Clearly from the pressure from his political party. They did not want him to muddy the waters. Certainly not because of the power of the ethics committee! Remember, the ethics committee is employed 'by the state'. If they were a private entity, that would be a different story.

Being that the Governor is a Dem the Reps will make sure that he'll be properly investigated, as Bruno said they have subpoena power if needed.

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Most in poll say Spitzer should testify in scandal
Cuomo’s favorable rating tops others
The Associated Press

   Half of New Yorkers suspect Gov. Eliot Spitzer knew more than he has said about a plot by his aides to use state police against Republican Senate leader Joseph Bruno, according to a WNBC-Marist College poll released Friday.
   Eight in 10 voters also think Spitzer should testify in any further investigation.
   Even so, Spitzer — who has told reporters he was misled by his aides — continues to enjoy strong job approval ratings in the poll, which was conducted Wednesday and Thursday amid heavy news coverage of the controversy.
   Meanwhile, the man who detailed the scandal in a report Monday, Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, is for the first time Albany’s most popular statewide official.
   Cuomo’s rating jumped to 52 percent, up from 40 percent in March. Even Republicans — 40 percent — and upstaters — 46 percent — say he is doing an excellent or good job.
   Cuomo’s investigative report found that although no laws were broken, two top Spitzer aides collected state police data for release to a reporter to discredit Bruno for using state aircraft on days he attended Republican fundraisers. Spitzer suspended one aide and transferred the other.
   Cuomo has also spent much of the spring on his national investigation of conflicts of interest between student loan companies and colleges.
   The state Legislature and Congress acted on reforms Cuomo recommended.
   But the poll focused on Spitzer, the “Sheriff of Wall Street” during his eight years as attorney general and a Democrat who won a historic share of the vote last year, in part by promising to clean up Albany.
   “On the one hand, you have political fallout of a major nature for the governor,” said Lee Miringoff of the Marist poll. “The good news is that the events of the past week didn’t dramatically change how voters view him.”
   Spitzer was rated excellent or good in his job by 47 percent of those polled, up from 43 percent in March.
   But that’s low for the Democrat who won office in November with a historic 69 percent of the vote, Miringoff said.
   And New Yorkers still think Spitzer is the guy for the job: 66 percent — more than in March — think he is good for the state and more than half think he is a “new kind of independent politician” who is changing Albany for the better.
   Still, 41 percent feel his style is too confrontational for a governor.
   “People don’t think he was forthcoming [in the scandal]. They think he should testify,” Miringoff said. “But as far as how he’s doing in Albany, that is basically intact.”
   Bruno, however, remains in low esteem outside his Albany-area district.
   The poll found that just 26 percent of New Yorkers said the longtime Senate majority leader was doing an excellent or good job.
   The story is the same for Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of lower Manhattan, who attracted the highest ratings from only 28 percent of those polled.
   There was no immediate comment from Spitzer or Bruno. Cuomo spokesman Jeffrey Lerner declined comment.
   The telephone poll of 554 registered voters has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.  

  
  
  

http://www.capitalnews9.com

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Lawmakers talking about "Troopergate"
Updated: 7/28/2007 6:42 AM
By: Britt Godshalk

    
  
ALBANY, N.Y. -- “We are going sign some bills and answer questions on just those bills,” Governor Spitzer said.

That was the plan, anyway. But that is not what happened.

The questions went off like fireworks. Questions on whether the Governor had knowledge that two of his staff members ordered an investigation into Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's use of state transportation. All of it casting a cloud over the very business that brought lawmakers back to the capitol.

“I think as soon as he answers the questions and everything is cleared and open on why those two individuals went out and did this and tried to investigate and get reports, we can move on,” James Tedisco said.

“I think it's outrageous. It's being talked about by every editorial board, by every newspaper, by every television station, this isn't just a story that's going to away, that's maybe what the Governor would like, but it's not going to happen. I think people want to know the truth,” said Hugh Farley.

Before the news broke about the ethics commission investigation, state lawmakers were already talking about the scandal. They returned to the capital on Thursday, but were met with distractions stemming from the Governor's problems.

But some democrats say it's not the governor that's distracting, it's the media frenzy around him. Reporters and photographers who have been onto this issue and won't let go.

