Two weeks without posting, and now you're letting Yoda ghost-write your pieces. Or is it Skurnik?

"Lou" from Brooklyn is a Fugazy--the Councilman spells his name L-E-W.

Professor, I must confoess, I am a little obsessed with the Goodwin/Bruno thing. As testimony rolled out detailing the ways Joe Bruno was abusing the perks of his office, this guy was still whining about how despicable it was for Spitzer to leak such wrongdoing to the press.

In fact, my obsession dates back over a year and a half:

http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/badloss_the_daily_news_are_the_village_green_preservation_society.html
 
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/state_of_confusion.html
 
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/the_blind_man_can_t_find_the_elephant_in_the_room.html 
 
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/fatal_gaffes.html

Using the state car and driver to drive your spouse around is an abuse of the perks of one's office.  Receiving direct cash payments in exchange for cloaking another in the mantle of one's office is an abuse of the power of one's office.  I submit that there is a distinction with a difference between the two.

Bruno did both, but but what the public is capable of understanding are the helicopter rides to New York City.  The rest of it, the far more pernicious stuff, is just wayyyyy over their heads.

The test for a public official is to stop and ask, "Would I be offered this (favorable mortgage, comped hotel room, golf outing) if I were Francis Phelan?"  If you can't answer "Yes" with a straight face, you've crossed the bright line.