Yesterday I wrote about the New York Times and its effort to downplay the scandal in the administration of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Well, now Spitzer is proclaiming that the State Senate lacks the authority to investigate his administration -- even when it involves efforts by the Governor's Office to use state law enforcement to investigate and discredit political opponents.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer vowed on Wednesday to fight any State Senate inquiry into his administrationÂ’s internal operations, even as Republican senators were laying the groundwork for an investigation that could lead to subpoenas of top officials.

The administrationÂ’s stance sets the stage for a potential showdown with the Senate, and it came amid rising concerns even among Mr. SpitzerÂ’s fellow Democrats about whether the governor and his staff had been candid about their officeÂ’s effort to discredit a political rival.

A scathing report issued on Monday by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo concluded that the governorÂ’s staff had broken no laws but had misused the State Police to gather information about Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, in an effort to plant a negative story about him.

The governor has maintained that he was misled by his staff and knew nothing about the effort to discredit Mr. Bruno. But two of his closest aides refused to be interviewed by the attorney generalÂ’s investigators, intensifying suspicion, especially among the governorÂ’s critics, that Mr. Spitzer and his staff had not been forthright.

During his tenure as Attorney General, Spitzer was known for subpoenaing and investigating everyone and everything on the most tenuous grounds. here we have clear wrong-doing by the Spitzer administration, and the governor is unwilling to submit to the same sort of probing to which he subjected others. Maybe this matter needs to be turned into an impeachment proceeding -- because we know that liberal Democrats are just wild about impeachment. And i',m curious -- will the New York Times write an editorial like this about the Spitzer Administration?

Posted by: Greg at 02:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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