GOP Consultant Quits In Phone Call Flap

(AP)  A prominent political consultant for New York state Senate Republicans agreed to resign Wednesday after reports surfaced that he had made a threatening, obscenity-laced phone call to the 83-year-old father of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat.

Roger Stone, who in the 1970s worked on President Nixon's re-election effort and has also done work for Presidents Bush and Reagan, denied making the call and said he was "set up."

Stone said the phone number cited by Bernard Spitzer's lawyers is his, but the apartment is owned by a Spitzer fundraiser and someone else could have gotten inside to make the call or used other technology to mimic his voice and that number.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said Stone was still asked to resign and sever connections with the state Senate Republican Campaign Committee because the allegations could "only serve as a distraction from the real issues."

Lawyers representing the governor's father said the caller — recorded on an answering machine — told the real estate developer that he was going to be subpoenaed to testify before the state Senate investigations committee about 1994 campaign loans to his son, then threatened his arrest if he didn't appear, and used expletives and insults referring to the governor, a Democrat.

Letters about the call was sent to the state Ethics Commission and the chairman of the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, attorney Jeffrey Moerdler said. He told the Times Union of Albany that he didn't request an investigation but that the matter is now with government investigators.

Gov. Spitzer's spokeswoman, Christine Anderson, said the governor would have no comment.

Stone, 55, worked for the Committee to Re-Elect the President, which helped President Nixon beat George McGovern in 1972 and was at the center of the Watergate scandal. He also worked for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, and in 2000, helped George W. Bush win the presidential vote recount in Florida.

Stone told the Associated Press that the phone call "has to be a fabrication."

"I would submit that such a message could be made, fabricated, and I will have voice experts inspect it," he said. "Just as they tried to set Senator Bruno up, they are trying to set me up, I guess because I have been effective on the Senate Republican Majority."

Ethics Commission spokesman Walter Ayres said the letter is being reviewed and the commission will take any appropriate action, but he said the members "only have jurisdiction over the executive branch of state government."

Bruno and Gov. Spitzer have been at odds for months. Most recently, they have sparred over the efforts of two Spitzer aides to discredit Bruno by releasing details of his state-funded travel. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found no illegal conduct but criticized the Spitzer aides who had state police gather detailed information on Bruno's use of state aircraft.

Bruno called the aides' efforts political espionage. Spitzer has said he didn't know about it.

Republican George Winner, chairman of the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, said he hadn't received the letter about the call but he said it sounded like something more appropriate for a district attorney to review.

Winner also said that his committee is not investigating Spitzer's 1994 campaign loans from his father, but had asked the Senate Elections Committee "to look into the issue of loans as it relates to the ability of wealthy self-financed candidates and the level playing field issue as they compete against lesser, ordinary type of joes."

The loan at issue was given by Bernard Spitzer to help his son repay a $4.3 million bank loan in the 1994 Democratic primary for attorney general, which Eliot Spitzer lost.

[undermyboot]

Oh right- it was a grand conspiracy to frame an innocent Nixon operative (oxymoron). These puny fascists will never stop playing their dirty games. It''s all about power: getting it and keeping it. Any method to do so is OK with the modern repug party. They follow the teachings of their totalitarian role models:

"It doesn''t matter who casts the ballots.
What matters is who counts the ballots."
- Joseph Stalin -

%u201CThat propaganda is good which leads to success, and that is bad which fails to achieve the desired result. It is not propaganda%u2019s task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success.%u201D- Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister

"What good fortune for governments that the people do not think."
-- Adolph Hitler

[realpatriot1]

nyckate,

I''m not saying that he was but after working on a few political campaigns in Boston I know it''s possible. Don''t you think it''s a little bit odd that Spitzer owns the building?

I used to work with a guy in Boston who went to the 1960 democratic Convention as an uncommitted delegate. He went out to dinner with other delegates and the Kennedy table was buying everyone at his table drinks. He left and went back to his hotel room where he was visited by a federal judge. He was asked to vote for Kennedy but refused to committ. The Judge asked if he had kids in the Everett school system; when he said yes, the judge replied''"Wouldn''t it be a shame if that all came to an end." I was told by other campaign operatives about judges in the pocket of Boston Mayor White.

Democrats aren''t immune from corruption when power is involved.

[missingamerica]

That is the substance of the far right - threats and intimidation.

