One can only imagine what was running through George Pata ki’s head yesterday afternoon as he sat in the damp and chill of an outdoors Albany afternoon in January and listened to the inaugural address of his successor, Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
“I want to thank Gov. Pataki for joining in this time-honored tradition as the reins of government pass from his careful stewardship,” said Spitzer, with a straight face. “Thank you, Gov. and Mrs. Pataki, for 12 years of service.”
The stick in the eye came just a few lines later:
“Like Rip Van Winkle, the legendary character created by the New York author Washington Irving, New York has slept through much of the past decade, while the rest of the world has passed us by.”
True enough . . . up to a point.
The world is passing New York by – but the problem is not so much somnolence in Albany as it is the shameless opportunism and personal advantage-seeking that characterize so much of what passes for government in the Empire State these days.
The new governor’s speech was workmanlike in construction and delivered without the rhetorical flourishes that have seemed so promising in past inaugurals, only to disappoint.
He noted the tension between the majesty of New York’s rich history and the sometimes sordid, but always sad, reality of the state’s present.
Alan Hevesi’s name went unspoken. But the disgraced former comptroller clearly was present in spirit – a fact inferentially acknowledged by Spitzer: “In order to return to policies of opportunity and prosperity, we must change the ethics of Albany and end the politics of cynicism and division in our state.”
Did a chill run up Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s spine right then? Did Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno glance over his shoulder?
Supreme cynics are they – and masters of the politics of division as well.
As for ethics, Bruno is already under federal investigation for his business practices, apparently as they relate to the conduct of his official duties. He swears he’s innocent – of just what, he won’t detail – but so did Alan Hevesi.
And, as was Hevesi, Bruno will be lucky merely to lose his high office – or so goes the speculation in Albany.
As for Silver, suffice it to be said that the same federal prosecutor who has brought low former Assembyman Brian McLaughlin – one of the speaker’s most influential allies – promises to make corruption in Albany a prime target.
Another chill for the speaker’s spine?
That challenge, of course, is not Spitzer’s challenge – not directly, anyway.
The new governor’s promise to clean up Albany can be redeemed only if he is clever, talented and energetic enough to confront a government structured essentially to serve its leaders and their political and commercial allies.
Boards and commissions and authorities ostensibly meant to provide cautious oversight in the conduct of the public’s business have long since become obstacles to progress – obstacles that can be reduced only by hiring the right lawyer, or the correct consultant, or a relative or a former adviser or an aide or two.
It’s disgusting but it’s quite legal – and customary.
For example, the list of Albany’s most powerful lobbyists is topped each year by the public-employee unions and health-care industry shills, and the top campaign contributors follow in train. The result is that public policy in Albany is not so much practiced as it is bought and sold.
Spitzer understands this.
“Some may feel threatened by health-care reforms,” he said yesterday, “but all will benefit from a system that finally puts patients first . . .”
Not union fat cats.
Not hospital administrators grown rich on inflated salaries and the professional associations they support.
Not the lobbyists and other hangers-on accustomed to having their way with a wink, a nod and a phone call.
Patients.
How revolutionary.
Spitzer has set for himself the task of cracking this corrupt cabal, and others like it. It’s an ambitious undertaking, which he seems to understand.
“The reform we seek is substantial in size and historic in scope.” he said yesterday. “It will require . . . a break from the days when progress was measured by the partisan points scored or the opponents defeated.”
That, and fat checks cut to insiders who retain favor by kicking a cut of the spoils back to the decision-makers.
Inertia is very much on their side.
Well, Eliot Spitzer got the rhetoric right yesterday. The real test begins today, the day after Day One.
The first day of the rest of his incumbency.
mcmanus@nypost.com