Spitzer Is Wrong; Faso Is Right

posted by Rock Hackshaw
Thu, 09/28/2006 - 8:00am

I am a registered democrat; I vote in all of my party’s primaries. I generally vote along party lines in most general elections. I would say that I am over 90% loyal to my party line. I am not voting for Alan Hevesi this year. In last night’s gubernatorial debate Eliot Spitzer was wrong not to call for Hevesi’s resignation as New York State Comptroller. With Hevesi admitting to having taken a public employee and using him as a personal chauffeur (among other tasks) for his wife; and doing this for years, on public time and with public dimes, has rendered Hevesi unfit to hold this office. John Faso was correct in calling for his resignation. Hevesi has abused the public trust.

From today (Day One of the future), Spitzer should be moving to establish and uphold higher standards of ethics, decency and behavior for public officials. His answers last night (relative to the Hevesi issue) leaves a doubt (which has been lingering for some time) that business as usual is about to set in with an expected victory. Despite this however, it’s difficult to vote for Faso after 12 years of George Pataki. After all, I am a registered democrat.

Categories: eliot_spitzer john_faso

Faso Would Be Worse

Submitted by Larry Littlefield on Thu, 09/28/2006 - 9:45am.

And I'm not a registered Democrat.

Those who are had two choices: a promise to fix things by working with the existing crowd (Spitzer) or fighting against it (Suozzi). They chose the former. My tendency, like yours, is to prefer the latter, but the choice is made. We've got no choice but to go with Spitzer and hope for the best. The good news is the way he keeps raising expectations -- increasing the likelihood that he'll be ripped if he doesnt' meet them.

(Spitzer was wrong not to call for Hevesi’s resignation as New York State Comptroller.)

Maybe. I wouldn't have done what Hevesi did, and neither would you. But I'll bet just about every pol up there has done something like it. Kind of like the gangs that require you kill someone to gain admission -- you're guilty to, so you are in no position to rat anyone out.

Spitzer is guilty too, of a some small indiscretion on fundraising, if the news is to be believed. So was Suozzi. The way things are, the need to raise money almost seems to require that you compromise your ideas, or hand over the field to those who don't have ideals to begin with. Faso done his deals making money as a lobbyist.

So I'm not going to make my decision about Faso or Spitzer or Hevesi or Pirro or any of them based on what has been outed thus far. If I went down that road, I wouldn't vote for anybody. I'm not sure there would be anybody left.

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LARRY

Submitted by ROCK (not verified) on Thu, 09/28/2006 - 9:59am.

Profound observation Larry.

BTW: one of my brothers once said that if he had to choose between two candidates, and couldn't make his mind up as to which is the better, he would flip a coin, asigning heads or tails to each, then vote for the winner of the coin flip. He said that in the end you must vote, in order for democracy to move forward; and free and fair elections are the cornerstone of democracy.

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I Will Say This Though

Submitted by Larry Littlefield on Thu, 09/28/2006 - 10:48am.

Incidents like Hevesi's aren't going to reduce the level of cynicism among the ranks of public sector managers.

It wasn't too long ago that several competent and hardworking managers at NYC Transit were brought up on ethics charges. Their crime. Receiving complimentary tickets from a vendor. To a party for the New York City Transit Museum. Should they have accepted the tickets? No, this is not the private sector. But clearly there are two sets of rules.

One was forced to retire, a dumb punishment in itself. There is no greater punishment than being a manager in the public sector. They should have punished him by forcing him to keep working!

But at least Hevesi has an accounting background. It ought to be a requirement for the job.

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Callaghan is a good man

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/28/2006 - 11:28am.

This is really a true David v. Goliath story and we all know America loves the underdog. Out of the village of Waterford comes a man with no scandal, who married his kindergarten classmate, made Government finance his passion in life and still has a great sense of humor. Of all the Statewide candidates this year on either side of the isle, Callaghan is a class above the rest.

There is no scandal attached to Callaghan. He is the only one on either side of the isle running at the State level this year in NYS who I can honestly say is free of B.S. What should be comforting to Democrats is early on Callaghan campaigned hard on not being biased when it came to doing the job of Comptroller.

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At least you are consistent Rock.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/28/2006 - 6:18pm.

I surely don't agree with you most times, but i must admit that you are consistent with your call for elected officials to be held to higher standards. Don't stop blogging because of bullshit. Your voice is needed here. If Gumbs goes, then what's left from your corner of the world? Relax, there will always be detractors.Ignore them.

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Brave call.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/28/2006 - 6:20pm.

As a republican it is good to see a democrat make such a brave call.Hevesi should retire from politics.

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Spitzer Is Wrong; Faso Is

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 09/29/2006 - 10:27pm.

