Henry J. Stern
September 26, 2007

The melodramatic farce, Bruno v. Spitzer et al., continues its slow procession through the slime of Albany. People are losing interest in the semi-scandal, a situation which is usually better news for the accused than for the accuser..

“Troopergate”, as it has imaginatively been titled, is a textbook case of much ado about relatively little, but not nothing. You may have noticed that it supplanted "Choppergate" as the name for the kerfuffle (or contretemps, if you prefer French to Gaelic). Choppergate suggests the misuse of the state plane and helicopter, Troopergate deals with the alleged misuse of state troopers to investigate the alleged misuse of the plane.

The most recent nuggest is an article on p5 of today's Sun by Jacob Gershman. Its straightforward headline is REPUBLICANS FIND FLAWS IN SCANDAL REPORT. The lede: Senate Republicans are calling to what they say is a blatant inconsistency in a report clearing the Spitzer administration of any wrongdoing in the state police scandal, issued by the Albany County district attorney, David Soares." The Sun story includes considerable detail about the matter, which conspiracy buffs are invited to examine by clicking here.

We proceed to examine what has happened so far, and report on a public opinion poll on the matter, conducted at Siena. Read on, and become an expert yourself.

It is by now generally known that the governor's men used state troopers to track the majority leader's use of a state plane. The public believes, by a 3-1 margin, that the governor himself was in on the plot, although he denies it. Spitzer may have concocted the plan, consented to it, or been blindsided by overeager staff members. We ask what difference does it make? If Spitzer did not want Bruno to use the plane, he could have grounded him, just as Pataki did when the two men fell out in 2006 over horse racing issues.  If Spitzer wanted to document Bruno's primarily partisan purpose in flying from Albany to New York City to attend political meetings, while adding some public business as a figleaf, he had every right to do so.

Nonetheless, Spitzer booted Assistant Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security William F. Howard out of the executive chamber and suspended Communications Director Darren Dopp on July 23. Something must have been wrong for him to take his nearest and dearest press officer and throw him to the wolves, at least temporarily. The governor publicly apologized on July 29 for his failure to oversee what was going on in his office. 

Yet now the Albany County District Attorney, David Soares, who in late December found Comptroller Alan Hevesi guilty of a felony for misusing a state car and drive, declares that there is absolutely nothing wrong with all the machinations and concealment about the scrutiny of the plane.  He gave Spitzer and his staff a clean bill of health, while Spitzer himself had apologized for his oversight, which some felt was an understatement... 

We do not know which is worse: the inquisitor before whom everyone is guilty, like Savonarola or Torquemada, or the Three Monkeys, see, hear and speak no evil, before whom everyone is innocent. Probably Soares, who was the Working Families Party candidate for DA against the Democratic organization, represnts both worlds.

 Soares received substantial campaign contributions from George Soros, the billionaire sponsor of moveon.com. He received the money on the basis of a commitment not to prosecute minor drug offenders, although sometimes state law required it. Soares has lost credibility because of the double standard he takes with different state-wide public officials. His conduct in these cases makes his political ambition another casualty of Troopergate, nee Choppergate.

We have consistently maintained that whatever the governor and his staff did or failed to do, their behavior did not amount to impeachable or criminal misconduct. The whole affair is a political sideshow, in which Bruno successfully transformed himself from crooked manipulator to a victimized senior citizen. People are not distressed when the crafty old guy trumps the arrogant young pup who appears not to respect anyone.

To call the 78-year-old majority leader a "senile, sad sack of s---", and to say it to a Republican senator, no less, is not the smartest thing in the world to do. He says he didn't say it, and he may not have said it. But Marie Antoinette said in her biopic that she never said "Let them eat cake." Nonetheless she was guillotined in 1793. Sometimes reputation trumps accuracy. Today, in the United States, we play with safer tools than they used in revolutionary France..

But enough is enough of this controversy.  Bruno's hired lawyers (at our expense) will do their best to catch the governor in a perjury trap. Whether they succeed will depend on what story he gives and whom he can get to back it up. But he doesn't have to be convicted, or even indicted, for the Republican plot to succeed. Spitzer just has to be credibly denounced as a liar in the eyes of the public, which is the larger jury in the case. He may, of course, be shown to have told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.. That is not likely, since it is harder to prove a negative. But unless he can be shown to have lied, he will retain the plausible deniability (Rule 911) which public officials and others have so long relied upon in times of stress.

We predict that this affair will die down as more and more people become bored with it, unless new evidence is discovered.. The principal effect of Trooperchoppergate so far has been to diminish the reputations of the combatants on both sides, and as an unintended consequence to give a small lift to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who is said to prefer the Water Level route to Albany when he does not travel by car. By keeping his feet on the ground, Silver has saved himself considerable angst. Note how so far the speaker has avoided the controversy.

We link here to articles from state newspapers about the Albany DA's recent hasty and incomplete report. We were suspicious of Soares' judgment because of his apparent overreaction to the Hevesi case, based on the evidence made public at the time. His absolution to the accused in Trooperchoppergate renews the suspicion of partiality. 

