Bush’s DOJ and Eliot Spitzer
It doesn’t take a political genius to realize that there’s more to the Eliot Spitzer story than what has been reported.
Soon after the news broke, I commented to friends how there’s another story to be told; a story that includes Wall Street interests, a crusading progressive politician with his eye on the White House, a politized Department of Justice, and, of course, we cannot forget that the Bush Administration still controls the reins of the Executive branch (i.e., they still control the investigative muscle to go after the opposition).
Because of this, I wasn’t too surprised to read this on Harper’s No Comment:
Just after the scandal broke, a number of New York pols told me they were convinced that the Albany Republican establishment knew “all about” Spitzer’s problems well in advance of the press reports. I couldn’t find anything that substantiated this suspicion, but Newsday’s Ellis Henican now presents the first evidence. He interviews Roger Stone, a man known as the ultimate dirty-trickster of New York politics.
But before I could even make my way to the Capitol to gather up a new pile of reaction statements, my cell phone was ringing from a place even nicer than this. The call-back number said 202, for Washington. But the sunny voice on the other end could only be in Miami.
Yes, it was Roger Stone. And the exuberance in his voice made high-fiving Albanians sound almost morose. “I didn’t make him go to a prostitution ring,” said the most famous and ruthless Republican dirty trickster who still walks the earth. “He did that all on his own.”
Stone said that even before I asked if his hand was somehow in Spitzer’s latest trouble. I figured, somehow or another, it had to be. “No comment on that,” Stone said. “I will say I knew it was coming. That’s why I wasn’t too upset about the results of the special election,” where a Democrat grabbed a supposedly safe Republican State Senate seat, leaving Democrats just one vote shy of control.
Maybe this is pure braggadocio. But if Roger Stone did know that all of this was going down then the state’s Republican leadership most likely did too. That would be more powerful evidence of a politically corrupted investigation and prosecution.
This, it goes with out saying, in no way excuses Eliot Spitzer’s blame and total lack of sense, and responsibility. However, it would not come as a great surprise if we later learn that Bush’s Department of Justice launched a fishing expedition with the sole intent to catching a once promising Democratic prize. Yes, the now former governor of New York should’ve known better.
And now to wait for the enterprising journalist that will dig beneath surface, and look pass the sex scandal, and easy story of prostitutes and powerful men.
