Political shenanigans in Albany blocking reform, progress
DAN MEYER Political Columnist
Even the finest movie directors in Hollywood couldn't come up with a better storyline than what some of the Empire State's top elected officials provided us in recent weeks when it comes to the bizarre behavior of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and some of their closest political pals.

Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone all must be shaking their heads in disbelief over all of the twists and turns involving the political squabble between Spitzer's administration and Bruno's camp. The latest angle involving the alleged phone call made by Roger Stone to the home of Spitzer's father is really too weird for words.

Stone, who was pulling in a reported $20,000 each month from the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, continues to deny that he called Bernard Spitzer's residence and left a message on his answering machine that can be described as threatening, obscene, disturbing and bizarre.

It is now perfectly clear than anything and everything goes when it comes to the statewide political scene and anyone and anything is fair game when it comes to abusing your power all in the name of trying to make the other guy look bad.

What's sad about the answering machine message, the governor's office using the state police to collect information about Bruno in an effort to do damage to the senator's career, and all of the debate and discussion that has followed is that it distracts everyone from staying focused on getting their job done. Say what you want about Spitzer's first eight months in office, the ongoing talk about reform is just that. The time for campaign slogans and one-liners and basic lip service is over. We need to see results in order to proclaim Spitzer as a true difference maker.

Republicans made the right call in asking Stone to step aside, if for no other reason than eliminating him from the picture helps to eventually push aside the ugly aftermath that resulted from "Troopergate" and the soon-to-be-named answering machine message scandal (some newspaper reporters and online bloggers are now referring to it simply as "The Phone Call" but I remain hopeful something more creative and catchy surfaces in the very near future.)

Since Spitzer and Bruno are high-ranking officials who wield tremendous power and therefore have a great influence on what does or doesn't get done in this state, we'd like to see them use that power and ask that the political games cease to exist. There are bigger fish to fry and pushing away all of their political indifferences in the hopes of actually introducing some real true reform is something that needs to occur.

As for Stone, his denials of leaving that now infamous message on Bernard Spitzer's answering machine have to be looked at with some suspicion given his past track record of old-fashioned dirty tricks. His work behind the-scenes goes back to the 1970s with Richard Nixon's re-election campaign, consultant work for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and more campaign work for President Bush in 2000.

Along the way he's been tagged for a few questionable actions, most notably a $100,000 fine that resulted from claims he tried to publicly embarrass the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe back in 2000 as part of an advertising campaign that can best be described as a smear with a capital S.

It all adds up to nothing but a big steaming pile of distractions. The sidebar stories involving investigations, lawsuits, accusations and the ongoing airing of dirty laundry all equate to our elected officials having a series of excuses to avoid doing the work they were chosen by their constituents to do.

The scandals and related distractions seem to be getting more and more bizarre and the true work that needs to be completed appears to be getting once again pushed aside. The wrongdoing continues to be done at an alarmingly high rate and the back-and-forth bickering and finger-pointing that always follows is unacceptable.

Political posturing, grandstanding and mudslinging? Still going strong as we now prepare to deflate the volleyballs, put the bocce set back into storage and pick the last of the tomatoes as summer comes to an end.

Reform? We're all still waiting to see when, and if, it will ever occur.

(Opinions expressed here are those of the author.)