Best Year End Accusation Ever

Will the wackiness at Ground Zero never end? Granted, it's not exactly about Ground Zero, but given that Lower Manhattan Development Corporation chairman John Whitehead has claimed that Attorney General Eliot Spitzer threatened him, we still think it counts as Ground Zero hijinks. Whitehead wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that Spitzer said to him earlier this year, "I will be coming after you. You will pay the price," after Whtiehead had defended Maurice Greenberg, the AIG head whose tenure saw a lot of accounting irregularities. Of course, Greenberg did donate $25 million to the WTC Memorial fund. And we believe that Whitehead was appointed by Governor Pataki - and Spitzer is looking to win the governorship for the Democratic party next year. The NY State GOP wants to investigate this threat, but Spitzer office says that Greenberg's friends just want to help him out. Next year's gubernatorial race is going to be nasty!

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By Jen Chung in News on December 27, 2005 4:39 PM

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Ben

Let's see: John Whitehead, a guy who has had a long, illustrious and unstained career, who has dedicated much of his well-earned retirement to civic causes is lying; and Eliot Spitzer, a demonstrably hot-headed, self-righteous, would-be guardian of virtue, who happens to be running for governor and harbors presidential ambitions is telling the truth? Give me a break.

I doubt Spitzer will "go after" Whitehead, but Spitzer clearly has a temper and it seems consistent with it that he would make an angry, menacing call to Whitehead in the heat of the moment.

What is disappointing is that Spitzer, who so loudly advertises his own integrity, would not just admit, "hey, I was angry. Ace Greenberg has done some really bad stuff and I feel strongly he needs to pay, and it made me upset to see Whitehead defending him. I lost my cool and for that I apologize."