Political scandals (especially those involving a mistress and money) always seem to fall into two categories - the ones that are handled well and the ones that don't end well.

They also inevitably get a "gate" assigned to them (no, Gatemouth, not you). Perhaps we'll call this one "JudyGate."

Let's review the timeline:

So this is a bit unkind: A sharp-eyed reader noticed that the final post on the campaign site of Sean Maloney -- "The End of the Beginning" -- has been, well, purged.

Version one, posted soon after the election and cached by Google gives top billing to some guy named Alan Hevesi:

"Democratic luminaries from around New York State showed up at campaign headquarters Tuesday night to celebrate Sean’s groundbreaking campaign for Attorney General, among them New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, State Senator Tom Duane.... Hevesi praised Sean’s first run for statewide office, characterizing it as passionate, smart and positive, and urged the crowd to continue their support of Sean in the next coming years.

via Room Eight's Campaign Wire

NY Poll

CT Poll

NJ Poll

via The New York Times

Mr. Hevesi previously sent the state $82,688.82 in September, saying the figure represented his office’s best calculation of how much he owed for the three and a half years that one of his workers spent as a driver for his ailing wife. But the state attorney general’s office, which is investigating whether Mr. Hevesi’s reimbursement was sufficient, asked Mr. Hevesi to send the state $90,000 more.

(more)

Let me start by saying that I like Alan Hevesi.  When you spend too much time involved in politics, you learn that many of our wise elected officials are really nothing more than vapid, empty suits that are able to memorize some lobbyist talking points when making an argument.  Spending much of my time around so many mediocre pretenders in the political clubs and chambers in which I have participated, it was a breath of fresh air whenever I happened to find myself involved in a conversation with Alan Hevesi.  Whether he was NYC Comptroller, Mayoral Candidate or NYS Comptroller, Hevesi always made me, and the others involved in our conversations, feel important (a trait that neither Dan nor Andy learned from their father).  He gave thoughtful, well reasoned answers to the numerous policy and political questions he received from people he barely knew and wouldn't remember after he had left the room (including me).  He never lost the college professor, ivory tower demeanor and occassionally I did notice that conversations with him were a little like a professor giving a lecture to his college students, but it was a class and lecture I would've enjoyed and it did not bother me as much as it did others.  To me, Hevesi was one of the few bright bulbs in a state dominated by dimwits.  I was one of the few people that supported his mayoral candidacy and believed in 2001 that New York would have been a much better city under Hevesi than under the other four candidates (including Bloomberg). 

THE CHARGE OF THE HEVESI CAMPAIGN

HALF A LEAGUE, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of "The GODS"
Rode Alan Hevesi.
"Forward, the Hevesi Campaign!
Charge for the votes," he said:
Into the valley of "The GODS"
Rode Alan Hevesi.
"Forward, the Hevesi Campaign!"
Was there a drivers dismay'd?
Not tho' the driver knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of "The GODS"
Rode Alan Hevesi.

via the New York Post

September 27, 2006 -- ALBANY - Scandal-plagued state Comptroller Alan Hevesi faced a major new problem yesterday, as his Republican opponent demanded that he pay overdue income taxes on the $82,000 in personal benefits he received by using a state worker as a chauffeur for his wife.

(more) 

Last year, Comptroller Alan Hevesi came to Buffalo, audited Erie County's coffers, and declared that the County needed "adult supervision" with respect to its finances. 

Adult supervision.  From Albany.  It is to laugh. 

In any event, with the subsequent advent of the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority (an advisory, "soft" control board), it seems that our state government, in its brilliant munificence, has merely added yet another dysfunctional layer of bureaucracy - and in this case an impotent one - to an already bloated, dysfunctional government bureaucracy.