“There's kind of a feeding frenzy. They are looking to sell papers or to add viewers and they seem to relish in someone else's difficulties,” said Neil Breslin.

But despite the lights and mics, all agree it was the actions of the governor's staff that started the stirring of the pot.

“The distraction is a result of some bad decisions so it's only natural for the media to delve into this further,” Ron Canesteri said.

Legislation was discussed, but not enough progress for lawmakers in both parties.

“We really should be here for much more substantive things,” Breslin said.

“We should be doing property tax relief for our seniors, we should be doing an upstate economic bill to create jobs. There's a lot of legislation we aren't doing today and maybe a part of why is because of too much politics,” Tedisco said.

A climate that can only be changed, legislators say, by a clearing of the air, perhaps led by the very man over which the cloud has hung.

“Obviously it doesn't work unless we're all on the same page here and agree to move beyond this. And that remains to be seen whether that does take place in the next few days,” said Canestreri.

    

If Spitzer has nothing to hide then he should let them investigate what his aides did and if he knew about it well then that's another story.

Spitzer shows no humility what so ever! He comes to the governer's office with his chest puffed out with pride and power, tells the media that he is going to be a fu**ing steamroller and then slithers in a corner like a snake when he is asked to be accountable.

And isn't it funny how when the dems (spitzer in this case), says that he was mis-informed by his aids is suppose to be taken as the truth, yet when a republican president (bush in this case) says he was mis-informed by his aids about WMD, the dems call it a ball faced lie! Go figure!

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Spitzer starts strong, now in political mess Analysis
BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press

