N.Y. government halts as feud escalates

Even by New York's bruising political standards, things have gotten downright ugly as the state's leading Democrat and Republican fire off accusations of taxpayer abuse and espionage.

In one corner is Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the Ivy League Democrat who swept to victory in November largely on his reputation as a hard-charging attorney general who cleaned up Wall Street and the insurance industry.

In the other is Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a former Army boxing champ who cautions his younger antagonist _ 48 to Bruno's 78 _ there will be consequences for anyone who tries to knock him down.

Caught in the middle are issues ranging from the environment to economic recovery to tax cuts for older New Yorkers.

"These guys have escalated from just being political enemies to real, honest-to-God bitterness," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute and a former New York political reporter. "Democrats are expected to fight with Republicans. But they are not expected to hate each other."

Albany used to be just plain dysfunctional, with customary gridlock over often subtle differences in bills, but now it's really starting to sound nasty.

Spitzer claims Bruno used taxpayer-funded state aircraft to go to political fundraisers. Bruno counterclaims that the governor sent the state police to spy on him.

Political debate has devolved to barbed insults and profanities, threats against political fortunes and futures, and macho warnings of knockdown fights _ at least politically.

"That can't be good for anyone for getting anything done," Carroll said. "I don't remember anything like this."

Veteran lawmakers are shaking their heads, too.

"There's a real danger that the public interest gets shunted aside by dueling political strategies and everyone needs to take a deep breath and think carefully about that," said Democratic Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, himself long one of Albany's most combative politicians.

A long-simmering conflict between the two state leaders boiled up during stop-and-start budget negotiations, then dogged nearly every issue through the end of the Legislature's session June 21. Campaign finance reform, a congestion pricing plan to ease pollution in New York City, labor law changes and funding for building projects around the state all got left at the curb.

Spitzer fueled the feud two weeks ago by going to the home districts of a few Republican senators, stridently telling the lawmakers' constituents their man went on vacation when the Legislature recessed, leaving major issues involving public safety and the upstate economy left undone.

Spitzer made it clear that lawmakers who oppose his reform of Albany and its influence by special interests are part of what he calls the "aura of unseemliness" that surrounds Albany. He called the Senate Republicans lazy and beholden to special interests, and implored voters to tell them "get back to work, earn your keep, earn your pay."

That touched the perfect nerve for Bruno, who brags of his hardscrabble boyhood in Glens Falls and his penchant for being on time and on task.

Just days after he tagged Spitzer "a rich spoiled brat," Bruno accused him of masterminding political espionage that included spying by the state police drivers assigned to Bruno for security in Manhattan. He blamed Spitzer for releasing records last week that showed Bruno used state aircraft to attend GOP fundraisers in Manhattan.

The Associated Press confirmed Bruno's assertion that he had official state business on those days, making the travel acceptable by state ethical standards.

Spitzer's aides said that what Bruno called conspiracy was just basic _ and standard _ record keeping.

Spitzer and Bruno say they each just want to get the people's business done.

Their way.

"I have made it eminently clear to my friend, Joe Bruno, and all the other legislators, that we can join shoulder to shoulder, take steps to reform the politics, and if we do so we will all be partners in a wonderful move forward," Spitzer said last week.

But if they don't?

"I will be able to transform the government of the state through the executive power of the governor," Spitzer jabbed.

Bruno counterpunched: "If people want to fight, well, go for it."