Is What Hevesi Did So Bad Or So Different? And What's The Alternative?
October 31st, 2006
Newsday criticizes New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi today for running negative commercials about his opponent. The editorial reflects the general tone editorialists and bloggers have been taking about Hevesis use of a state employee to drive around his ailing wife.
But, as the case continues, voters realize they are likely to face a choice between him and his opponent on Election Day (unless criminal proceedings intervene), and it is provoking some differing points of view, that seem to fall into two basic categories:
1.What he did doesnt seem so bad, or at least not so different from other officials.
2.The alternative might be a nightmare.
Among the dozens of comments on the comments page of a blog post at The Daily Politics is this anonymous one: This blog and most of the media pathetically try to suck all of the blood out of Alan Hevesi and will then have themselves to blame when Comptroller Callghan incompetently mismanages pension funds, screws up state audits, and lets his GOP henchmen block the new Governor’s agenda whenever possible… So give it a rest; let the election run its course. Hevesi should still win, resign and get replaced by a competent person.
(Among the many responses: Hevesi is the personification of everything that’s wrong with Albany Callaghan couldn’t be any worse. Think of it as a “creative destruction”; at least one guy won’t owe anyone a damn thing-not 1199, not the teachers, not the unions, not the lobbyists. Because for all the “Day One” bravado, you know it’s still going to be business as usual for the rest of Albany. Somebody should be an outsider.)
Last Friday, New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman (available only to subscribers) offered a compelling tidbit from the past, repeating the recollection of someone who saw the wife of long-time New York State Comptroller Arthur Levitt get picked up every day from her office at P.S. 268 by a chauffeur driving a big black car….Back then,” Haberman observed, “that sort of practice raised few, if any, eyebrows.
Today he follows up with another column detailing more recent questionable practices by other state officials, many of whom are having (or could have) a hand in addressing Comptroller Alan Hevesis ethical lapses. Among them:
Governor George Pataki His wife, Libby, wrote a childrens book, then leaned on Republican groups to buy it in bulk. An assistant, whose salary was paid by the states Republican Party, ran personal errands for her. Unlike Mr. Hevesis situation, no taxpayer funds were involved. But it was not exactly how Republican donors thought their money would be used.
State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno — Mr. Brunos son Kenneth was for a time a lobbyist. Just whom did the younger Bruno lobby last year with mirabile dictu conspicuous success? Why, aides to his father.
And the new attorney general — It could be Jeanine F. Pirro, she who signed false tax returns that sent her husband to jail, or Andrew M. Cuomo, he who was paid handsomely by a businessman once investigated by Mr. Cuomo when he was the federal housing secretary. Neither Ms. Pirro nor Mr. Cuomo has been charged with wrongdoing. Then again, neither has received a medal for high-mindedness.
By Jonathan Mandell on October 31, 2006, 12:22 pmIn category: Albany, Electoral Politics, Governing, Public Finance | 8 Comments »





