Whitehead can't have been the first person that Spitzer had "a passionate conversation" with, so maybe this will encourage others to come forth. These sorts of stories have a way of snowballing.
I think Spitzer has been out of control for a long time. I think he's one step away from being a self-righteous facist dictator.
"Governor George Pataki has said he had "no reason not to believe" Whitehead was telling the truth."
Love that fire and conviction there Georgie.
NYS ping
What?!?!?!?
An elected prosecutor grabbing headlines and using the legal system to harm opponents and increase their power? I have never heard of such a thing! (sarc.)
Ronnie Earle ping!
ping
looks like Spitzer may be on Der Spitz...
See the apropos Ayn Rand quote on my FR profile page.
Too bad it'll die on the vine as a "he said - he said" kinda thing.
NewsMax:
Eliot Spitzer in Second 'Threat' Flap
A second accuser now says that New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer threatened to use his office against him - after he publicly criticized the top Empire State Democrat.
John Whitehead - a former head of Goldman Sachs who now runs the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. - says Spitzer threatened to "come after" him after he wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal last April complaining that the AG was overzealous in his prosecutions.
After the piece appeared, Whitehead said Spitzer personally called him to declare "war."
"It's now a war between us and you've fired the first shot," Whitehead quoted Spitzer as saying. "I will be coming after you. You will pay the price. This is only the beginning and you will pay dearly for what you have done. You will wish you had never written that letter.'"
Insurance News Net:
SPITZER VS. SPITZER?
Did state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer issue an ugly threat against the chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. for daring to criticize him in print?
And, if so, does that constitute a crime?
New York Republicans say yes on both counts, and they're demanding an investigation by Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau. No surprise there - Democrat Spitzer, after all, is way ahead in all the polls for next year's gubernatorial race.
Absent any evidence that Spitzer actually followed through on the threat, we don't see how what happened - if it happened - rises to the level of a crime.
Or, for that matter, if it would be an action deserving impeachment from office, as demanded by some on the GOP side of the state Legislature in Albany.
But it would certainly speak to Spitzer's judgment - and whether, frankly, he has the kind of firm, even temperament needed to effectively serve as governor.
Which is why voters need to be paying attention.
The brouhaha dates back to April when LMDC Chairman John Whitehead wrote an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal taking Spitzer to task for his public indictment, absent any criminal charges, of Maurice Greenberg - former CEO of the AIG insurance group and a decades-long friend of Whitehead's.
Last week, in a short follow-up piece meant to dispel "rumors in the media," Whitehead said he received a phone call from Spitzer after his earlier article ran.
"I was so shocked," said Whitehead, "that I wrote it all down right away so I would be sure to remember it exactly as he said it."
What Spitzer said, according to Whitehead, was this:
"Mr. Whitehead, it's now a war between us, and you've fired the first shot. I will be coming after you. You will pay the price. This is only the beginning, and you will pay dearly for what you have done. You will wish you had never written that letter."
This is getting lots of mileage..
A good portion of the prosecutors in this country are just as corrupt. Spitzer is simply more famous.
By JOHN C. WHITEHEAD
December 22, 2005; Page A14
Last April, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by me titled "Mr. Spitzer Has Gone Too Far." In it I expressed my belief that in America, everyone -- including Hank Greenberg -- is innocent until proven guilty. "Something has gone seriously awry," I wrote, "when a state attorney general can go on television and charge one of America's best CEOs and most generous philanthropists with fraud before any charges have been brought, before the possible defendant has even had a chance to know what he personally is alleged to have done, and while the investigation is still under way."
Since there have been rumors in the media as to what happened next, I feel I must now set the record straight. After reading my op-ed piece, Mr. Spitzer tried to phone me. I was traveling in Texas but he reached me early in the afternoon. After asking me one or two questions about where I got my facts, he came right to the point. I was so shocked that I wrote it all down right away so I would be sure to remember it exactly as he said it. This is what he said:
"Mr. Whitehead, it's now a war between us and you've fired the first shot. I will be coming after you. You will pay the price. This is only the beginning and you will pay dearly for what you have done. You will wish you had never written that letter."
I tried to interrupt to say he was doing to me exactly what he'd been doing to others, but he wouldn't be interrupted. He went on in the same vein for several more sentences and then abruptly hung up. I was astounded. No one had ever talked to me like that before. It was a little scary.
It's up to others to make their own conclusions. I have only set out here what happened.
Mr. Whitehead, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, is chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
+
Time for Spitzer to be subjected to his own brand of justice.
Sounds like Spitzer is making his critic AN OFFER HE CAN'T REFUSE!!!
What was I sayin about this dude that perceived himself as the reincarnation of Elliot Ness about a year ago? I know... ya don't remember, right?