Thursday, January 04, 2007
Blogger's Delight
Liz Benjamin(Capitol Confidential) alerts us that there is a new Sheriff in Town Cuomo As Sheriff "As attorney general, Eliot Spitzer built a reputation as the Sheriff of Wall Street, but it seems like his successor, Andrew Cuomo, aims to be the Sheriff of State Street.
Cuomo says he’ll initiate a formal review of the roughly 6,000 member items- AKA pork - that have been contracted this year and will move to recoup funds which were misspent." Hey Andrew...start with the Republican Pork first....just kidding..........Liz thinks there is plenty to investigate "Certainly there is plenty of room for Cuomo to dig around in pork abuse. State Sen. Efrain Gonzalez is under indictment for allegedly stealing some $400,000 in member item money for his own use, while Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin faces similar charges.
Senate Majority Joe Bruno is also under FBI investigation, reportedly with links to companies that got pork barrel grants." Senator Al(D'Amato) changes his position on things more frequently than we change our grandson's diapers...now he thinks Elmer Pataki is another Harry Truman D’Amato To The Rescue "“The political critics are having a field day with George Pataki’s final days in office,” D’Amato wrote in a newsletter sent out by his lobbying firm, Park Strategies LLC, “But history will mock their columns and commentary with the same reproach today’s historians use on those who attacked President Harry Truman when he left the White House and departed for home in Independence, Mo.” Hey Al, I bet Harry didn't wait till his final day in office to take a tour of the White House......Pataki will never ever be a Truman...you must be smoking some of that "funny stuff" you keep talking about......and speaking of rescues......Newsday's SpinCycle has Suozzi Plays Nice to Gov's Mom AT Spitzer's Address "Despite his bruising defeat at the hands of Gov. Eliot Spitzer during the Democratic primary, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi was nice enough to escort Spitzer's elderly mother, Anne Spitzer, out of the Assembly chamber this afternoon.
Spitzer's mom was being bumped around quite a bit by the crowd leaving Spitzer's first State of the State address, when Suozzi took her arm." Now if Tom could only take back all those bruising attacks on Spitzer's Family and the Family Trust....I wonder if the idiot that came up with that Campaign Strategy is still around.......hopefully not........Azi Paybarah(The Politicker) gives us a status report Gay Marriage After Day 1 Three days into the new administration, the Empire State Pride Agenda released its ranking of state lawmakers and their positions on gay marriage.
The ranking shows some recent movement towards the pro- side in the Assembly, with a total 47 members who have now at least "indicated support", up from 35 when the group put out their last scorecard on September 15. In the Senate, the number went to 16 from 14." What about Eliot not mentioning Gay Marriage in his State of the State Message??? "Governor Spitzer has been very public about his support for marriage for same-sex couples. He has also said marriage for our families will become law in New York State and that he will introduce a program bill aimed at accomplishing this. We fully expect that he will follow through on his promises. We will let his actions do the talking on marriage and on the other issues that are important to our community." Azi also comments on AG's Cuomo's New Role Cuomo and Member Items "In a speech delivered just now, Andrew Cuomo said he's going to audit 6,000 member items doled out by state lawmakers and recover any "misspent funds."
Cuomo said he would seek to recover the money under the Tweed law or other statutory authority, but did not indicate what action would be taken against a lawmaker who doled out the misspent money.
Future member items, he said, will have to meet the following criteria:
1) a bona fide legal public purpose for the grant;
2) effective administration by a state agency pursuant to a contract with specific terms and conditions which can be measured and controlled;
3) compliance in actual grant implementation; and
4) full disclosure of all grants throughout the budget process.
Cuomo also said he'll elevate the status of the Public Integrity Unit to Special Deputy Attorney General level and expand the staff in that area.
All this is music to the ears of good government groups, and to people on Wall Street, as The Dealbook noted yesterday." For too long the State Assembly/Senate have positioned themselves above the law..they have exempted themselves from just about every ethical/disclosure regulation on the books...times are a changing....for the better...........andy
Cuomo says he’ll initiate a formal review of the roughly 6,000 member items- AKA pork - that have been contracted this year and will move to recoup funds which were misspent." Hey Andrew...start with the Republican Pork first....just kidding..........Liz thinks there is plenty to investigate "Certainly there is plenty of room for Cuomo to dig around in pork abuse. State Sen. Efrain Gonzalez is under indictment for allegedly stealing some $400,000 in member item money for his own use, while Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin faces similar charges.
Senate Majority Joe Bruno is also under FBI investigation, reportedly with links to companies that got pork barrel grants." Senator Al(D'Amato) changes his position on things more frequently than we change our grandson's diapers...now he thinks Elmer Pataki is another Harry Truman D’Amato To The Rescue "“The political critics are having a field day with George Pataki’s final days in office,” D’Amato wrote in a newsletter sent out by his lobbying firm, Park Strategies LLC, “But history will mock their columns and commentary with the same reproach today’s historians use on those who attacked President Harry Truman when he left the White House and departed for home in Independence, Mo.” Hey Al, I bet Harry didn't wait till his final day in office to take a tour of the White House......Pataki will never ever be a Truman...you must be smoking some of that "funny stuff" you keep talking about......and speaking of rescues......Newsday's SpinCycle has Suozzi Plays Nice to Gov's Mom AT Spitzer's Address "Despite his bruising defeat at the hands of Gov. Eliot Spitzer during the Democratic primary, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi was nice enough to escort Spitzer's elderly mother, Anne Spitzer, out of the Assembly chamber this afternoon.
Spitzer's mom was being bumped around quite a bit by the crowd leaving Spitzer's first State of the State address, when Suozzi took her arm." Now if Tom could only take back all those bruising attacks on Spitzer's Family and the Family Trust....I wonder if the idiot that came up with that Campaign Strategy is still around.......hopefully not........Azi Paybarah(The Politicker) gives us a status report Gay Marriage After Day 1 Three days into the new administration, the Empire State Pride Agenda released its ranking of state lawmakers and their positions on gay marriage.
The ranking shows some recent movement towards the pro- side in the Assembly, with a total 47 members who have now at least "indicated support", up from 35 when the group put out their last scorecard on September 15. In the Senate, the number went to 16 from 14." What about Eliot not mentioning Gay Marriage in his State of the State Message??? "Governor Spitzer has been very public about his support for marriage for same-sex couples. He has also said marriage for our families will become law in New York State and that he will introduce a program bill aimed at accomplishing this. We fully expect that he will follow through on his promises. We will let his actions do the talking on marriage and on the other issues that are important to our community." Azi also comments on AG's Cuomo's New Role Cuomo and Member Items "In a speech delivered just now, Andrew Cuomo said he's going to audit 6,000 member items doled out by state lawmakers and recover any "misspent funds."
Cuomo said he would seek to recover the money under the Tweed law or other statutory authority, but did not indicate what action would be taken against a lawmaker who doled out the misspent money.
Future member items, he said, will have to meet the following criteria:
1) a bona fide legal public purpose for the grant;
2) effective administration by a state agency pursuant to a contract with specific terms and conditions which can be measured and controlled;
3) compliance in actual grant implementation; and
4) full disclosure of all grants throughout the budget process.
Cuomo also said he'll elevate the status of the Public Integrity Unit to Special Deputy Attorney General level and expand the staff in that area.
All this is music to the ears of good government groups, and to people on Wall Street, as The Dealbook noted yesterday." For too long the State Assembly/Senate have positioned themselves above the law..they have exempted themselves from just about every ethical/disclosure regulation on the books...times are a changing....for the better...........andy
