Monday’s New York Post reported on some of the fallout over the latest alleged “dirty trick” by Governor Spitzer and some Senate Democrats.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, quietly retaliated against Smith late last week by canceling service on six of the cellphones used by his top aides.

They also halted a construction project designed to enlarge the office of his press secretary, Curtis Taylor.

"I think they'll get the message that trying to damage Sen. Bruno isn't a smart thing to do," said a Senate source.

What does it say about Governor Spitzer and his team that the best defenses of his actions on the issue of driver licenses & “troopergate” were in newspapers – and not articulated by them.?

I refer to Bill Hammond in the Daily News regarding the licenses.

Here is the highlight of Hammond’s defense, which points to facts that I have no heard Spitzer or his aides state –

DMV offices will not be handing out licenses willy-nilly to anyone who shows up with a Mexican or Saudi Arabian birth certificate. People who lack a Social Security number will have to produce, at a minimum, a valid, up-to-date passport with photo - which the DMV will check for authenticity with special scanning machines. They must also provide backup documentation of their ID and prove they live in New York. And Spitzer is ordering the DMV to use photo-comparison software to make sure one person cannot get more than one license.

Responding to a question asking why he should expect loyalty from voters when his children aren't backing him, Rudy responded –

"I love my family very, very much and will do anything for them. There are complexities in every family in America "The best thing I can say is kind of, 'leave my family alone, just like I'll leave your family alone.'"

But does Rudy really believe in leaving our families alone?

He didn’t leave the families of Richard Wigton and Timothy Tabor alone. As the Wall Street Journal wrote –

I’ve written previously about how articles about New York politics in national publications often are inaccurate. This week’s Weekly Standard hit job on Elliot Spitzer is another fine example.

Leaving aside the omission from the article of the fact that Siegel’s son was a top official of Tom Suozzi’s campaign, I assume that the mind-numbing details in the article about Spitzer’s misdeeds in using his father’s money to further his political career are accurate. Though the stuff they get wrong does make me wonder.

For some reason, the NY Post has not reported one word about this Albany figure not releasing information. Isn’t anybody curious about why Joe Bruno won’t release this?

Earlier this week, a Bruno aide turned down a Freedom of Information request from Gannett News Service for copies of the senator's e-mail correspondence with political advisers and for a schedule of all the trips Bruno took to New York City this year.

The information gathered by the Spitzer aides related to Bruno's use of state resources to travel to New York City, where he attended political functions as well as government-related meetings.

This was posted in the comments section of poltico.com in response to a story about Giuliani and adoption -

Rudy should ADOPT A CHILD WHO WILL SUPPORT HIS CANDIDACY

Monday’s Daily News is reporting that Rudy Giuliani is about to once again try to fool pro-life voters by claiming that he made increasing adoptions a priority of his Mayoral administration.

Rudy has used many different numbers to try to show that adoptions increased by big numbers during his time as Mayor and these are new ones to me.

We New Yorkers know that Rudy Giuliani often has to worry about his nose growing when he speaks about the past. The problem is that too many reporters don’t know this.

The latest little white lie from Rudy is in Wednesday’s Washington Post.

Giuliani also brushed aside efforts by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to portray himself as the ultimate family man by releasing a video of a family vacation filled with scenes of giggling grandchildren.

"He has a right to emphasize the things he wants to emphasize," Giuliani told The Washington Post after a speech on energy policy in San Francisco. "I never emphasize those things."

Never emphasize these things?

Thank goodness for YouTube.

In the wake of his defeat on the issue of congestion pricing, Mayor Bloomberg called Senator Malcolm Smith and some pols gutless "I heard a lot of talk about the politics of congestion pricing ... and all I kept thinking about was -- some people have guts and lead from the front and some don't,"

I’d like to remind everyone that Bloomberg did not support congestion pricing in 2001 when he first ran for Mayor or in 2005 when he ran for re-election. He is now term-limited and can’t run for re-election.

Bruno spokesman Mark Hanson said his boss is so disgusted by the treatment he has been getting from Spitzer that he may never again use state-owned aircraft.

Yesterday wasn’t the best day for the New York Post’s Fred Dicker, who supposedly is the best-informed Albany reporter around.

Some may recall (though I’m sure Dicker hopes not too many) that he wrote a column in May predicting doom for Assembly Democrats if they tried to pass a bill legalizing gay marriage.

Here’s part of what Fred wrote –

Many insiders predict a significant number of the Assembly Democrats - and possibly a majority - will oppose the measure, led by conservative-oriented upstate and suburban lawmakers and a large number of African-Americans and Hispanics, many of whose constituents strongly oppose gay marriage.

Am I the only person who thinks there is something a little wrong about Councilman John Liu voting in favor of naming a street for Sonny Carson?

After all Liu represents the largest Korean community in New York and Carson led the infamous boycott of Korean groceries in Brooklyn.

Most of the political press in New York have apparently decided that they must interpret everything Mike Bloomberg does is part of a campaign for President.

In Saturday’s NY Times, a story about Bloomberg speaking in Houston began:

Am I the only one amused by the fact that the punishment for Assemblyman Michael Cole, who says the reason he slept at an intern’s apartment was because he was too drunk to drive was removal as ranking member of the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee?

I had been planning to write about Jason West, the Green Party’s New York poster boy who in running for re-election as Mayor of New Paltz succeeded in knocking and independent opponent off the ballot. I was going to point out how hypocritical it was for a Ralph Nader supporter like West to do so considering how Nader’s followers always yap about ballot access and allowing more candidates to participate in elections.

But I didn’t get around to it and look what happened!

West was defeated for re-election and ironically it seems that he lost because he had only one opponent. Serves him right!