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.
Bernard Spitzer's lawyer says they compared the voice mail message with a broadcast interview of Stone. The Times says it received the voicemail and the broadcast interview and was "unable to draw any conclusions about whether Mr. Stone’s voice was on Mr. Spitzer’s phone message."
Stone, who has worked for Nixon, Reagan, and the two Bushes, denies that he made a call, saying that someone must have broken into his home and doctored a message. Stone's theory, via the Daily News: "His building is owned by Democratic fund-raiser Dale Hemmerdinger, whom Spitzer has nominated to be the next MTA chairman, and Hemmerdinger's management company, ATCO, has pass keys that could have let in an intruder."
Stone told the Sun he was at the play Frost/Nixon when the call was allegedly made and said, "I have been accused of a lot of things but being dumb is not one of them." And he told the Post, "I don't deny that the phone number is mine but fabricating my voice would be exceedingly easy. Give me a f- - -ing break. This is the ultimate dirty trick and the kind of terror tactic Spitzer used in the Attorney General's Office."
The message became public after the senior Spitzer's lawyer sent a letter to the Senate Committee of Investigations and the State Ethics Commission. The Investigations committee head, George Winner, a Republican, suggested it's easy for caller ID to be changed and a Democratic committee member suggested that Bruno fire Stone.
And in other news, Spitzer will not be attending the opening of the NY State Fair because he'll be on vacation. Former governor Mario Cuomo opened the fair between 1989 and 1994 while former governor George Pataki opened the fair between 1995 through 2006.
Update: Stone has resigned as an adviser to State Senate Republicans. Here's part of Bruno's statement:
The news reports today on allegations regarding Roger Stone can only serve as a distraction from the real issues - the abuse of government power, political espionage and a cover up of information. These are the real issues that are being reviewed by Albany County DA David Soares and the State Ethics Commission.
Roger Stone was hired as a consultant to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee in June. He has agreed to resign and end his relationship with us at our request. We are not going to allow this incident to become a distraction or to be used as an excuse to hamper people from getting at the truth.
But people love to hear about byzantine plotting through phone calls to the rich fathers of governors!
