ELIOT'S REVOLUTION
ON DAY ONE, GOV SAYS THE RIGHT WORDS
January 2, 2007 -- One can only imagine what was running through George Pata ki's head yesterday afternoon as he sat in the damp and chill of an outdoors Albany afternoon in January and listened to the inaugural address of his successor, Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
"I want to thank Gov. Pataki for joining in this time-honored tradition as the reins of government pass from his careful stewardship," said Spitzer, with a straight face. "Thank you, Gov. and Mrs. Pataki, for 12 years of service."
The stick in the eye came just a few lines later:
"Like Rip Van Winkle, the legendary character created by the New York author Washington Irving, New York has slept through much of the past decade, while the rest of the world has passed us by."
True enough . . . up to a point.
The world is passing New York by - but the problem is not so much somnolence in Albany as it is the shameless opportunism and personal advantage-seeking that characterize so much of what passes for government in the Empire State these days.
The new governor's speech was workmanlike in construction and delivered without the rhetorical flourishes that have seemed so promising in past inaugurals, only to disappoint.
He noted the tension between the majesty of New York's rich history and the sometimes sordid, but always sad, reality of the state's present.
Alan Hevesi's name went unspoken. But the disgraced former comptroller clearly was present in spirit - a fact inferentially acknowledged by Spitzer: "In order to return to policies of opportunity and prosperity, we must change the ethics of Albany and end the politics of cynicism and division in our state."
Did a chill run up Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's spine right then? Did Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno glance over his shoulder?
Supreme cynics are they - and masters of the politics of division as well.
As for ethics, Bruno is already under federal investigation for his business practices, apparently as they relate to the conduct of his official duties. He swears he's innocent - of just what, he won't detail - but so did Alan Hevesi.
And, as was Hevesi, Bruno will be lucky merely to lose his high office - or so goes the speculation in Albany.
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