Before Eliot Spitzer’s official resignation, I spoke with Republican State Senator George Winner, who is leading the charge at Spitzer’s other legal problems.

Winner said he’ll be in court tomorrow fighting Spitzer’s refusal to respond to a subpoena for emails relating to the effort to use state police to discredit Joe Bruno.  read more »

Here is a clip from the hearing in Albany yesterday where state Senator George Winner asks state Inspector General Kristine Hamann about a private conversation in which Hamann told him she never interviewed anyone in the governor's office during her investigation into the Trooper scandal.

It's significant because Hamann had the power to subponea gubernatorial aides to testify about who ordered the state police to create records of state Senate Major Leader Joe Bruno's use of state aircraft. Those aides declined to speak to investigators working for the Attorney General, whose office does not have subpoena power.

Hamann later said her report would have been futile becaues it would not have brought finality to the situation.

State Inspector General Kristine Hamann said today for the first time in public that her report on the governor’s aides using state police to track the governor’s Republican opponent would not have brought “finality” to the issue.

Therefore, Hamann told a hearing committee in Albany, she didn’t issue a report on her investigation, nor subpoena any of the top aides to the governor involved.  Hamann has been criticized for not issuing her own report or subpoenaing the governor’s aides to discuss the issue, something another investigator, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, was not empowered to do when he released his report on the matter.

Hamann, surrounded by a throng of reporters in the Capitol, was asked why she didn't seek to speak to the aides in question.

“For the very reason I’ve explained at this hearing, [which] is that I felt I could not bring finality to the matter.”

And what does “finality” mean in this instance?

“No matter what I would have said, there still would have been questions raised and the issue still would have gone to the ethics commission and the Albany county DA and I believe we would be in the same issue were are in today.”

And so the saga continues...

So, to no one’s surprise, the Senate Republicans are starting to turn the screws on state Inspector General Kristine Hamann at her hearing in Albany.

Hamann told the committee just now, "I did not believe that my writing a report on the man I report to directly in this atmosphere would have brought resolution to this issue."

When pressed by Republican Senator George Winner, Hamann said she wouldn't disclose the name of the person she spoke to in the governor's office in connection to her inquiry.

Winner implied that Hamann had not questioned anyone in the governor's office.  read more »

The state Democratic Party has just gone one step past the Whitewater analogy, reaching for another recent American lowlight to characterize the ongoing Republican pursuit of Eliot Spitzer.

Here's a statement from consultant Jonathan Rosen in response to Republican state Senator George Winner's call for another hearing:

“These guys just don’t know when to quit. The Senate Republicans holding an ethics hearing is like O.J. searching for the real killer. Senate Republicans should end the partisan theatrics and join the Governor in getting back to work on the real issues that matter to working families. Let’s end the show trial, leave the investigating to the investigators, and get back to work.”

The Brunogate hearing scheduled for September 5th, which may feature the state Inspector General, will be missing the leading Democratic state Senator, Tom Duane.

At the last hearing, Duane tried arguing that that house's Republican-led investigation into the actions of the Spitzer administration in digging up travel-related dirt on Joe Bruno should be put on hold until two other investigations (by the Ethics Commission and Albany DA) are concluded. He also, unsuccessfully, tried to interrupt the Republican chairing the hearing, George Winner.

Duane won't be there this time because he'll be returning from a 12-day trip to Israel, he told me.

"I wish he’d been more collegial and checked my schedule before setting the date," said Duane, referring to Winner. Duane said he agreed to go on the trip, organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council, because he thought it would be "uneventful" this time of year.

]]> http://www.observer.com/2007/duane-less-meeting-set-albany#comments Politics Eliot Spitzer George Winner Tom Duane Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:13:47 -0400 Azi Paybarah 57067 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2007/save-your-emails

Here's an unusual letter sent by State Senator George Winner to Eliot Spitzer asking him to order his staff to “preserve any e-mails created using government or personal e-mail addresses which would otherwise be destroyed.”  read more »

The Republican state senator who chairs the Investigations and Government Operations Committee just said at a press conference that he wants the governor to appoint Andrew Cuomo as a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of the scandal involving the misuse of state police by the governor's aides to gather information on Joe Bruno.

The Senator, George Winner of Elmira, said an investigation by Cuomo, instead of Republicans, would eliminate the notion that this is a partisan attack.

The appointment would give Cuomo the power to subpoena some of the top aides who had declined to participate in his previous investigation.

Winner also dismissed Spitzer’s effort to put the issue behind him with an apologetic op-ed in the New York Times on Sunday.

The scandal “can’t be answered with an apology. That isn’t enough anymore.”

Here is a copy of that letter from upstate Republican state Senator George Winner asking the Committee on Elections to “investigate” and “subpoena” information about the controversial campaign loan Eliot Spitzer received from his dad during his 1998 attorney general’s race.

The story of the loan isn’t new, and neither is Spitzer’s apology. Spitzer said he funded his 1998 race from a loan he secured through a bank. Later he admitted his father was helping to repay that loan.

But Winner’s letter cites a recent New York Magazine article in which Spitzer is quoted saying, “I didn’t realize how necessary it was to be transparent about every personal financial transaction.”

If a campaign doesn’t fully repay a loan by election day, it’s suppose to count as a contribution.