By Roger Stone
My disdain for Eliot Spitzer is well-chronicled in these pages. It is no secret that I despise the man as an arrogant, short tempered fraud. But after this last week's installment of Albany incest - coups and rebellions aside, I literally have to hand an Olympic gold in skating to the former Governor. Luv Gov, your blades are sharp.
Cherkasky: Doing Eliot's bidding |
The money laundering and Mann Act violations aside, Eliot Spitzer actually had
the gall, after his resignation as Governor, to complain that charges for his patronage of prostitutes was not dismissed fast enough, while the woman who supplied him with hookers sat on Rikers Island for four months. That in and of itself merits some sort of shitbag award. But now, the walking indictment-waiting-to-happen has managed another miracle on ice and his name is Michael Cherkasky.
A lower life form is not known to man. Prior to his role in the Spitzer cover-up, Cherkasky, was a former Manhattan Deputy District Attorney who milked the Teamsters for millions as a federal monitor. The man is long on gall and short on either skill or integrity.
Let us review. Back when Eliot was the crusading Attorney General of New York, he had the insurance firm Marsh McLennan by the balls. In return for their release and settlement, he blackmailed the firm into installing Mike Cherkasky as its CEO, which Marsh McLennan reluctantly did. Standard operating Spitzer. Cherkasky, short of insurance experience and essentially incompetent, didn't last long in this plush job.
Enter Eliot the Governor, who got caught using the State Police to stalk his premier political nemesis, Joseph Bruno, Majority Leader of the NY State Senate. An investigation ultimately ensued by the State Commission on Public Integrity. That investigation yielded a few low-level scapegoats and then folded. It was widely rumored that Spitzer meddled heavily in the Commission's investigation just as the Nixon White House meddled in and monitored the Watergate investigation. Spitzer's whore habit then surfaced, he resigned and the investigation receded from public view.
But then on the orders of Governor David Paterson, the Inspector General of New York Joseph Fisch, a former Supreme Court Justice, investigated and concluded that the Commission's head honcho, Herb Teitelbaum, was improperly leaking information, to wit, confidential testimony, to Spitzer aides. Governor Paterson promptly and properly called for the resignation of all members of the Commission. Teitelbaum eventually left, and Paterson replaced him with Mike Cherkasky, who Paterson knew when both were Deputy District Attorneys.
Unfortunately for David Paterson, Cherkasky's link to Spitzer went unnoticed. Someone failed to inform the Governor that Mike Cherkasky was Eliot's former boss at the Manhattan DA's office. Someone failed to inform Mike Cherkasky that his severe conflict of interest precluded his qualification for heading up any investigation of his old pal Eliot Spitzer. Although Cherkasky once boasted that Eliot was his protege and not the other way around, the media dutifully praised the appointment.
Now comes the cover -up. Cherkasky issued a statement last Thursday that so whitewashes the ethical issues of Spitzer's administration that it burns the eyes to read. Three paragraphs in, he informs us that he is "a man with no ax to grind." He's not friends with the Governor or his staff, or the IG and his staff, or anyone on the Commission, he assures us. He is however, admittedly, friends with Eliot Spitzer, which he somehow deems irrelevant as if he's suffering from lack of oxygen. Even if it is relevant, he claims that "proof of a relationship is not proof of bias." Ok Mike, you umpire Albany.
Strike One: "Just because the Governor appointed the majority of the members of the Commission in no way means that their actions were biased." Of course not, for Christ's sake, this is Albany, land of objectivity where even Prime Minister Berlusconi would feel right at home because there is just no such thing as a conflict of interest. And certainly the man tasked with investigating his own friend cannot be deemed biased either.
Strike Two: "People may think they know what happened, but the Commission quite properly based its decisions only on the record of evidence." It's almost as if Chairman Cherkasky has completely disregarded the fact that the evidence on record was a product of the manipulation between the Commission and the Governor's Office that led to his appointment as Chairman to begin with. "Things are not always as they initially appear," Cherkasky tell us though. No Mr. Chairman, things are exactly as they appear.
Strike Three: Leaking confidential information didn't really matter anyway. Need we proceed any further with this farce?
"The information - the fact that the Commission had consulted with the District Attorney about a possible perjury committed by an individual formerly in the Governor's employment - was simply not significant." said Spitzer's hatchet man.
Translation: Herb Teitelbaum leaked to Spitzer that the District Attorney was going to bring perjury charges against Spitzer Aide Darren Dopp. Significance: Put the squeeze on Dopp to take the fall and Governor, you skate. This is not important, the lying Cherkasky tells us.
So in other words, the effort to cover up Eliot Spitzer's various crimes and abuse of power continues to this day, with Mike Cherkasky, a thug loyal to Spitzer, abusing his new position to cover up for his protege. Governor Paterson charged Cherkasky with getting to the bottom of Troopergate and the interference with the investigation into same. Now Paterson must fire Cherkasky.
