With Spitzer...Where Do We Go From Here?

Governor Spitzer finally apologized this morning for his staff's ridiculous behavior concerning Joe Bruno and his helicopter trips. What they did was unethical and wrong, and Spitzer admits it. Only he starts by saying he was sorry and then finished by spinning. So now what? Spitzer went from his apology to denying the chance for Attorney General Cuomo from investigating his office. He also claims that we must not get bogged down in partisan politics. Ahem, Eliot, look in the mirror.

From The Daily News:

ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer shot down a Republican proposal to make Attorney General Andrew Cuomo a special prosecutor to reinvestigate the dirty tricks scheme waged against Senate GOP leader Joe Bruno.

Senate Investigations Committee Chairman George Winner (R-Elmira) had said such a move would give Cuomo the power to subpoena evidence and question Spitzer aides who ducked his first inquiry. Republican senators would shelve their own planned investigation to make way for Cuomo, who is a Democrat like Spitzer, he said.

About 10 minutes after Winner's news conference, Spitzer's office said no.

"The appointment of a special prosecutor is unnecessary" because his first probe and an inquiry by the governor's inspector general found no criminal conduct, spokeswoman Christine Anderson said.

It seems that this is just unethical and not criminal, if anyone is a criminal, it is Joe Bruno. Still, Spitzer should let this take its course and let the Senate Republicans give Cuomo the go-ahead to investigate so this can finally start to blow over. Having his own Inspector General clear him is nice, but having the top Attorney in New York do it is even better.

I do agree with part of Spitzer's Op-Ed however. This isn't what we should have been engaged in by electing our new Governor. We need to clean up Albany. The problems lie with how the state government has worked for decades, by three men in a room and New Yorkers sitting outside in the dark. Now we need to add a little dusting to the Governor's office and be on with the business of New York.