Christine Anderson, Governor Richard Milhouse Spitzer's press secretary, defending the effort to use the State Police to ruin Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's career:
“The Governor has a duty to his constitutional office and to the place it holds in our democratic system (a new generation of Haldemans and Ehrlichmans have been helping him do his constitutional duty). This provocative and misguided action therefore requires extended litigation at considerable taxpayer expense (if the Governor's State Police Superintendent and Communications Director had agreed to be placed under oath there would be no extended litigation) . . . Furthermore, the Executive Chamber is now forced to employ outside counsel to fight the Senate’s abuse of power (I cracked myself up when I wrote 'abuse of power.')
“The Senate Republican Majority is engaged in a purely partisan exercise (unlike us can't-we-all-get-along Kumbaya singers on the Governor's staff who have never engaged in purely partisan exercises) that serves no legitimate governmental purpose (could lead to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo defeating my boss in a 2010 primary) . . .
" . . . A partisan Senate inquiry into the Chamber’s ethics would, itself, be inconsistent with basic ethical principles. The Commission on Public Integrity should be allowed to do its work (Commission Head John Feerick better come up with a total whitewash for my boss or he's going to understand what getting steamrolled means).”
