Spitzer's 'Bully' Issues Threats

The hijinx just never ends with New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and his band of bullies.

The notoriously hot-tempered rookie governor has found himself plagued with scandals, idiotic legislative proposals, dirty tricks campaigns and now one of his top aides is alleged to have threatened a utility executive during a screaming match.

Some folks at the New York Times obsess over Rudy Giuliani supposedly being a bully, yet remain oddly silent over the behavior of Spitzer and his henchmen.

That 'D' after your name sure does come in handy.

'ELIOT'S BULLY' MADE THREAT: INSIDER

A TOP aide to Gov. Spitzer involved in the Dirty Tricks Scandal angrily threatened to "professionally kill" a top utility executive for opposing the governor's energy policies, sources have told The Post.

Spitzer Policy Director Peter Pope said he was "going to kill" Gavin Donohue, the head of the Independent Power Producers of New York, an association of private energy companies, in a bitter clash early last summer over the governor's efforts to block the construction of nuclear-power plants and more than two "clean coal" plants in the state, the sources said.

"He was really threatening Gavin. It was unbelievable. It was shocking," said one of the state's best-known lobbyists.

Shocking perhaps, but not surprising, considering Pope works for a guy who claims to be a "f---ing steamroller" and is a notorious bully.

"Pope was screaming and threatening to get him fired with his bosses and jabbing his finger in Donohue's face," added another source, who claimed Pope had also threatened several lobbyists over policy disagreements.

"He was yelling at Gavin, 'You're working against us! You're trying to hurt us! You have to pressure [Senate Majority Leader Joseph] Bruno to get with us on this!'

"When Gavin tried to explain why he opposed the governor's plan, Pope said he didn't want to know about the substance of the issue. He just wanted to close down [pass] the governor's bill," the source continued.

Donohue, former deputy chief of staff to Gov. George Pataki and a one-time state Environmental Conservation Department executive deputy commissioner, wasn't intimidated by the confrontation, telling associates, "I told Pope, in so many words, to go f - - - himself."

"I have never been treated so unprofessionally in my whole life," he told associates.

Donohue kept detailed, written notes of the clash, one associate said. Contacted by The Post, Donohue said he'd had "intense negotiations" with Pope.

But when asked whether he had been threatened, he responded, "I have no comment."

Pope, meanwhile, declined to be interviewed for this column but called the information obtained by The Post "inaccurate," according to Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson.

The sources, meanwhile, compared Pope's alleged behavior to the repeated charges that Spitzer - a self-described "f- - - -ng steamroller" - has repeatedly threatened or sought to intimidate political enemies and policy opponents, both as governor and as attorney general.

Pope, a longtime Spitzer friend, was known as "Eliot's bully" because of his aggressiveness as a high-level deputy to Attorney General Spitzer, said a source in the AG's Office.

Pope is one of three Spitzer lawyers who helped prepare a controversial sworn statement for the governor's former communications director, Darren Dopp, in which Dopp gave details of his role in the effort to use the State Police to gather purportedly damaging information on Bruno (R-Rensselaer).

Meanwhile, before he was governor, Spitzer was the New York Attorney General, and really made a lot of friends in that role.

A Park Slope dentist has filed a $75 million lawsuit, claiming Eliot Spitzer used the Attorney General's Office to trump up politically convenient charges of Medicaid fraud against him in 2006.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Brooklyn federal court, charges that Spitzer, who in 2006 was the attorney general and the Democratic front-runner in the primary battle for governor, was getting slammed as being soft on Medicaid fraud - and found a convenient fall guy.

"I had it all, and overnight I lost it all for no good reason, other than for the governor to have a nice headline," said the dentist, Leonard Morse. "If that's what they'll do to a professional, imagine what they could do to the everyday citizen."

Previous posts on Spitzer here.

UPDATE: Hot Air and Suitably Flip link. Thanks!