http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-nyhen125610573mar12,0,5345252.column
GOP schemer predicts more shakeups ahead
Ellis Henican
March 12, 2008
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Yesterday was beautiful, bright and crisp in Albany, with just the earliest hint of spring. But before I could even make my way to the Capitol to gather up a new pile of reaction statements, my cell phone was ringing from a place even nicer than this.
The call-back number said 202, for Washington. But the sunny voice on the other end could only be in Miami. Yes, it was Roger Stone. And the exuberance in his voice made high-fiving Albanians sound almost morose. "I didn't make him go to a prostitution ring," said the most famous and ruthless Republican dirty trickster who still walks the earth. "He did that all on his own."
Stone said that even before I asked if his hand was somehow in Spitzer's latest trouble. I figured, somehow or another, it had to be. "No comment on that," Stone said. "I will say I knew it was coming. That's why I wasn't too upset about the results of the special election," where a Democrat grabbed a supposedly safe Republican State Senate seat, leaving Democrats just one vote shy of control.
Conversations with Stone often go like that. Always cocky. A little cryptic. Leaving you wondering about more. With a guerrilla-politics resume that goes all the way back to Richard Nixon, Stone's fingers have been in some of the most dastardly Republican schemes of the past 40 years, up to and including the Florida 2000 presidential recount. He helped rich guy Tom Golisano make high-priced mischief in the previous governor's race. He returned to Albany last year on the dime of Senate boss Joe Bruno. Desperate to keep his tiny Republican majority in the Senate, Bruno figured Stone could help. And he helped, until he had to quit when a voice that sounded awfully like his turned up making threats on the governor's father's voice mail.
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Even though there's no evidence he sent the governor to a hooker or made the Bush Justice Department follow up on a banking tip, he's been energetically working to undermine the governor.
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"My work isn't done there," he said.
"Just watch."
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Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
Dismiss it as bluster, but Stone's claim would be a confession to illegality on the level of at least, oh, paying for sex. Is Stone supposed to know about ongoing investigations before they are unsealed? Who are his friends at Justice?
For more speculation on how the Spitzer take-down may have been set up, go here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=recent_posts&command=replies&parent_id=2995172&forum=389