Spitzer featured in New York Magazine
So the Guv has been featured in New York Magazine. It’s a pretty interesting read and provides a nice narrative on the situation in Albany over the last year, as well as being interesting reading.
I’ll just highlight some passages I found entertaining, poignant, or interesting:
An ongoing FBI investigation into corruption is said to focus on whether a business Bruno consulted for got favorable governmental treatment, but even a federal probe can’t dampen his high spirits. Bruno always has a quick return. Albany dysfunctional? “Pure nonsense,†he retorts.
…People don’t care about campaign-finance reform, [Bruno] said. “When you get up in the morning, do your children ask you the status of campaign-finance reform?â€
Bruno had other reasons for not wanting to fix some of the laxest campaign-finance laws in the country. (Currently, anyone can form as many corporations as he wants and give money through each.)
Our weak campaign finance laws are the only things propping up Bruno and his Republican colleagues in the Senate. Joe Bruno is trying very hard to stop the momentum for Clean Money Clean Elections. Bruno knows that Clean Elections are too democratic to sustain his hold on power.
At [Spitzer's] first meeting with his top aides, he told them, “It is absolutely your duty to disagree with me. You will not be doing your job unless you disagree.†As governor, he’s the one challenging the premise. “I think I almost finished my first couple of sentences before his first question,†says one aide. “He’s pretty intense.â€
Spitzer made a point of recruiting bright people; he’s a student of résumés. “The reality is Spitzer does have the smartest people in the room working with him,†says one aide.
If only a certain other Chief Executive encouraged his advisers to speak up, to challenge his ideas, to keep him honest.
If only a certain other Chief Executive were interested in the ideas of others, asked questions, and didn’t brand dissenters “unpatriotic”.
If only a certain other Chief Executive appointed people based on their competence rather than loyalty. If only we had a system of government that appointed people based on merit, rather than cronyism.
When Spitzer was attorney general, he had always been, he once assured me, “right on the facts,†which was why he always won, he believed. And yet Albany has never worked that way—and perhaps never will. “The governor cannot just make the best case and always expect to win,†says Silver, as if explaining a harsh world to a younger sibling. Silver said Spitzer had gotten more done in six months than other governors in four years.
I’m not necessarily saying that every one of Spitzer’s ideas is correct, but I have to express appreciation for the sentiment expressed here. Good ideas should trump politics. Too bad we have entrenched interests in Albany fighting those ideas.
Related posts:
You should e-maill this to Nancy Pelosi. What is she so afraid of? “Good ideas should trump politics.” Right, so why did she take impeachment off the table? At least hold hearings.