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!

Did One Spitzer Aide Threaten Another?

Now that Eliot Spitzer has wisely junked plans to hand out driver's licenses to illegal aliens, he's far from in the clear.

More problem lies ahead in his dirty tricks campaign against Joe Bruno.

For instance, did his political director threaten his communications director?

The Albany DA (an ally of Spitzer, by the way) would like to know.

A top aide to Gov. Spitzer is expected to be asked by the Albany district attorney if he or others threatened former Spitzer communications director Darren Dopp with dismissal if he refused to sign a controversial affidavit on the Dirty Tricks Scandal, it was learned last night.

The question will likely be posed to Spitzer policy director Peter Pope, who has been summoned to appear before DA David Soares as soon as today as part of a potentially explosive new investigation of whether Dopp, a central figure in the scandal, committed perjury when he signed the statement, a source said.

"Pope is expected to be asked if he or others threatened Darren with termination unless they signed the affidavit," the source said.

Pope, along with Spitzer counsel David Nocenti and Sean Patrick Maloney, the governor's first deputy secretary, helped prepare a sworn statement signed by Dopp on July 22, a day before Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released a blockbuster report on the use of the State Police by top Spitzer aides to gather purportedly damaging information on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer.)

Question: How would the rest of the media treat this case if it were a Republican doing this?

UPDATE: Hot Air links. Thanks!

Allahpundit also notes an egregious tax grab by Spitzer.

UPDATE II: Michelle Malkin also links. Thanks!

UPDATE III: Spitzer held a DC press conference along with the congressional delegation from New York, regarding dropping the licenses for illegals scheme. Full of sophistry, solipsism and santimony, it's all pretty much Bush's fault. As we predicted, he'll be back trying to weasel this plan through.

All the Governor's Men

After some new revelations came to light in the dirty tricks campaign run by New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and his henchmen, the Albany DA will now be interviewing a top aide of Spitzer.

DA WILL PUT SPITZ MAN ON THE GRILL

Albany District Attorney David Soares will interview a top aide to Gov. Spitzer later this week about the circumstances under which the aide and two officials helped prepare a sworn statement by former Spitzer communications director Darren Dopp, who is under investigation for possible perjury, it was learned last night.

Peter Pope, Spitzer's policy director, will be questioned about the role he played with Spitzer counsel David Nocenti and Sean Patrick Maloney, the governor's first deputy secretary, in the statement signed by Dopp on July 22, one day before Attorney General Andrew Cuomo issued a blockbuster reporter on the Dirty Tricks Scandal.

The Commission on Public Integrity, which is probing the scandal, asked Soares late last week to investigate Dopp after determining that his testimony to the commission appeared to contradict the sworn statement.

A source in the governor's office said Pope had been assured by Soares that neither he, Nocenti nor Maloney were "targets" of the DA.

"We were told that Soares' inquiry at this point is solely and exclusively about whether or not Darren testified falsely before the Ethics Commission," said the source.

The source insisted Dopp himself had the final say as to what was in the sworn statement and no effort was made to encourage him to tell anything but the truth.

Word of Soares' widening new probe came as The Post learned that several aides to Spitzer - not just Dopp - gave conflicting testimony on the scandal to the Public Integrity Commission.

"There clearly have been absolutely contradictory sworn statements between witnesses from the governor's office, and I think very few people realize how serious this is," a source close to the commission told The Post.

Read the rest.

I don't exactly hold much faith this probe will get very far, as Democrats control every top position in New York State, but be assured Joe Bruno will be keeping this issue alive.

Meanwhile, it appears more likely Spitzer will abandon his cockamamie plan to grant driver's licenses to illegals. There is much hand wringing going on in Democrat circles, especially after Mrs. Clinton's inept attempt defense of this ridiculous plan.

What won't help is for Mr. Spitzer to stay on the fence over the volatile issue. He has to make a decision, and soon. The issue has morphed from a state matter to a national one, and may well have done serious damage to the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been lambasted by her primary rivals for trying to have it both ways by sympathizing with the Spitzer plan, while at the same time distancing herself from it.

UPDATE: Instapundit links. Thanks!

UPDATE II: John in Carolina has some questions about Governor Nifong.

UPDATE III: My, isn't this news just delicious?

Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to provide illegal immigrants with driver’s licenses has sunk his favorability rating to an all-time low of 41 percent, and has left only 25 percent of voters planning to re-elect him, according to a poll the Siena Research Institute released Tuesday.

More again from Instapundit, as well as Lawhawk.