Roger Stone, Republican astroturfer and Joe Bruno surrogate, is a nasty piece of work:

Lawyers representing Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s father, Bernard Spitzer, say a prominent political consultant who has been working for State Senate Republicans threatened the elder Mr. Spitzer this month in an anonymous, invective-laced phone message.

The allegations against the consultant, Roger J. Stone Jr., were laid out in a letter sent Tuesday to Senator George H. Winner Jr., an upstate Republican who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times.

What kind of man is Stone? The kind who would say these things to an 83-year-old man:

In the message, the caller says, referring to a potential subpoena: “There is not a goddamn thing your phony, psycho, piece-of-shit son can do about it. Bernie, your phony loans are about to catch up with you. You will be forced to tell the truth and the fact that your son’s a pathological liar will be known to all.”

What does he say in his defense? That, obviously, Spitzer's people infiltrated his apartment and simulated his voice to make the calls. Seriously, that's what he's claiming. I'm surprised he didn't try to pin the blame on the CIA, the Trilateral Commission, and the World Wildlife Fund.