's alleged improper use of state aircraft.
In the wake of the report, Spitzer suspended Darren Dopp, his longtime communications director, for 30 days without pay. William Howard, deputy secretary for security, was reassigned within state government, while Richard Baum, Spitzer's chief of staff, was not punished.
While satisfied with Spitzer's initial response, Ms. Savino said that subsequent developments, including the revelation that Dopp and Baum refused to testify under oath for Cuomo's investigation, have caused her to change her mind.
Failing to fire Baum, Dopp and Howard, she said, "will cripple (Spitzer's) governorship going forward."
Spitzer, she said, has to "restore people's belief in him as the sheriff of Albany."
"The people who voted for him last year believed that he was going to be the one who stood up to everybody that they couldn't stand up to," she said. "That's the belief he has to protect."
Diane Savino is, of course, the head of the DSCC, the organization charged with taking back the State Senate in 2008.
my thoughts
I have a post up in the open forum section with my thoughts on this. I think it's worth a read.
http://dailygotham.com/forum/whats_so/my_take_on_the_current_spitzer_bru...
Well, I disagree with you, Wants So,
I do not think the key issue here is that Gov. Spitzer is a good guy and Senator Bruno is a bad guy.
Gov. Spitzer &/or his very close aides misused public resources for partisan gain. That stinks; when done by people costumed as "reformers" a touch of humor is added. The fact that I (or you) are mostly on Mr. Spitzer's side, doesn't make the misdeeds more palatable; it makes the misdeeds less palatable.
The idea that Mr. Spitzer's aides should refuse to give sworn testimony makes the whole thing stink to high heaven. Why is Mr. Spitzer defending this course of action? The inevitable suspicion is that there are worse things being concealed.
At least as I see it, Democrats in NYS have a reasonable chance at significant election victory in 2008. We can blow the chance or we can keep our eyes on the key issues -- the policy differences that a progressive governor and a progressive legislature could achieve if they were willing to work together. Do you, does anyone believe that Mr. Spitzer is keeping his eye on the ball here? Only if the ball game is self-preservation and there is something ghastly out there waiting for Mr. Bruno to find.