Eliot Spitzer is an idiot

And a self-destructive one at that.

The conspiracy theories are already ramping up, but he gave the corporate types, the bankers, and the re-thugs are ready-made target.

He doesn't need jail. He needs years of therapy.

David Paterson will be a fine Governor.

This Smells. And Smells of Desperation

Remember the constant TV presence of Joe diGenova and his harpy wife, Victoria Toensing during Republican "investigations" of Bill Clinton? Well the Senate Republicans have hired him to trash Spitzer (oops sorry, investigate).

And Bruno and George Winner have one-upped their DC Re-thug counterparts by using your hard-earned tax dollars to do it.

Count on everything to grind to a halt in the State Senate.

Yah know, the Guv's people really blew it in Troopergate. But then Joe and his folks started working hard to top them. They succeeded right away when they hired Roger Stone. He blew it when he called the Guv's father and threatened him. And he blew it again with his "dog ate my homework" explanations of how it must have been a Democratic plant.

So now the Republicans hire diGenova. He's smarter than Stone. He won't blow it right away with some amazingly over-the-top move like Stone's. But he will annoy the public over and over and over, just like he did with the Clintons.

And we remember how that turned out, right?

Troopergate and Roger Stone

Josh Marshall does the background research on Republican operative and dirty-trickster, Roger Stone. Stone's been hired by New York Republicans to attack Governor Spitzer. Take a look.

Stone apparently decided to start by making an unhinged threatening phone call to the Governor's father. When caught, his denial sounded like a little kid, blaming his invisible friend.

Marshall also found what an upright character Stone is.

Man, you just can't make this stuff up.

The Guv at the Chautauqua Institution

On "The Need for Both Passion and Humility in Politics."

So sue me. It's not like I get paid for this

OK. OK. It's been a while. And today's posts missed a lot that's been going on:

• The Guv's little contretemps with Senator Joe. Pretty dumb, huh?
  
• Andrew's role in that debacle and what folks are saying about what he's up to.
• Soares role (still emerging).

But there's more to come. Hell, even Mike Breslin has a challenger. Now that should be a real humdinger, right?

So I'll be back

Another case of hope over experience?

The Governor's got this thing going about consolidating local government services. He appointed former Lt. Governor Stan Lundine to head a Commission to figure out how not how to get less government, but fewer governments.

They're giving shared services a try out in Chemung County.

Archy the Cockroach describes the same problem in the "Heartland" and gives a good example.

Let's hope they do better than last time.

4200 Governments

Even we free spending, knee jerk Democrats have got to admit that it all adds up. And when it all adds up, the bill gets pretty expensive.

One of the reasons that government is so expensive in New York is because there are so many governments in New York. Every one of them has somebody in charge and all the administrative costs that come from mere existence.

So cheers for the Guv for trying to do something about it: Tax Reductions Tied to Shared Services.