   Nine months after Eliot Spitzer won a historic share of the vote on a promise to clean up Albany, he finds himself in the middle of Albany’s biggest political scandal in years. It threatens his reforms and even major policy agreements that seemed a lock just a week ago.
   Now, the world-beating prosecutor who whipped Wall Street and has been a rising star among Democrats nationwide finds himself dogged by the old Watergate questions: What did he know and when did he know it?
   A WNBC-Marist College poll released Friday found his job approval ratings remain strong. But most of the voters polled thought he should testify in any further investigation of the scandal involving two of his aides who used state police to track and embarrass Republican Senate leader Joseph Bruno. Worse, half suspect Spitzer knew about the plot early on, despite his denials, an apology to Bruno and swift discipline of the aides.
   How did all this happen?
REPORT: NO LAWS BROKEN
   On Monday, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released a report that found no laws were broken in the effort against Bruno. But the governor’s men acted improperly by using state police to track Bruno’s use of state helicopters and a state police driver in New York City on three days when he combined state business with attendance at Republican fundraisers. The aides then released the records to the biggest newspaper in Bruno’s district.
   In the end, Cuomo found Bruno violated no laws either, thanks to a “porous” set of statutes and policies. They appear to allow top politicians free flights for any purpose as long as there is some state businesses squeezed in, even if it’s scheduled with lobbyists who are routinely in Albany.
   All this makes for an uncertain halfway point in Spitzer’s first year.
   In January, the Spitzer era began with anticipation among New Yorkers weary of two decades of political gridlock and economic malaise.
   In January and February, Spitzer stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Bruno and Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, leaders of an unpopular Legislature faced with a highly popular new governor, to strike major reforms that long eluded agreement. They cut workers’ compensation costs to employers, improved budgeting, enacted civil confinement of the most dangerous sex offenders and tightened ethics laws.
DOWNHILL BATTLE
   But in February, Spitzer lost a nasty standoff with the Senate and Assembly over selection of a state comptroller after the chambers overrode Spitzer’s method of picking well-qualifi ed finalists. Instead, they chose one of their own.
   He called the decision a “stunning lack of integrity” and “an insiders’ game of self-dealing that unfortunately confirms every New Yorker’s worst fears and image of all that goes on in the Legislature.”
   That cost him political capital with a Legislature that appeared increasingly uneasy as the supporting cast to the star governor.
   Tough sledding continued in late March. Spitzer, intent on avoiding a late budget, broke his pledge to avoid most closed-door negotiations and held marathons. That resulted in a spending increase pushed by the Legislature approaching three times the inflation rate, despite Spitzer’s promise to curb Albany’s appetite — especially for pork. His budget successes — including $1.3 billion in property tax relief — came only after bruising compromise.
   In May, one of Spitzer’s top goals — campaign finance reform — was in so much trouble that even a deal for much-wanted pay raises for lawmakers and judges couldn’t get Bruno to budge.
SCANDAL START
   That’s about the time the first e-mail in the political plot against Bruno was zapped between offi ces in the Capitol’s second floor.
   “Records exist going way back,” Spitzer Communications Director Darren Dopp wrote on May 23 to Secretary to the Governor Rich Baum, relaying data from William Howard, a public safety aide. “Itineraries showing where the individual was taken and who was in the car. [Howard] has the last two trips in his possession.”
   At this time, Dopp and Howard and Acting Superintendent of State Police Preston Felton, recently appointed by Spitzer, were compiling records and re-creating some that covered Bruno’s travel. In written statements, Dopp and Howard said they were acting on requests from reporters about abuses of a longtime and questionable perk for first written request by a Times Union reporter — on June 27 — months after the Dopp-Howard operation began. Dopp, however, said in his written statement, which wasn’t included in Cuomo’s report, that he was responding to other requests from reporters, apparently spoken, as most inquiries are.
legislative leaders to avoid highway and train rides.
   June 3: The Albany Times Union carries a story that a federal grand jury is investigating Bruno’s investments in thoroughbred horses.
   “Think travel story would fit nicely in the mix,” Dopp e-mailed Baum.
   “The impending travel stuff implies more problems — particularly in the tax area I think,” Howard emailed Baum. “I think timing right for that move.”
   July 1: The Albany Times Union runs a story headlined: “State flies Bruno to Fundraiser.”
   “After the article ran,” Cuomo’s report stated, “the governor’s offi ce represented to the media that it had done nothing more than produce documents under a [Freedom of Information Law] request from the Times Union … however, this account is not consistent with the facts found during the investiga-QUESTIONS FOR ALL
   Baum, in an interview with The Associated Press this week, said he doesn’t remember the e-mails among the many messages he receives each day.
   “I didn’t respond or engage,” said Baum, a longtime Spitzer confi dant. “I have no recollection of engaging.”
   He said the plot never involved him and never got to Spitzer.
   Lawmakers who have had conflicts with the hard-charging 48-year-old governor scoff at the notion. tion. Adding to the Watergate over-“The governor’s office was acting tones, sometimes gleefully raised pursuant to a plan, which preced- by Republicans, is the refusal by ed any FOIL request, to show that Baum and Dopp to be interviewed Senator Bruno had misused state by Cuomo’s investigators.
aircraft,” the report stated. But in an interview this week,
   That conclusion is based on the Baum said it was simply a general policy decision by the governor’s counsel’s office: You just don’t submit the governor’s top advisers to a potential wide-ranging Q-and-A on confidential talks.
   “I was not involved,” Spitzer said of that decision, although he knew Cuomo wanted to interview Baum and Dopp.
   Now the state Ethics Commission, which Spitzer bolstered with his reforms, is taking a look at the scandal. A longtime prosecutor, Spitzer hasn’t ruled out testifying if called, although a governor could try to block a subpoena through executive privilege. The Senate Committee on Investigations may soon follow. Both have subpoena power and could consume months, holding hostage Spitzer’s priorities of campaign finance reform, reforming the Wick’s Law to reduce the cost of public construction, and reviving the upstate economy.
   As for Bruno, he’s stronger than ever despite a narrow majority, a continuing federal investigation of his private business dealings, and after fending off a challenge from within. Don’t expect the 78-yearold veteran to let up on Spitzer any time soon.

http://www.dailygazette.com

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A childish squabble So-called leaders squander opportunity to bring much-needed campaign finance reform to state
BY KATHRYN McCARY For The Sunday Gazette

