James Taranto has an op ed up as of yesterday that will interest those of you who noted our posting on the Joe Bruno/Elliot Spitzer/Andrew Cuomo thing here in NY, yesterday.
Culture of Corruption
Imagine if top aides to President Bush ordered the FBI to produce damaging but false information about Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader. Now that would be a scandal. And that is what is happening in New York state, as the New York Post reports:Gov. [Eliot] Spitzer suspended a top aide and reassigned another yesterday after Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released a bombshell report concluding they conspired with the State Police to damage Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno by cooking up a plot claiming he misused state aircraft.
Spitzer, who had recently insisted that neither his staff nor the State Police had acted improperly, said communications director Darren Dopp was suspended without pay for an “indefinite period” of at least 30 days.
William Howard, the governor’s assistant secretary for homeland security, will be reassigned to a position outside of the governor’s staff.
Cuomo’s report also recommended disciplinary action be considered against acting State Police Superintendent Preston Felton, but none was taken.
The scathing, 53-page report detailed a months-long scheme in which Dopp, Howard, and Felton–at times with the partial knowledge of Spitzer chief of staff Richard Baum–used the State Police to gather and create misleading and inaccurate records on Bruno’s use of state aircraft to travel from Albany to Manhattan in hopes of showing he was using the flights strictly for political purposes, a possibly illegal action. . . .
The report confirmed a week’s worth of investigative stories in The Post beginning July 5 that found aides to Spitzer, including Dopp, used the State Police as, in effect, a spy agency as part of a broad conspiracy aimed at destroying Bruno.
For what it’s worth, Spitzer is a Democrat and Bruno is a Republican. The New York Times, in covering the report, described Spitzer as ” a former prosecutor who came into office less than seven months ago with a reputation for integrity and who promised to bring a new ethical climate to Albany.”
Says Taranto:
The Post’s scoop and its consequences are an object lesson in the importance of an independent press in holding public officials accountable.
Well, I don’t know is I go quite that far. It’s only a matter of import, if consequences ensue. Since the attorney general in this case is also a Democrat, it’s pretty much a given, but Spitzer is facing no consequences whatever. Still, he has a point as regards the mainstream media versus an independent paper. The New York Times, predictably, is playing its usual game of “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no truth, if it involves a Democrat”. Says Surber as regards the Times Coverage:
A few days late and a few dollars short, the New York Times finally reported today: “Spitzer Aides Cited for Use of Police to Tarnish Bruno.”
Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s political affiliation is disclosed in the 7th paragraph. Maybe that’s how newspapers should handle the political affiliation of fallen Democrats: Gov. Spitzer, 7th paragraph-N.Y.
Unless the shouting gets real out on this from other sources, my take is that this will be the last time we’ll see this entire situation mentioned in the New York Times. I can’t imagine that non-reaction were Pataki still in office, can you? We both know the Times would be leading the Lynch mob.
Tags: BitsBlog, Corruption, Democrats
