Spitzer Unchills ...

http://www.observer.com/20060206/20060206_Ben_Smith_pageone_newsstory1.asp

[spitzer calls Suozzi's BS]

This excerpt from Spitzer's Profile in the NY Observers stands out in particular:

Spitzer Unchills
As Race Begins,
Notices Suozzi





By Ben Smith

(PAGE 4 OF 5)



"Bernie Spitzer does not suffer anybody who is not polite or who is not courteous. He’s an old-fashioned New York intellectual gentleman,” Mr. Constantine said. The younger Mr. Spitzer clearly adheres to a certain code of behavior and expects others to do so as well. For example, The Observer called the elder Mr. Spitzer, who is 81 and parries well, to talk about real estate and politics. “You’re trying to establish a connection between the risks in developing buildings in the New York area and Eliot’s campaign for Governor?” he said. “I don’t think I can establish that kind of relationship.” The brief conversation was followed by a polite call from a Spitzer aide, who said the Attorney General would prefer reporters not to call his father directly.

Mr. Spitzer’s sense of decorum isn’t necessarily shared by colleagues who are more natural politicians, people like Bill Clinton or Mr. Spitzer’s occasional local rival, Senator Charles Schumer. Even surrounded by his campaign aides—virtually all of them, for some reason, a head shorter than his six feet—Mr. Spitzer is not one who sucks air out of the room. He makes his way politely, quietly through a crowd, causing a minimum of fuss.

So there’s something personal, and elemental, about the unexpected threat of a primary challenge from a natural-born pol, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi.

The big, handsome son of a Long Island power broker, Mr. Suozzi is a charismatic showman whose grasp of the details of policy hasn’t always matched his smooth presentation. Addressing a West Side political club recently, he said he’d never heard of the Urstadt law, a major focus of New York City’s tenant politics, which gives control of the city’s rent regulation to the state government.

Mr. Spitzer has chosen not to respond to his rivals’ jabs in general, but at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally, he was forced to stand with a fixed smile as Mr. Suozzi led an appreciative crowd in a round of singing “Ole, Ole.” He was asked later if Mr. Suozzi’s scene-stealing performance made him nervous.

“We all have talents,” the Attorney General smiled.

He took a more direct line on Mr. Suozzi’s proposal—echoed by many politicians looking for money to spend on planned projects—to finance the various projects by cracking down on Medicaid fraud.







“It’s worst than glib—it’s false. It’s simply not going to be possible,” he said of the notion that there are tens of millions of dollars to be wrung from cracking down on Medicaid fraud. “Nobody has recovered more money than has my office from Medicaid fraud. But anybody who says we’re going to be able to balance the budget, lower property taxes and pay for [court-mandated education-spending increases] and incremental education spending based on those recaptured dollars isn’t being honest with the public.”

Mr. Spitzer said that only a tiny share of Medicaid bills come from the kind of small shops—crooked dentists and the like—who personify the crime. He has a lawyerly caution with the word “fraud.” If there’s really enough of it to pay for all those programs, he said, you’re basically accusing major health-care institutions of being criminal enterprises. In a recent speech in Albany, he laid out harder, more complex solutions, like reducing the state’s responsibility for paying for nursing-home treatment and changing the tax code to encourage people to save for long-term care.


Can you imagine, that? There is a central irony here. Spitzer is considered by many in the financial and insurance industry to be a dangerous demogogue who features drive by, hit and run lawsuits. Could Tom Suozzi be someone who is even more irresponsible than Attorney General Spitzer can be at times?