CH Exclusive: Bruno On Spitzer, Scandal

In an exclusive you'll find only in our sister publication [City Hall News], Edward-Isaac Dovere sits down with State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who states in the piece that Governor Eliot Spitzer should should leave politics and move into the family real estate business, according to Joe Bruno.

At least, Bruno said, the governor should fire all his top aides and testify under oath. He said Spitzer has no credibility left, and that New Yorkers and Albany leaders think he had a bigger role in the scandal than he has admitted.

In "Steamroller Joe," an exclusive interview with Bruno conducted at the Saratoga Racetrack, the majority leader makes sure his true feelings on Spitzer are known by linking the governor to another famously crooked politician.

"I keep hearing that it's Nixon-esque. And that's sad, and it's tragic, but it is," Bruno said of the Troopergate scandal. "In New YorkState, we've never had anything like this in generations, in anyone's memory."

In the piece, Bruno is asked whether Spitzer belongs in politics. "No," he said. "I don't think he does. He probably would have been great in real estate, where some people handle themselves differently than others. But real estate, you know, you're a hard driver, you drive a hard bargain for some people. That's probably where he belongs."

He also speaks candidly about being discriminated against as a child, attacks Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver for rolling over when Spitzer pushes him and takes on the current Troopergate scandal more forcefully than he has elsewhere on the record. He says all Spitzer's top aides should be put under oath, but before that, fired.

"He wants to be the chief executive, and he ought to deliver a message. In fact, he ought to just start over, and everyone that's around him should be gone," he said, arguing that Baum and Dopp were just some of the people who should lose their jobs.

Until then, Spitzer will not be able to govern. "He has no credibility as the governor," he said. "Not with the leaders. I don't believe he has."

Read the full piece [here].

Photo by Emily Rosenberg for City Hall News