   Hard to say which is more saddening, the manner in which the promise of campaign finance reform has been threatened or the manner in which that promise was made in the first place.
   For a few days this month, it looked like a certainty that we would be getting a campaign finance reform bill and, for a change, the deal hadn’t been struck by three men in a room in the last days of the legislative session. The governor, the Assembly speaker and minority leader, and the Senate majority leader and minority leader jointly announced on July 19 that “an agreement has been reached to reform New York State’s campaign finance laws.” The deal was struck by five men in a room, after the Legislature had recessed for the summer; should we regard this as progress? Why do we even bother with a Legislature? Silly question: If we didn’t have a Senate and an Assembly, we couldn’t have the speaker, the majority leader, or either of the two minority leaders, so the governor would get to do these deals all by himself.
   Legislation by cabal is the way it is done in New York.
   The governor — who at least is elected by a statewide popular vote — and a couple of folks elected by only a portion of the state’s population make the big decisions. And as often as possible, they wait to do it until as late in the legislative session as they can manage. This is the way it has always been done, and for all the effort anyone is putting into changing things, it would seem this is the way it always will be done. As Gov. Spitzer’s then-chief spokesman, Darren Dopp, put it (in retrospect, prophetically) in January when the three men in a room announced their agreement on an ethics reform bill, “There’s an idealistic way and there’s a way of getting things done.”
SANDBOX BEHAVIOR
   This past Monday, we learned that the divide between idealism and getting things done exists in more than one area, when Attorney General Andrew Cuomo reported the results of his investigation into allegations by Senate Majority Leader Bruno that Gov. Spitzer had been spying on him. Turns out that Mr. Dopp was making sure the news media got information about Mr. Bruno’s use of state police aircraft, whether the news media wanted it or not, and that he hadn’t let any dumb old ideals get in the way of getting that done.
   The unattractive sandbox behavior Messrs. Bruno and Spitzer had put aside in order to do the Legislature’s job for it promptly erupted again. The governor, to his credit, immediately suspended Mr. Dopp and transferred another aide involved in the scheme; Mr. Bruno responded by suggesting that the governor himself should be questioned about what he knew, and when he knew it.
   Mr. Bruno announced that the Senate Investigations Committee would review the attorney general’s investigation; the governor’s spokesperson riposted that additional investigation was uncalled for, and would be for “purely partisan” purposes. Does anyone truly believe the childish behavior of either Mr. Bruno or Mr. Spitzer leading up to this sorry confrontation was motivated by anything else? The two squabbled over the Senate’s authority to investigate the governor. The detente that led to agreement on campaign finance reform crumbled, and it is possible the agreement on reform went with it.
   Now, the reform package proposed by the Big Five included some attractive features: limits on the entities that could give to political campaigns, limits on how much any contributor could give to a campaign, limits on soft-money contributions to political parties, enhanced disclosure and reporting requirements — even the creation of a unit within the state Board of Elections charged with enforcing the law. Imagine that — not only would there be limits on campaign contributions, but there would actually be someone whose job consisted of checking to make sure the limits were not exceeded! It was diffi cult not to beam with approval.
   On the other hand, both this agreement and the ethics agreement that was Mr. Spitzer’s first engagement in his crusade to reform state government demonstrated why the Brennan Center for Justice, in 2004, labeled New York’s legislative process the most dysfunctional in the United States.
CLEAR LOSERS
   Mr. Spitzer’s focus on reform seems very narrow: Legislative consideration and debate should be the starting point, not a mere sideshow, in the creation and adoption of laws. It isn’t the governor’s purview to initiate the reforms we need in the Legislature’s process — the Senate and Assembly need to revise their own rules — but we should be wary when the advocate of reform embraces without protest one of the systemic processes most in need of reform. It was difficult to repress a frown of sorrow.
   And that was all before the political bickering recommenced.
   There are no winners here, but there are clear losers. The state and its citizens lost when a centerpiece of the government reform agenda was crafted in knowing derogation of the legislative process, although that loss was at least mitigated by the potential gain — however minimal — in government accountability. We lose again when those elected to high office cannot conduct themselves like adults. If the small beachhead of campaign finance reform is abandoned in their childish squabbles, we shall have lost indeed

We won't worry about the problems of the voters lets just quarrel among ourselves and let the state run itself.

As long as they are collecting a paycheck and great benefits....why should they care?

You see,,,,even though the  Donkey and the Elephant have differing views of which they cling too.....they eat at the same trough and are in it for the same reasons.....power, prestige and $$.......this is just a distraction to what is behind the scenes....................................

THE PUBLIC SHOULD INVESTIGATE.....TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE......

I agree senders , no matter which side Reps or Dems we should hold them accountable after all it's our tax money they're wasting.