[toldyouso21]

LOL! Preceptions and this guy Stone are like the guy whose wife walks in on him in bed with another woman and the first thing out of his mouth is "Honey, It''''s not what it looks like!." Good grief! Let''''s beat that "blame it on the liberal media" drum til hell freezes over why don''''t we...
Posted by huskerarmy at 09:29 AM : Aug 23, 2007


or the comparison would be:

LOL! Preceptions and this guy Stone are like the guy whose wife walks in on him in bed with another woman and the first thing out of his mouth is "Honey, It''''s not what it looks like!." (sputter, sputter) BUT IF YOU HAD YOUR AZZ AT HOME AND WAS IN BED RIGHT NOW INSTEAD OF AT WORK, THEN IT WOULDN''T BE THIS BIMBO UNDER ME, IT WOULD BE YOU--SO....THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT--YOU NEGLECTED ME!!!!!"

[toldyouso21]

Gov. Spitzer, a hero for the Dems and their close pals in our corrupt liberal wolfpack press, needs to RESIGN for the illegal smear campaign he conducted against Bruno.

But don''''t look for our biased liberal press to push for this............Really sad.
Posted by perception5 at 09:21 AM : Aug 23, 2007


It is not a smear campaign to look into someone''s travel records. They should not have used cops to do so--but that is not illegal and neither is looking for dirt. Now...as a Republican, I am sure you are well aware that the smear is done if the travel records, are rewritten to suggest illegal acts. Or if people come forth to confirm bribes or other legal things are done on trips. Spitzer never did that. Looking for dirt is ugly, but not illegal, but making dirt and mud out of it is. Republicans do that best and more than anyone and as an Independent, I think I say that with no bias at all.

[toldyouso21]

had the number of a duck, and sounded like a duck, so logically...
Posted by brianbwb at 01:17 AM : Aug 23, 2007


You are right...it must be the duck. Unless a "Swan" has finally learned how to quack like the duck and is framing it. Lmao

[toldyouso21]

am a resident of upstate NY and I hoped that Spitzer would start to fix the problems and one of the problems is Bruno. Dirty tricks, name calling and the like has no place in politics or leadership in this country. Posted by frb01 at 08:27 PM : Aug 22, 2007

Word to wise, try to avoid electing, or borrowing money from or gambling around people named:

Rocky, Bruno, Lefty, One eye, Gimp, Head, Peppy, Rico, Diamond legs, Killer, Rudy, Mitch, Junior, Dickey, Hitler, Skullface, Dr. No, Dr. Yes, Dr. Mengele, Himmler, Scooby, or any other thug affiliated name. They play by different rules and rarely do they include integrity, fairness or decency. And people that do not use real, names instead of little nicknames, have not grown up yet.

[toldyouso21]

This is a highly inappropriate suggestion that Stone may have been involved with that scandal. If he''''s 55 years old now, he was all of 20 years old for the Watergate scandal. Tsk, tsk, Associated Press.
Posted by oleander8 at 04:45 PM : Aug 22, 2007


Why tsk, tsk? 20 year olds cannot do horrible, bad things? Seems to me, according to our penal systems, that if 6 and 13 year olds can murder, and 15 year olds can be accused of terrorist acts, a 20 yr old can be at the center of watergate. Maybe he was only an acolyte at the time, but he was still at the knees of evil, diligently learning the trade for himself. LOL

[toldyouso21]

I would submit that such a message could be made, fabricated, and I will have voice experts inspect it," he said.

better than voice experts: the fact that the call can be traced back to the source. If it came from Stone''s phone or a phone within the Republican party, then it will be a slam dunk and Stone might face more than a resignation. I loathe many Republican Congress people and think the party as a whole is capable of almost anything--BUT what they are not usually known for is doing complicit things in such a way that they can be so easily caught. that makes this look fishy to me. If the call is sourced elsewhere or better yet to a Democratic operative then it was a set up/frame and should be punished to the full extent of the law. In addition Stone should sue for defamation of character among other things.

Either way, this is ugly and childish and whoever really is at fault should be pursued and revealed so that we, the public know just exactly who are trying to represent us.

[nyckate]

realpatriot1 -- you truly think he might have been set up??

LOL -- hey -- I have a deed to the Brooklyn Bridge - wanna buy that too??