It’s been a swift fall from grace for New York’s new governor, Eliot Spitzer, who took office in January with 69 percent of the vote and (many think) visions of a future presidential run. Spitzer vowed, as a candidate, that “on Day One” of his administration, “everything changes.” But little has changed in scandal-rich Albany. Spitzer is now involved in an affaire some are calling Troopergate, and the governor is being compared to Richard Nixon. [Full disclosure: I worked as Policy Director for Tom Suozzi, the Nassau County Executive who ran against Spitzer for the Democratic nomination.]
Spitzer stormed into office with a series of high profile and frequently profane battles with the powers-that-be, calling himself a “f***ing steamroller” and State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno “a senile piece of sh*t.” Name-calling helped shore up Spitzer’s reform credentials even as he signed a budget that dramatically increased spending, and dressed up anodyne compromises as bold reforms. Now it appears that high-ranking members of Spitzer’s administration concocted a scheme to take out Bruno, his chief legislative antagonist. Spitzer’s team leaked state police records of Bruno’s frequent use of state planes and helicopters to the Albany Times Union.
