It begins with the varying descriptions of the issues complex. Is it Troopergate, Spitzergate, just generically The Mess, or my preferred moniker, Albany-Business-As-Usual-Gate?
To members of New York's jaded and cynical political class, the issues are clear: Governor Spitzer, whom many of that same class viewed with distrust verging on enmity in the first place, has fallen. He is revealed as a mere mortal, flawed, like all others, and therefore, his cause, that of the reform and revitalization of New York State, is discredited. Imperfect messengers cannot be, must not be allowed to be, vehicles of change. Whether this serves the people of New York, or merely nourishes the sense of indispensability on the part of that political class, remains something of an unanswered question; but if you consider the status quo in Albany, and then take into account that these same tools of the status quo, the Op-Ed writers and columnists, legislators and lobbyists, uphold that status quo and are invested in its iron-clad continuance, I'd opt for the latter option. The disconnect between the two sides of the Washington Beltway is the stuff of sinister legend; the New York Beltway is as real as its national counterpart, even if it's not physical, merely an archipelago of Albany offices and City newsrooms.
There is a scandal in Troopergate. It is not, however, the readily apparent one, certainly not the one that the Murdoch Post is trumpeting.
The real scandal is that strictly non-criminal behavior on the part of some governmental aides, directed at another member of a different branch of government, one laboring under Federal investigation for corruption, is being used as a foil by a partisan majority to derail the agenda and the governor that 69% of New Yorkers voted for last November. This, mind you, by a partisan Senate majority that collectively received fewer votes than the Senate minority.
In this, of course, Bruno and the gang are assisted and enabled by a lazy, complicit press corps enamored with the formulaic, wooden forms of political reportage that have, in turn, caused the mainstream media to lose so much of its once stellar reputation. There is a battle going on, no doubt: but Spitzer vs. Bruno doesn't begin to describe it. Rather, the opposing forces are those of reform of this state, the one that the voters demanded last year, and those who would prefer to keep things as they are, slowly rotting this state into oblivion. Some deck chairs on the Titanic are very comfortable, and still far away enough from the waterline to pretend that everything will be fine.
There is a scandal here. You're just not hearing about it.
