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TROOPERGATE RETURNS
Late last week, the New York State Commission on Public Integrity issued its long-awaited report on the "Troopergate" scandal. The Commission found that four top aides of former Governor Eliot Spitzer violated state ethics laws. These violations stemmed from their roles in trying to publicly embarrass Senator Joe Bruno. According to the Commission, last year Spitzer's aides concocted a scheme to generate internal State Police documents that purported to show that the Senator had illegally used government aircraft for political purposes. These documents were then leaked to the media as part of a plan to at least embarrass the Senator and possibly make him the subject of a law enforcement investigation. The Commission found that these four top aides had violated the state ethics law's prohibition on using state resources for private purposes. Two of the aides agreed to punishments that did not include a fine and two others are fighting the finding. Both of them argue that they were merely following the orders of the Governor. Spitzer himself was not found guilty of an ethics violation. The 68 page report and the 3,000 additional documents do not paint a pretty picture of the ham-handed efforts of the Spitzer Administration to smear Senator Bruno. Instead, the report shows their efforts to be part "Soprano's," part "Keystone Cops," and part "Watergate conspirators." The report shows that the Spitzer team wanted to get Senator Bruno for his attacks on the governor and that they were willing to bend the rules to make it happen. According to the report, generating internal State Police records of the Senator's use of the government's aircraft was something that should not have been done. Beyond the report's identification of the Spitzer Administration's thugish actions, it documents an amazing lack of coordination in making the scheme work. According to the report, top officials had completely different interpretations of what was going on at the time. Despite the seriousness of the scheme's efforts to go after one of the state's top officials, members of the Spitzer team ignored emails, failed to follow instructions and bungled the implementation of the smear effort. Lastly, the report shows that despite Spitzer's claim of extensive cooperation with the investigation, it time and time again stonewalled the Commission's efforts to obtain government documents. In a manner eerily familiar to the Watergate coverup, the report showed that the Spitzer Administration used bogus claims of executive privilege to block the Commission's requests for information. The report left some key questions unanswered. Critics simply do not believe that former Governor Spitzer -- who was well known to be a hands on manager -- did not know as much about the scheme as his top aide who was punished by the Commission. In addition, the report makes no mention of who was behind the Spitzer Administration's stonewalling efforts and punished no one for that tactic. One of the great ironies of the report is that the Spitzer team -- whose successful investigations of Wall Street was based on critical evidence obtained in emails -- was so cavalierly writing emails describing their scheme. It was those internal emails that provided the smoking gun evidence for the Commission's investigation. While the Spitzer Administration has now become part of New York history, there are key lessons to be learned by the Troopergate saga. First and foremost, public officials must put the people's interests ahead of their own political needs. In this case, if the Spitzer team thought that Senator Bruno was abusing the use of state aircraft, they should have tightened the rules or barred him from using it. Second, while the Commission deserves credit for issuing its findings, its efforts and motives were constantly under challenge since a majority of its membership is chosen by the governor. Governor Paterson must see to it that the Commission is independent. Lastly, stonewalling should not be tolerated. Lawmakers should look to ensure that the Commission has all the powers it needs to investigate wrongdoing. And New Yorkers must be ever vigilant in watching those it chooses to run state government. That's all for now. I'll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week. |
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