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Spitzer turns over Bruno documents to ethics panel
BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press

   Gov. Eliot Spitzer has turned over records to the state Ethics Commission that is investigating a plot by his aides to use state police against Republican Senate leader Joseph Bruno, but Republicans say an independent prosecutor without ties to the Democrat is needed.
   “We’re cooperating and voluntarily handing them over,” said Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson. The records were delivered Friday and are the same emails and other documents turned over to the Attorney General’s and Inspector General’s offices, she said. They include e-mails involving Secretary to the Governor Rich Baum, she said.
   The Ethics Commission on Friday had asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to turn over the records he used in a report released a week ago on the scandal. Cuomo’s probe ended at two top aides: Communications Director Darren Dopp and William Howard, a deputy in the public safety department.
   Spitzer and Baum have said they didn’t know about the political plot. Cuomo found Dopp and Howard used state police to compile travel records on days Bruno used state helicopters to fly to New York City to mix state business with Republican fundraisers, then released the records to a local newspaper.
   “We believe that additional investigation is warranted to assure the public that you were not personally involved in the actions which the report criticizes nor did you know of those actions or direct the state police to act in an inappropriate manner, as you have stated publicly,” Republican Sen. George Winner of Elmira said in a letter to Spitzer.
   Winner said his Investigations Committee could also use subpoena power in the case, but is reluctant to get into a legal battle “over the constitutional issues which your office has indicated would be litigated if we proceed with an investigation.”
   In April, Spitzer appointed a new Ethics Commission chairman, John Feerick, who is the former dean of the Fordham Law School and had run a panel known as the Feerick Commission that led to the adoption of the 1987 Ethics in Government Act.
   On Monday, however, the Senate’s Republican majority questioned whether the Ethics Commission should handle the investigation. The Republicans called for a special prosecutor, suggesting Cuomo. They oppose using the Commission’s executive director, Herbert Teitelbaum, whose law firm has been a political contributor to Spitzer. State records show the Bryan Cave law firm contributed about $100,000 to Spitzer’s campaign for governor, including more than $10,000 in May, a month before Teitelbaum was chosen to serve on the Ethics Commission.
   “Dean Feerick has a reputation that speaks for itself and we trust completely their ability to appropriately determine whether further inquiry is needed beyond what the attorney general and inspector general did,” Anderson said.
   Spitzer also has an appointee on the Ethics Commission from when he was attorney general. Two of the five members of the commission were appointed by former Republican Gov. George Pataki, and a third was appointed by Democratic Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who resigned in disgrace when he pleaded guilty to using a state employee as a driver for his wife.
   Commission spokesman Walter Ayres had no immediate comment.
   Spitzer has apologized, immediately suspended one aide without pay and transferred another out of the executive chamber, and promised to cooperate with the Ethics Commission probe. He continues to say he knew nothing of the political plot.
   “We made mistakes,” Spitzer wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times on Sunday. “The message was simple: even though they didn’t break the law, they forgot what we were about, and that won’t be tolerated.”
   A new poll shows Spitzer is taking a hit for the scandal.
   Monday’s Siena College Research Institute poll found 46 percent rated Spitzer’s job performance as excellent or good, compared to 48 percent who rated it fair or poor. In June, 55 percent thought he was doing an excellent or good job, compared to 37 percent who considered it fair or poor. Monday’s results are the first in which more New Yorkers were critical of the job he was doing than approved, although the difference is within the poll’s margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.
   The poll also shows Spitzer is losing critical support in New York City.
   “When you lose your base, the rest will follow and that creates real danger for the governor going forward,” said Steven Greenberg of the Siena Research Institute.
   Siena’s poll shows 59 percent of New Yorkers polled give Spitzer a favorable rating, down from 62 percent in June and 75 percent in January.
   “The dip is understandable given the news coverage,” said Anderson, Spitzer’s spokeswoman.  

  
  
  

These polls need to be silenced....maybe those folks could do everyones' checkbooks.....oh, that's right---I cant 'estimate' what is in my checkbook,,,but these polls make it sound like 'sound science/math'-- like figuring out a budget or doing your checkbook.......please.....

The people who conduct the polls can make them come out any way they want to by being very selective on who they ask the questions to.