Thursday, March 15, 2007
SPITZER AND BRUNO TRADE @#%! BOMBS
New York Post FREDRIC U. DICKER and KENNETH LOVETT
Here is some more detail on the "blowup" yesterday...between Spitzer and Bruno....meanwhile the budget clock is ticking down to april 1st.......politics is a funny game..one day...yelling and screaming..the next day...a bouquet of roses...........andy
March 15, 2007 -- ALBANY - Gov. Eliot "Steamroller" Spitzer was at it again yesterday, in a 15-minute, expletive-laden exchange with Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno that left top state officials aghast - and caused a secretary to flee the face-off in horror, insiders said yesterday.
"I'm not going to be bullied, I'm not going to be steamrolled," Bruno shouted at Spitzer, sources said of the explosive behind-closed-doors confrontation.
Spitzer fired back, "I'm the governor and I'm not going to be insulted," according to a senior state official.
Another official said Spitzer infuriated Bruno by accusing him of seeking "absurd" and "indefensible" increases in the governor's proposed new state budget.
Bruno then angrily countered that Spitzer was "embarrassing me in the papers."
To which Spitzer was said to have responded, "You're doing that to yourself."
Bruno was also said to have exploded when Spitzer told him he had to "get serious" about the state budget.
Bruno angrily contended the claim was the "same mantra" embraced by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), both Spitzer loyalists. "That's all I hear," said Bruno, adding, "They [Silver and Smith] are so far up your ass it's ridiculous."
"There was a lot of screaming and curses," a senior state official who said he was briefed on the blowup told The Post.
Things got so heated that one of Spitzer's secretaries "got up and ran out of the room," said a source close to the Bruno camp.
Several sources said the confrontation between Democrat Spitzer and Bruno, a Republican from upstate Rensselaer County, was triggered by Bruno's morning appearance on Albany's WROW-AM.
On the radio, Bruno angrily accused the "liberal press" of ignoring the governor's alleged efforts to raise state taxes by $800 million and his alleged misstating of available state revenues.
"Gov. Spitzer walks on water, Gov. Spitzer is infallible, Gov. Spitzer can't do anything wrong. Gov. Spitzer is the reincarnation of everything that is good and holy and Bruno is evil," Bruno said on the radio show when asked about Spitzer's criticisms of his just-unveiled budget proposal.
A source close to Bruno claimed Spitzer "went ballistic" over several of the senator's comments on the radio show. Minutes later, Spitzer allegedly retaliated by refusing to invite Bruno into a meeting with the family of Connie Russo-Carrierro whose murder by an ex-con sex-offender contributed to the political climate which led to the passage of a "civil-confinement" bill last week.
The snub - which is how aides to Bruno described it to several members of the press - occurred a few minutes before Spitzer and Bruno were set to appear together at a bill-signing ceremony at which the governor approved the civil-confinement measure.
Spitzer has earned a reputation for a confrontational style both as attorney general and, since Jan. 1, as governor.
The Post disclosed last month that Spitzer had warned Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R-Schenectady) not to oppose his proposals because he was a "f- - - -ing steamroller" prepared to crush him.
Meanwhile, the "peace pact" between Spitzer and the state's top healthcare association and union abruptly ended after just one day.
TV advertisements attacking the governor - pulled to permit serious negotiations on Spitzer's proposed healthcare cuts - suddenly went back on the air.
Here is some more detail on the "blowup" yesterday...between Spitzer and Bruno....meanwhile the budget clock is ticking down to april 1st.......politics is a funny game..one day...yelling and screaming..the next day...a bouquet of roses...........andy
March 15, 2007 -- ALBANY - Gov. Eliot "Steamroller" Spitzer was at it again yesterday, in a 15-minute, expletive-laden exchange with Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno that left top state officials aghast - and caused a secretary to flee the face-off in horror, insiders said yesterday.
"I'm not going to be bullied, I'm not going to be steamrolled," Bruno shouted at Spitzer, sources said of the explosive behind-closed-doors confrontation.
Spitzer fired back, "I'm the governor and I'm not going to be insulted," according to a senior state official.
Another official said Spitzer infuriated Bruno by accusing him of seeking "absurd" and "indefensible" increases in the governor's proposed new state budget.
Bruno then angrily countered that Spitzer was "embarrassing me in the papers."
To which Spitzer was said to have responded, "You're doing that to yourself."
Bruno was also said to have exploded when Spitzer told him he had to "get serious" about the state budget.
Bruno angrily contended the claim was the "same mantra" embraced by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), both Spitzer loyalists. "That's all I hear," said Bruno, adding, "They [Silver and Smith] are so far up your ass it's ridiculous."
"There was a lot of screaming and curses," a senior state official who said he was briefed on the blowup told The Post.
Things got so heated that one of Spitzer's secretaries "got up and ran out of the room," said a source close to the Bruno camp.
Several sources said the confrontation between Democrat Spitzer and Bruno, a Republican from upstate Rensselaer County, was triggered by Bruno's morning appearance on Albany's WROW-AM.
On the radio, Bruno angrily accused the "liberal press" of ignoring the governor's alleged efforts to raise state taxes by $800 million and his alleged misstating of available state revenues.
"Gov. Spitzer walks on water, Gov. Spitzer is infallible, Gov. Spitzer can't do anything wrong. Gov. Spitzer is the reincarnation of everything that is good and holy and Bruno is evil," Bruno said on the radio show when asked about Spitzer's criticisms of his just-unveiled budget proposal.
A source close to Bruno claimed Spitzer "went ballistic" over several of the senator's comments on the radio show. Minutes later, Spitzer allegedly retaliated by refusing to invite Bruno into a meeting with the family of Connie Russo-Carrierro whose murder by an ex-con sex-offender contributed to the political climate which led to the passage of a "civil-confinement" bill last week.
The snub - which is how aides to Bruno described it to several members of the press - occurred a few minutes before Spitzer and Bruno were set to appear together at a bill-signing ceremony at which the governor approved the civil-confinement measure.
Spitzer has earned a reputation for a confrontational style both as attorney general and, since Jan. 1, as governor.
The Post disclosed last month that Spitzer had warned Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R-Schenectady) not to oppose his proposals because he was a "f- - - -ing steamroller" prepared to crush him.
Meanwhile, the "peace pact" between Spitzer and the state's top healthcare association and union abruptly ended after just one day.
TV advertisements attacking the governor - pulled to permit serious negotiations on Spitzer's proposed healthcare cuts - suddenly went back on the air.
