Henry J. Stern
Monday, August 20, 2007
Day One. Everything Changes.
Day 232. "Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first
we practice to deceive." Sir Walter Scott, 1808
The dream that began on January 1 in Albany is turning into a nightmare.
Like Nixon after Watergate, the Spitzer administration is compelled to defend
itself against a horde of insects biting away at the Governor. It is difficult
to conduct state business when one's principal concerns are preventing your
own impeachment and avoiding possible perjury.
What is ironic about all this is that nobody stole anything, nobody was bribed,
there was no violence. In fact no conventional crimes were committed. The
initial offense alleged sounds like a video game, "Grand Theft Chopper".
Yet the copter wasn't stolen, it was just borrowed, and since there were
no written rules on what it could be borrowed for, the free rider, Senate
Leader Joe Bruno, could not be faulted legally.
Bruno's actions in politics, not his policies, are considered by many to
be unethical. To make them illegal, crimes must be proven beyond a
reasonable doubt. Using a state plane for politics is the least of
his alleged sins. In any event, the federal case against Bruno was
being made by the United States Attorney, a high-ranking official of the
US Department of Justice. But can anyone with sophistication
reasonably believe that our Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, will prosecute
the senior surviving Republican in the State of New York?
It is not unreasonable to us that the Governor tried to document Bruno's
misuse of the state plane by having agents following him around. If
this is to be done, the State Police are the obvious people to do it.
Should the Governor be required to hire private detectives or bounty hunters
to see that State resources are not being used for illegal private purposes?
After all, what are the police for? To catch criminals and prevent
crime. If someone stole the state copter, they would try to get it
back. Inappropriate and illegal use is short-term stealing, equivalent
to a teenager taking someone else's car for a joyride without the owner's
permission.
Feeding the story to the press, in this case the Albany Times-Union, is no
big deal either. A good number of stories about government are leaks,
either by insiders or by outsiders who want to overthrow the current insiders.
If every press secretary were sworn to tell the truth at all times, probably
very little would be said.
In this case, the problem began when, after the news of the troopers watching
Bruno's travels was published, Spitzer said it was a mistake
by Darren Dopp, his press secretary, and that he knew nothing about it.
That is a preposterous fabrication, as anyone in politics knows. There
are e-mails from Dopp to Richard Baum, the governor's principal deputy and
alter ego. The idea that these key staff members would have hatched
such a dangerous plan and risked such negative exposure without telling their
boss is contrary to human nature and the way public business is conducted.
The only point of fact genuinely in doubt is whether Spitzer concocted the
scheme, or simply consented to it.
The governor should have stood up and said, I was in on it, it was well-intentioned
but inappropriate and I'm sorry. Instead he apologized for what happened,
but only faulted himself for having command responsibility. We urged
him to tell the truth back on
July 24, the first
time we wrote about the matter. "Our advice to the governor is simple:
tell the whole truth immediately, and hope you will be allowed to make a
fresh start.
On July 27, under the headline, "
All We Are Saying Is
Give Truth A Chance," we again called on him to be candid, but
without much hope. "The governor didn't take the advice we offered
[three] days ago....Instead, he went to the editorial board of the Daily
News with a limited denial that seemed calculated to avoid the perjury trap."
We concluded: "It is unfortunate that the high hopes of Day One turned into
a squalid squabble by Day 207. For responsible people, resuming real
work cannot happen too soon. But knowing human nature, we believe the
spectacle will continue until the last shred of the governor's reputation
has beeen tattered, or until he seizes the initiative by telling the truth."
The most recent ploy in the burgeoning scandal was reported by Michael M.
Grynbaum in Saturday's Times (Aug 18).
ETHICS
PANEL SUBPOENAS REPORTER IN SCANDAL. The lede: "In an extremely
rare move, the State Ethics Commission issued a subpoena this week to a reporter
involved in the ethics scandal surrounding Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a signal that
a full investigation into actions of the governor's staff is under way.
The subpoena calls for James Odato, a Statehouse reporter for The Times Union
of Albany, to appear before the commission next week. A lawyer for
the newspaper said it did not plan to cooperate."
In our judgment, in this case the Times Union is right. It is
one thing to compel a reporter to name sources when the safety of our nation
is at stake. It is totally different to break the bond of confidentiality
between reporter and source when the subject of controversy is no more than
a local political squabble. An attempt to use the subpoena powers of
the State Ethics Commission in this manner is, almost unethical. If
reporters are to be compelled to rat out their sources on every story, it
would be impossible for anybody to complain about genuine evils and injustices
without fear that their identities will be disclosed and that they will be
subject to retribution.
However, that is just the tip of the iceberg in this mare's nest.(mixed metaphor).:Rule
29-E: "Everybody wants to get into the act." Between the State
Attorney General (and gubernatorial aspirant) Cuomo, the Albany DA (and Hevesi-killer)
Soares, the newly created State Ethics Commission and the State Senate, there
will be a multiplicity of inquiries as long as newspapers are willing to
report on them. And with all these sources using staff time and
resources to look into a situation, there will be a deeply-felt need to indict
someone, simply to show that their investigation was not a waste of money.
Since Scooter Libby and Scooter Rizzuto are no longer available, the gumshoes
and the wannabes who employ them must find other targets for their prosecutorial
zeal.
While these dramas take their course, it is highly unlikely that the principals
will be able to transact much state business. Just as the pace of national
affairs slowed during the Watergate proceedings, the Three Men in a Room
will be unlikely to reach substantive agreements if two of them are trying
to send each other to jail. It is enormously sad that the high hopes of Day
One have turned to ashes by Day 232.
The situation was thoroughly discussed in an article by Daily News columnist
Michael Goodwin and Cooper Union history professor Fred Siegel, both urban
intellectuals. Their article appeared in, of all places, the Weekly Standard,
a magazine published by the new owner of the Wall Street Journal. The
essay, called
Troopergate,
New York-Style, Eliot Spitzer's Character Problem is dated August 20.
Its 4017 words comprise a devastating indictment of the governor's character
and judgment. Read it and weep. But never forget that in most of us
there is opportunity for correction and growth.
We write from the point of view of building things up. Sometimes bad
things must be torn down before good things can be built. Sometimes
redemption is possible. What is apparently happening is that the governor
hopes that only his closest aides, who have a stake in his future, will be
able to cause him perjury problems. Rule 911: "Plausible deniability."
Meanwhile, press secretary Darren Dopp, suspended without pay, has a mortgage
to pay and kids to educate. We hope he gets a decent job so he
can have an income. No man's or woman's children should go hungry because
a caper intended to be in the public interest did not work out as planned.
Certainly not if his boss had any idea of what he was doing.
This article is written in sorrow, not in anger. Many of us supported Eliot
Spitzer for Governor, believing that he provided the best chance for reform
in a generation. It hasn’t worked out that way. What we would
like to do is restore the momentum he requires to lead effectively.
For this to happen, his cooperation is needed. Hopefully he will survive
this assault, if only because the alternatives are unappealing. We
want him to pull through. Others may not, we do.
There is an issue. As he told Michael Goodwin, "I'm the governor of
the state. I'll be Lyndon Johnson. I'll craft the deals and I'll
get the job done. You will write and I will do. That's why you're
here and I'm there." That attitude is part of the problem. If
you have such thoughts (and some of us do), keep them to yourself.
If the governor fully understands the problem, his friends can help
him find the solution. And it shouldn't take twelve steps.
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