Results tagged “rogerstone”

Did Paterson Reach Out to Spitzer's Enemy to Take Out Cuomo?

In what is truly a case of politics making for strange bedfellows, it's reported that Governor Paterson's right-hand man, Charles O'Byrne (pictured), recently had a meeting with GOP operative Roger Stone. Stone of course is the man best known for helping bring down former Governor Eliot Spitzer, outing his penchant for socks-on time and chewing out Spitzer's elderly father along the way. Stone has publicly stated that he would like to see Paterson, and not Andrew Cuomo, get the Democratic nomination next year because he knows the governor appears more vulnerable to a GOP opponent. Could O'Byrne have been looking for assistance from a man eager to aid the governor's ultimate defeat?

Schumer Would Need to Pull a Mark Foley to Lose in 2010

The last time Chuck Schumer ran for reelection for his Senate seat in 2004, he was victorious by the widest margin in state history at 71% to 24%. Right now it appears that he could top that in his bid for reelection next year. With the mayor going for a third term, Giuliani and Lazio considering a shot at the state house and Peter King already eying the Senate seat now held by Kirsten Gillibrand, Republicans are essentially looking for a jobber to throw up against Chuck. When asked who might run, Conservative Party chief Mike Long said, "If you're trying to ask a 'gotcha' question, I guess you got me." One poli-sci professor described it, "You've got (Muhammad) Ali in one corner and a couple of guys from the high school gym in the other." But with the recent attention drawn to his lax standards for Wall Street before the economic crisis, GOP operative Roger Stone thinks Schumer should be considered more vulnerable saying, "He should be the poster child for the financial meltdown." The last time a Republican won a Senate race in New York was 1992.

Unsurprisingly, Republican strategist Roger Stone is critical of the feds not charging former governor Eliot Spitzer for soliciting a prostitute. Long before Hookergate, Stone may have called Spitzer a "phony, psycho piece of s---" (in a message to Spitzer's dad), and Stone has claimed he gave tips to the feds about Spitzer's hotel room activities. On "The Stone Zone", Stone writes Spitzer got off since he "is a former prosecutor and chief law enforcement officer of New York that he should have been prosecuted. When powerful politicians break the law with impunity, it only encourages official corruption. As Attorney General Eliot Spitzer prosecuted prostitution rings while he himself was patronizing one. Very clearly, he has violated federal money laundering statutes and the Mann Act by transporting a prostitute over state lines to engage in sexual acts. So, the central message of Watergate is wrong - some people are above the law."

Stone (who may or may not have left a rude voicemail on Spitzer's dad's phone calling Eliot a "phony, psycho piece of s---") has previously claimed credit for helping tip off the feds about Spitzer. Now he explains in much more detail how he figured out a "hot blonde" hooker had met with Spitzer. Excerpts of NYer article, via Page Six:

"She told me she had a very high-end clientele - she kept using the word 'high-end' - athletes, international businessmen, politicians . . . then she said, 'I almost had a date with Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New Jersey.' She didn't know much about politics. So I asked her, 'Did this guy have a beard?' [like whiskered Jon Corzine]."

Roger Stone, infamous GOP operative who formerly consulted for the NY State GOP, tells NY1 that he "told the FBI in November of Spitzer's possible involvement in a prostitution ring." An interview with Stone will be broadcast on tonight's "Inside City Hall."

According to the tabloids (and the Miami Herald), apparently, former Governor Spitzer would not only solicit high-priced call girls in Florida but that he'd keep his black mid-calf socks on during the deed. Take that, NY Times story about finding the good in Spitzer's term as Governor!

Gov. Eliot Spitzer and each of his parents kicked in about $16,000 a piece to pay off Mark Green's outstanding campaign debts, which he incurred while unsuccessfully running for Spitzer's old job as Attorney General in 2006. The $50,000 in payments exceed the Governor's self-imposed limit of contributions of $10,000, but he's making an exception because this is to pay off a past campaign debt, so is not really a campaign contribution. Plus, he and Green are old pals, with the latter acting as a vocal supporter of the Governor during his first year in office, when vocal supporters were in short supply.

Mr. Green said that he and the governor “have been friends for years, and this is what friends do for each other.” He said there was nothing untoward about accepting donations from Mr. Spitzer on the one hand and speaking out in support of him on the other.

As GOP crank-yanker Roger Stone recently learned, most Broadway theaters are dark on Monday, so day three of the stagehands’ strike will have the least impact on the city’s economy. The Times has a funny photo in today’s article about stymied Broadway theatergoers; it depicts disappointed Spamalot ticket-holder Cecelia Pan taking her family to a slightly different show: St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Because, you know, with Broadway shuttered there’s simply no other family theater worth seeing...

Governor Spitzer's communications director Darren Dopp has come full circle. The aide, criticized for trying to dig up dirt on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno by way of the State Police's records on Bruno's travel, had originally said he'd comply with the investigation and offer up his e-mail correspondence. But, after being served with a subpoena from the Ethics Commission, Dopp's lawyer Terrence Kindlon said his client would fight it. Now, Kindlon tells the press, "I could not insist that he resist the subpoena."

Just when we thought Roger Stone, the GOP operative accused of leaving a menacing voicemail for Governor Spitzer's father, couldn't be more amusing, he outdoes himself. Stone's assistant sent The Politicker's Azi Paybarah some photographs of Stone, supposedly "taken at The Ink Monkey tattoo shop in Venice Beach, California" where he was "getting a tattoo on his back of Richard Nixon’s face." Really.

It's been too long since we've checked in with Roger Stone, the GOP operative who is suspected of making a threatening call to Governor Spitzer's father. The Sun reports that Stone, who was asked to resign his $20,000/month gig consulting for NY State Republicans, has apologized to Dale Hemmerdinger, the owner of his apartment building and friend of Spitzer.

Reach out and touch someone - and get fired for it, possibly even if you didn't do the reaching out and touching. The nutty voicemail message left for Bernard Spitzer, father of Governor Spitzer, is reassuring everyone that it's just politics as usual in Albany. The elder Spitzer's lawyers believe that the call was made by GOP consultant Roger Stone, who was recently hired at $20,000/month by NY State Republican (he was consulting with Spitzer's rival, State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno).

Okay, we give up. The whole Governor Spitzer-Senate Republican animosity thing has become totally and utterly insane. Someone left a crazy message for Spitzer's father, the wealthy (and 83-year-old) real estate developer Bernard Spitzer. And call has been traced to the apartment of a GOP adviser to State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno!

This is a message for Bernard Spitzer. You will be subpoenaed to testify in front of the Senate committee on investigation on your shady campaign loans. You will be compelled by the Senate sergeant at arms, if you resist, you will be arrested and brought to Albany - and there's not a goddamn thing your phony, psycho piece of s--- son can do about it. Bernie, your phony loans are about to catch up with you. You will be forced to tell the truth. The fact that your son is a pathological liar will be known to all.
The "phony loans" referenced relate to a small scandal about loans the developer made to his son for the 1994 Attorney General campaign. You can hear the message here, via the NY Times. A lawyer for Bernard Spitzer said that call was traced to the 40 Central Park South apartment of Roger Stone, who is currently paid $20,000 a month as a GOP consultant.

Governor Spitzer's ethics woes went to the national stage yesterday when the Today show ran a segment (see it here) about the mess that included the on-screen caption "Spitzer Scandal." Sure, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office did not find any law-breaking by Spitzer's aides, just dirty tricks-ing by way of using the state police to discredit Spitzer's main Albany rival, State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

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