The words were flying between Governor Eliot Spitzer and State Senator Majority Leader Joseph Bruno yesterday, when the two had a crazy fight. Highlights:
- Bruno yelling, "I'm not going to be bullied, I'm not going to be steamrolled."
- Spitzer yelling, "I'm the governor and I'm not going to be insulted."
- Sources say Bruno said, Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens; is “so far up (the governor’s a**) he can’t see." (Bruno may have also included Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver with Smith in Spitzer's a**.)
Both Bruno's and Spitzer's confirmed the fight, which also included Bruno lashing out when Spitzer told him to "get serious" about the budget (Spitzer is making big cuts, Bruno and Silver wants to add more funding). The Post says lots of swears were used and that one of Spitzer's secretaries ran out of the room!
The fight may have stemmed from Bruno's criticism of Spitzer during a radio show, where the former boxer said (mockingly?), "Gov. Spitzer walks on water, Gov. Spitzer is infallible, Gov. Spitzer can't do anything wrong. Gov. Spitzer is the reincarnation of everything that is good and holy and Bruno is evil." Damn! And to quote a commenter on the Times Union's Capitol Confidential blog says, "Jeez guys, if you’re going to scream at each other, do it in public - we paid for this show."
And the short-lived truce where Spitzer and the hospital workers union, SEIU 1199, would stop running the ads (you know which ones we're talking about) was called off, as the union's ads slamming Spitzer for the hospital cuts were back on the air.