By Roger Stone
Spitzer: Block graphic tapes |
Just this week Spitzer's lawyers went to court to block public release of the tapes of Federal wiretaps in the Prostitution investigation in which everyone involved was charged but the short-tempered former Governor. Spitzer's lawyer actually had the nerve to say Spitzer was "an innocent third party" in the calls and therefore had some right to privacy! Innocent? Spitzer patronized call-girl rings as both Attorney General and Governor. As AG, he utilized the services of multiple escort services while prosecuting others. He violated Federal money-laundering laws to hide the trail of money to the services and violated the Mann Act by importing call-girls over state lines to service him.
My sources tell me the tapes are quite graphic with the Sheriff of Wall street telling the bookers in graphic detail what he wanted the girls he scheduled to be willing to do - and they thought I was kinky!
The fools at
NEWSDAY wrote last week that my revelation learned from a Miami Call-girl that Spitzer kept his droopy knee high black socks during the sex act was fiction, fail to report that the New York Post's Murray Weiss independently confirmed the former Governor's tendency to frolic with his socks from yet another call-girl in a story April 24, 2008, eight months after I told the FBI about this quirk (reported in the
New York Times).
Nor do they note that Manhattan madam Kristin Davis, who served four months on Rikers Island for her role in running an Escort Service and supplied girls for Spitzer for over ten years, independently confirmed that Spitzer kept his hose on while getting his freak on. Gotta love the folks at
NEWSDAY, they never let the facts get in the way of a cheap shot story nor have the guts to by-line a story when they have the facts wrong.
On the other hand
Newsday is less and less relevant. With their New York City circulation in the toilet, the Long Island paper isn’t really read by anyone who matters.
By Matt Eventoff
The leadership chaos in New York, only rivaled this week by the leadership chaos in Iran, offers a valuable lesson in communications for everyone.
As background, late last week there was a coup in the State Senate that has brought New York government to a grinding halt.
All because of a Blackberry...
Smith |
Not just any Blackberry, but one owned and operated by Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith. Senator Smith had a meeting and
paid attention to his Blackberry rather than the gentleman sitting in front of him.
Bottom line -- Senator Smith is no longer Senate Majority Leader Smith due to one reason -- poor communication skills.
It happens every minute of every day -- a harried executive, with too much to do and not enough time to do it starts responding to emails while in a meeting (or conference, or presentation...or training).
What that executive may or may not realize is that he (or she) has been sending a
very clear message to peers, conference leaders, bosses, or employees - what you have to say is not as important as what is on my handheld.
The lesson is basic - Everything you do sends a message.
When
you are in a meeting or talking to someone, that person wants to feel that he or she has your full attention. If you are meeting with someone, try to put the Blackberry away, or if you must, excuse yourself momentarily to check it.
I'm sure
Senator Smith wishes he did -- I doubt his Blackberry is inundated with pressing emails now!
http://www.matteventoff.com/your-blackberry-or-your-career.html
By Roger Stone
When I read in the morning paper about a Republican endorsing freedom, I generally know everything is right in the universe. This morning, I read that Dick Cheney supports same sex marriage. In a speech at the National Press Club Monday, the former vice president told the audience that he believes homosexuals have a right to marry. “I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone,” he said, and freedom, he believes, includes the right of people to “enter into any kind of union they wished.” Despite his laudatory position, he inserted the great disclaimer. The issue should ultimately be left to the States, he said. Republicans should recognize this argument for what it is: a cop out. The reason they do not is because many conservatives fail to recognize same sex marriage as an issue of equality.
The Tenth Amendment states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Conservatives have always considered themselves stewards of states’ rights because they correctly equate a powerful federal government with less freedom for the people. Government is naturally intrusive; therefore the less of it the better. However, the reservation of states’ rights was not intended as a States-know-best clause; rather it was meant as a necessary limitation on federal power.
After the abolition of slavery, the South very quickly taught the federal government the difference between freedom and equality. All men were created equal in the Declaration of Independence; sadly, they were not created equal in the States. The federal government had no actual grant of constitutional power to exercise over state-sanctioned inequality, and, according to the 10th, in the absence of a delegation of power from the Constitution to the federal government or a prohibition to the States, power is reserved to the States. In other words, “States’ rights” contained the glaring loophole through which segregation slipped. The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment rectified that, on paper at least, and Americans have been embarrassed about it ever since. Therefore, history informs us that, without some guarantee of equality, freedom does not necessarily mean freedom for all.
Same sex marriage is an issue of
equality. Everyone of legal competence is free to enter into the
union of marriage because marriage is a fundamental right bundled up in our notion of what freedom is, even if it took a Supreme Court decision to make it so, but everyone does not have the right to enter into a union of
his or her choice. Therefore, Republicans cannot take shelter in states’ rights and plausibly contend that freedom means freedom for all. If we want freedom for all, we must be prepared to grant equality to homosexuals as a constitutional imperative. The Republic will still stand.
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