This does not mean that Alan Hevesi should escape responsibility for his much greater alleged offenses involving the steering of lucrative state business to Hank Morris, his close friend and political manager. If those charges are true, they dwarf Wifegate. BTW, one problem with multiple prosecutions and lawsuits is that you can't talk to your old friends, who may be co-conspirators, because each of you may be deposed on what you told each other. If you give sufficiently different versions of your conversations, the perjury trap is ready to be sprung, even if you were not talking about illegal acts. .That is the way they got Scooter Libby, even though it was not a crime that he was convicted of lying about.

When they are sued or prosecuted, people tend to fix their attention on legal matters. A new phrase, to "lawyer up" has entered the language through the tabloids. It means to hire counsel, You avoid talking because you have engaged what is called a mouthpiece, who may be more likely than you are to say what should be said to enhance your position, rather that what is true or relevant to the facts in your case..

The old State Ethics Commission went out of business Friday, and the new one, appointed by Governor Spitzer, now has responsibility for investigating matters of this sort. The new ethics commissioners have impeccable resumes and pedigrees, but so do Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts.  No injustices will be committed by fools or dunces in this administration, although learning and scholarship may take second place to loyalty and harmony when it comes to making sensitive ethical judgments involving someone who appointed you to the public office you now hold..

The bottom line in this imbroglio is Rule 30-T: The truth lies somewhere in between. There are those who make a Federal case (figuratively) out of it, and there are others who would whitewash the entire matter. To make a credible evaluation of what happened, where, and why, and to determine what was said or hinted at in private offices, could be beyond the time and energy of investigators whom we assume have additional responsibilities. The Executive Mansion is not the only building in the state where dark deeds are done and denied. The deeds may not, in fact, have been as dark as they were first discerned and described.

In any event, the flap has taken attention away from Senate Leader Bruno's possible indictment for outrageous behavior, including receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars for personal consulting services (he had no office other than his home) for businessmen who received substantial pork from the State Senate. If the allegations that were leaked to the press, in violation of another set of ethical standards, are correct, and if they can be proven, we are talking real jail time, which is not a cheering prospect for a 78-year-old tribune of the people. The case is said to be under constriction at the U.S, Department of Justice. We are told that both the Northern and Eastern districts of New York State have been involved. 

We believed that, as long as Judge Alberto Gonzales was Attorney General of the United States, Bruno was relatively safe from prosecution, because the AG's consent is needed to allow local US attorney to make important Federal cases. Judge Michael B. Mukasey, whose nomination by President Bush for Attorney General has gone to the Senate, is honest, competent and respectful of the law. He is as highly regarded as Judge Gonzales (Texas Supreme Court) was disdained. 

We do not doubt that if a decision involving the Bruno case came before Mukasey, he would decide it on the merits. That could be bad news for the defense. Of course, one never knows what a jury of upstaters will decide, but no rational person would enjoy the embarrassment and expense of a public trial, with a prison term in the offing if convicted.

We have urged the parties to start transacting state business, and relax their efforts to disgrace or imprison each other.  The irony is this is that Spitzer, as State Attorney General, pioneered in criminalizing commercial behavior of which he disapproved, and securing enormous settlements from corporations who did not want to follow the path of Arthur Andersen, and their managers who sought to avoid indictment and trial.

Meanwhile, the vast challenge of reforming state government has largely been ignored.The Wicks Law, on which agreement had been announced before partisan warfare erupted, has not been modified, while construction costs increase at 1 percent a month. .The development of Hudson River Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park is languishhing for lack of appropriations to complete the job. The entire reform agenda has been pushed back a year and whatever momentum was brought to Albany in the Spitzer sweep of 2006 has been thoroughly dissipated. Advantage, lobbyists whose clients profit from the satus quo

We again call for the combatants to return their attention to public business. The legislature had hoped to resume its work in September, but that month is fast passing into history. Now October 22 is bruited about as the possible date for a return to Albany. Unless agreements are reached by the Three Men in a Room, there will be no point in paying the senators and assemblymembers their per diem to sit around Albany. Of course, they are interested in getting their pay raises adopted.

Under Pataki, the Three Men in a Room despised each other. Under Spitzer, they humiliate each other, and litigate in the hope of rendering their rival hors de combat. The only rationale for this behavior is that it sets the stage for Armageddon in 2008 over control of the Senate. We predict that, whoever wins the Senate, the squabbling will resume.

Shakespeare made the point four centuries ago. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings." Cassius told his co-conspirator, Brutus. He was right.

BTW, as long as we are in ancient Rome, Julius Caesar proclaimed himself dictator of the Roman Empire in 49 B.C., but did not hold theofficial title of Emperor, which did not exist at the time. Two readers called this historical nugget to our attention. Octavian, who had defeated Marc Antony and conquered Egypt, was given the title Augustus by the Roman Senate in 27 B.C. and earned his place on the calendar.

The two summer months are the only ones named for mortals, although four are named for gods, (Jan, Mar, May and June), four for numbers (Sep through Dec), and two for festivals (Feb and Apr). Note that July and August are equal in length (31 days), not exceeded by any other month, and that July comes first. Originally the calendar began in March, around Pesach or Easter, when plants bloomed and babies were born. That is why September, derived from seven, is in fact the ninth month.

Since you have read so far, you deserved diversion.

#414  9.26.07  2227wds