An Offer New Yorkers Can't Refuse?

Just who is Elliot Spitzer, the empire state attorney-general and odds-on favorite to become the next governor of New York, and what kind of thug is he?

Here's indication #1 (according to John C. Whitehead, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, a crown jewel of Spitzer's primary target, Wall Street):

Last April, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by me titled "Mr. Spitzer Has Gone Too Far." In it I expressed my belief that in America, everyone - including Hank Greenberg - is innocent until proven guilty. "Something has gone seriously awry," I wrote, "when a state attorney general can go on television and charge one of America's best CEOs and most generous philanthropists with fraud before any charges have been brought, before the possible defendant has even had a chance to know what he personally is alleged to have done, and while the investigation is still under way."

Since there have been rumors in the media as to what happened next, I feel I must now set the record straight. After reading my op-ed piece, Mr. Spitzer tried to phone me. I was traveling in Texas but he reached me early in the afternoon. After asking me one or two questions about where I got my facts, he came right to the point. I was so shocked that I wrote it all down right away so I would be sure to remember it exactly as he said it. This is what he said:

"Mr. Whitehead, it's now a war between us and you've fired the first shot. I will be coming after you. You will pay the price. This is only the beginning and you will pay dearly for what you have done. You will wish you had never written that letter."

I tried to interrupt to say he was doing to me exactly what he'd been doing to others, but he wouldn't be interrupted. He went on in the same vein for several more sentences and then abruptly hung up. I was astounded. No one had ever talked to me like that before. It was a little scary.

This isn't the first time the vindictive little bureaucratic Napoleon has issued blunt and reckless threats in response to public criticism, either:

After a contentious July 2000 interview with ABC Radio host Sean Hannity, Spitzer called back off the air and allegedly threatened to "'use his capacity as Attorney General' against [Hannity] - according to the host's then-producer, Eric Stanger, who took the call.

After Stanger recounted Spitzer's words on-the-air, Hannity responded: "I'd like to know what that threat means. It's not my fault that he embarrassed himself on this radio show."

Fellow radio host Laura Ingraham, who had also participated in the earlier debate, wondered: "Is he going to arrest you?"

A lawyer herself, Ingraham then noted: "I think it's a misuse of office to take action against individuals who are not accused of any wrongdoing."

Indeed it is. For all his efforts to put himself over as an "avenging angel of the people" against the "greedy plutocratic robber barons" of Wall Street, the picture of Elliot Spitzer that is emerging is like something out of the Godfather saga; cross him in any way and you wake up with a multiple indictment in your bed. The classic bullyboy who relies on intimidation to cow his opponents in lieu of open, honest, substantive debate.

It's Spitzer's prosecutorial MO, but it may not work as well as a political template. Taking his life in his hands, Bill Weld, former Massachusetts governor and Spitzer's probable GOP guberantorial opponent, had this response:

On Saturday, New York State Republican gubernatorial hopeful William Weld reacted sharply to Whitehead's allegation against Spitzer, with spokesman Dominick Ianno telling the New York Post: "This was wildly improper for a prosecutor and it would be even more unbecoming for a governor."

"Improper" and "unbecoming" aren't the words I would use. Try "gestapoesque" and you'd be closer to the bullseye. Which, I guess, goes to show that the same people who falsely - and "vituperatively" - denounce President Bush as a "fascist dictator" for doing everything within his constitutional power to protect the American people from mass terrorist attack consider a tendency toward the genuine article a virtue if it means getting back a governorship. Because, after all, New York's red-state "fascist" minority, like the Wall Street "plutocrats," will deserve everything they get.

And just think - a Governor Spitzer will be but the hors d'oever for "thug life" on a national scale three years from now.

Just don't expect the "civil liberties" crowd to raise any strident clarion call warnings then - they'll be too busy burnishing their checked-out Little Red Books of Mao for the inauguration....