Gillibrand’s Dirty Tricks - Will AG Cuomo Get The Facts?

StoneZone ^ | January 25, 2009 | Roger Stone

[IndePundit]

The appointment by New York Governor David Paterson of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to the vacant senate seat of Hillary Clinton raises serious questions surrounding the illegal dirty tricks employed to elect Gillibrand to Congress in the first place.

In 2006 Governor George Pataki's Chief of Staff Zenia Mucha illegally obtained New York State Police records regarding a domestic dispute between then Congressman John Sweeney and his wife. The records were obtained by former State Police captain Daniel Wiese, who functioned as a dirty tricks operative for Pataki and later Governor Eliot Spitzer. Wiese was also the operative who pressured State police Superintendent Preston Fenton to utilize the State police to spy on Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and to fabricate records to smear Bruno. Fenton was forced to resign over the Bruno smear effort.

Mucha, a former aide to Senator Alfonse D'Amato, was the live-in girlfriend of Gillibrand's father, Albany lobbyist Doug Rutnick. The State Police records were leaked to the anti-Sweeney Albany Times Union, perhaps the most biased newspaper in the nation, just six days before the election, causing Sweeney's defeat and Gillibrand's election. Prior to the leaks Sweeney lead in the race by 19 points according to the New York Times .

Sweeney was targeted by Mucha and the Pataki dirty tricks operation because of his growing criticism of Pataki's move to the left and his alliance with 1199, the Public Employees Union. Pataki's agreement with the union in return for endorsement of his re-election virtually bankrupt the state.

Unfortunately for all involved, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has an open investigation in to Wiese and the State Police abuses, an investigation in which the New York Times reports Wiese now refuses to co-operate, presumably because of his fear of self-incrimination. It is essential that Cuomo examine the leaks and other political abuses of the State Police by the Pataki Adminstration. Cuomo should request special counsel status from Governor Paterson to obtain subpoena power to force the under-oath testimony of Mucha, Wiese and Gillibrand as to how confidential State Police records were obtained and leaked. A refusal by Paterson will stink of a cover-up.

Equally troubling is Gillibrand's former internship with Senator D'Amato who's misdeeds date to his illegal requirement that Town of Hempstead employees kick back 1% of their salaries to the Nassau County Republican Organization. D'Amato embarrassed New York State in the U.S. Senate for 16 years before the voters turned the crude, loud-mouthed D'Amato out of office. "Some guys mature in public office" said one U.S. Senator from a neighboring state " Not Al- he was the same cheap, low-class hoodlum when he left the Senate as when he came".

That Governor Paterson allowed D'Amato to stand front and center at Gillibrand's announcement press conference , although no doubt good for D'Amato's influence peddling business, has inflamed New York Democrats and virtually insured public scrutiny of D'Amato's and Rutnick's Washington lobby clients and Gillibrand's votes and activities impacting them.

The shady circumstances surrounding Gillbrand's first election and her conservative record also insure a Democratic primary for the seat in 2010. The idea that up-state voters would cheer Gillibrand's appointment is ridiculous- voters in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse have never heard of her. Governor Paterson's choice is a puzzling one. It gained him nothing other than the enmity of the Kennedy's, Cuomo and his party's progressive wing.

[decimon]

Ping

[JimC214]

Like Dandy Andy's Dad was a class act. Vote for Cuomo not the Homo was used against Koch. I guess that was considered classy.

[neverdem]

thanks decimon