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Blunder By Gov's Aides Gives New Life To Bruno's Power
The revelation that top aides to Spitzer, allegedly without the governor's knowledge, brazenly used the state police to create an embarrassing story about Bruno in the press seriously damages the governor's grandiose plan to rid Albany of the veteran senate majority leader, which would give Spitzer a clear field, free of any opposition. As the plan by Spitzer's agents backfired, it destroyed the chief executive's near-term strategy to use next year's state senate elections to topple Bruno from his long-held leadership position. Bruno emerges from his month-long feud with the governor as the fair haired, abused pol. This will fire up Republicans to maintain Bruno's two-member majority in the senate in next year's elections. Bruno would then dominate the Albany scene through 2010, when Spitzer will come up for reelection. From his vantage point as majority leader, the pugnacious Bruno will be in a position to torpedo every major Spitzer initiative throughout the wounded governor's first term. This is the way both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and other operatives in Albany are interpreting the fallout from Cuomo's report. One Democratic senator who asked to remain anonymous said, "The governor may not have had a hand in the plot revealed by the attorney general, but there's no denying that he and his bullying tactics rubbed off on his aides and created the climate for their stupid plot." A Republican Party worker in Queens with ties to top officials in the county organization said gleefully, "It's a whole new ballgame for us, thanks to Spitzer's blunder." This source said that with the momentum the Republicans will gain from the botched plan hatched in Spitzer's inner sanctum, plans for them to hold on to the senate majority leading up to the 2008 elections will be redoubled. - John Toscano |
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