Teitelbaum: Troopergate Probe No Whitewash
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- July
- 25
Herbert Teitelbaum, the head of the state’s Commission on Public Integrity, on Friday defended the commission’s investigation into the Troopergate scandal, saying that former Gov. Eliot Spitzer wasn’t charged because “we went where the evidence took us.â€
Teitelbaum has been under fire for the lengthiness and the approach of the probe into whether Spitzer and his aides plotted to damage former Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno.
On the right, the critical website, the Spitzerfile.com, put up this picture to offer their opinion of the investigation.
But Teitelbaum shot back at critics for the first time Friday, after the commission Thursday charged four former Spitzer aides with violating the state’s Public Officers Law for conspiring with State Police to release Bruno’s travel records on use of state aircraft.
“A fair-minded person would have to conclude that we went where the evidence took us,†Teitelbaum, a former Manhattan defense attorney, said in an interview with Gannett News Service in his Albany office.
“Some people think that these things need to be outcome driven. In other words, you get your outcome and then figure out how to get there. That’s not a fair investigation.â€
Teitelbaum, a former Spitzer supporter, said the investigation could continue if other evidence comes to light, or if there was an additional sense of a cover-up by the former administration.
But he said the investigation did not reveal that Spitzer specifically knew that aides were working with State Police to compile travel records.
“It’s not enough to say well it must of happened or how couldn’t it have happened. You can’t do that,” he said. “That would be unfair. Can you imagine if you were on the other side of this and somebody said that about you?”
Two Republican assemblymen, Phil Boyle of Long Island and Thomas Kirwan of Newburgh, called on Friday for Gov. David Paterson to remove Teitelbaum and commission Chairman John Ferrick and bring back former Lobbying Commission chief David Grandeau.
“Teitelbaum, sort of like the character in ‘A Few Good Men,’ not only couldn’t handle the truth but didn’t want to know the truth,†they said.
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on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 3:12 pm by Joseph Spector.
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No whitewash? The people who pled guilty receive only a “public rebuke,” and go back to business as usual. The ones who refused to plead guilty, although the obvious is the obvious, MIGHT, at worst, receive meaningless fines by the time the whole thing is duly buried. But more likely, they, too, so long as they stop trying to involve Spitzer in any wrongdoing, will also be simply “rebuked publicly.” And what about the Albany DA that evidence shows conspired with Spitzer? The ex-governor is effectively found to have been uninvolved with the whole fiasco, but despite convincing evidence to the contrary, he’s saluted and sent on his way. Nice State we have here, or should I say THEY have here. The people on this “Public Integrity Commission,” should not only be let go, THEY should be prosecuted. We all may as well be living in Biafra.
I don’t want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their job.SamuelGoldwynSamuel Goldwyn
Avoid being seized by the police. The cops are not your friends. Don’t tell them anything.HunterS.ThompsonHunter S. Thompson, advice on ‘adventure’ in Men’s Journal
Have you ever fed your pocket and starved your soul?IvanaSantilliIvana Santilli, Too Deep
Hey ed:
We like “Police State” for his knowledge of Samuel Goldwyn, the master of the malaprop.
Let’s ask our friends at the Federal Government to check (en)Teitelbaum’s 1040s, and 1099s.
The one part of our federal budget for which I heartily approve is that for more funding of our United States Attorneys’ offices, particularly here in the 2nd District. And, most especially, for that part of the Feds’ “public corruption” unit.
(en)Teitelbaum, Rostenkowski: what’s the difference? Well, at least Dan Rostenkowski got some money for his own district, in Chicago, and he wasn’t lining his own pockets as greedily as the way supporters of our immediate past governor seemed to have been doing.
Tim – I believe it was Jack Warner who referred to Hollywood screenwriters as “schmucks with Underwoods.” Presumably he was speaking of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, et al.
Ed—Jack Warner (horse’s head in the bed in GF) was maybe the more intelligent, but Samuel Goldfish (Goldwyn) was the wiser, and shrewder, even with his malaprops.
And, Sam Goldwyn was a Republican.
Ed: humbly submitted, a couple of good reading suggestions—
“An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood,” 1989. By Neal Gabler, a sine-qua-non historian. He did the bio of Walt Disney three years ago. Gabler is a magnificent historian.
And “Goldwyn: A Biography,: 1998. By A. Scott Berg, America’s modern pre-eminent biographer (Lindbergh, and others).
Both were originally published by Knopf, which is the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” for well-edited books.
Gabler and Berg are on a par with one another: great writers, significant intellect and curiosity, and native Californians, like Ted Williams, and me.
further reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Goldwyn
You’ll have a kick, while writing your short stories.
Best,
Tim
Wow! I’d like to know what “hot buttons” delayed my previous posting! Was it the word “Jews” in Neal Gabler’s title? (A best-selling book.) Or was it the link to wikipedia for the Sam Goldwyn bio?
It couldn’t have been “Knopf.”
;>