Hey, Rock, there are people who feel like you do. Hevesi would be fired in absolutely any other job, and should not be left in charge of the oversight of the same public funds he misused. I had a bit of hope before, but Spitzer actually went so far as to praise Hevesi as a public servant and stated he made a mistake. What mistake? Hevesi did the same thing as City Comptroller. Suozzi was right.

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Much ado about nothing

Submitted by Mrs Panstreppon on Sat, 09/30/2006 - 4:27pm.

As a former v.p. of finance and former auditor, I'd say you should put the Hevesi incidient in perspective.

Remember when H. Carl McCall, NYS comptroller, was smeared during his run for governor because he wrote a recommendation for a relative on his office stationery and sent it to a company that did business with his office?

No one spoke up publicly to remind the voters that McCall almost singlehandedly kept the state retirement fund out of the hands of Pataki and Charlie Gargano. Pataki's brilliant idea was to invest that money in NYS startups.

Take a look a look at my post about Gargano and Intelli-Check to get an idea about what would have happened if Pataki got to invest state retirement funds in NYS businesses. NYS would be in worse financial trouble than it already it is.

Unless Hevesi is guilty of other, more important transgressions, I say tell him to knock off having his wife chauffered around and stick to his job. Maybe fine him, if that's doable or reimburse the state for the cost of chauffering his wife but that's about all I would do.

I can't tell if Hevesi is as good as a comptroller as H. Carl McCall but I haven't heard anyone criticize his job performance yet.

I know when he was NYC comptroller, he banned Fred Carchietta from doing business with the NYC for five years or so because Carchietta was a crook.

What did the Giulianai adminstration do? Give Fred a contract to build three schools in upstate NY for the benenfit of the Hassidic community.

Which is the worse transgression in your opinion? Giuliani's or Hevesi's?

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It's a question of ethics and standards.

Submitted by ROCK (not verified) on Sat, 09/30/2006 - 7:33pm.

It is a question of ethics and standards maam. The more standards deteriorate the worse off is the polity in general.

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Spitzer Is Wrong; Faso Is

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 09/30/2006 - 8:31pm.

Thanks, rock. once again, i come here for some sanity. how bad is it when people actually compare elected officials based on which is the lesser evil.

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Spitzer Is Wrong; Faso Is

Submitted by Wall Street Refugee (not verified) on Sat, 09/30/2006 - 9:25pm.

I am a private sector [Wall Street] alum and only recently joined the public sector. I continue to be amazed at the type of behavior that is excused in government. Where I worked previously, if this type of activity was discovered, no matter how senior the person was, they would be terminated. End of discussion. I've seen it happen. How can ANYONE defend this if it also occured when he was also CITY Comptroller? He is only paying back the money because he got caught - not because he didn't know he was doing anything wrong. People often wonder what it would take to get more people to move from the private sector over to the public sector and I can emphatically say placing true accountability on elected officials. Ada Smith? Diane Gordon? Yvette Clark's continual campaign mistakes? A total disgrace, and as a black woman, a personal embarassment to me. People are satisfied with mediocrity and lackluster commitment from their electeds, and thus deserve what they get. Which is why there will be no influx of private sector people in this direction ANY TIME SOON. Until some of this eventually changes, people from the private sector will continue to look upon working for the city or state as a joke.

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Diogenes should have shone his light here!

Submitted by Mrs Panstreppon on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 11:33am.

Who would have thought? A website about NY politics and it is filled with prisses who have never committed even the most minor transgression while on the job.

Your employers must be thrilled to have you in their employ. They never have cause to complain that you conduct any personal business on their time or walk off with any company supplies.

You would never, ever charge a meal with friends as a personal expense and when you travel, you always save every receipt and your expense reports are squeaky clean.

If you are an employer, I couldn't work for you. As a former vice-president of finance and controller, I openly confess to all of the above and more.

But I always looked out for the shareholder or the owner wherever I worked. I made that tough call to the chairman of the board to report that the president was stealing him blind. And I've made a lot tougher calls as well.

But you lot would never keep me as an employee- I might steal your pencils.

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Padding expense reports is okay??

Submitted by Wall Street Refugee (not verified) on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 5:33pm.

"You would never, ever charge a meal with friends as a personal expense and when you travel, you always save every receipt and your expense reports are squeaky clean."

Actually, in the 14 years I worked on Wall Street I never did either of those things. You see, as a black woman who was a VP in a very white company I knew anything I did wrong would be scrutinized, so I did save every receipt and my reports WERE squeaky clean. The fact that you feel it is okay to do cut those corners is your business, however, it should CERTAINLY not provide cover for Hevesi. The $81,000 that he didn't pay back was not the money of random shareholders - it was OUR money and we have every right to expect it to be spent properly. The public sector should have a higher standard since it is the public's money. It would never occur to me to cut the corners that you describe, and it says a lot that you feel a lack of integrity and cutting corners is perfectly acceptible. Therefore, it is no surprise that you feel what Hevesi did is okay.

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