If you think Mayor Bloomberg’s new lawsuit against John Liu hints of dysfunction in the city comptroller’s office, just imagine if Eliot Spitzer had Liu’s job.
Bloomberg claims the comptroller’s responsibility for logging city contracts doesn’t give him the ability to “usurp the mayor’s authority.” A Bloomberg aide, meanwhile, blasts Liu for wasting city resources to promote his “naked political ambitions.” It all rings true.
Liu’s folks say extra scrutiny from the comptroller is vital, since the mayor mishandles contracts. They cite one for an electronic payroll system, for instance, that came in years late and millions over budget. They have an argument.
But the larger point here is that however activist and grandstanding Liu may be today, he’ll look the model of quiet rectitude if Spitzer wins his bid for that office. The ex-governor is vowing to expand the role of comptroller — and not in a good way.
“The Sheriff of Wall Street is back” is how one of Spitzer’s new ads describes this. He vows to “make sure the Wall Street firms that want us to invest in them play by the rules.” That the comptroller’s job is not to play sheriff but to maximize returns for public pension funds seems completely irrelevant to him.
As attorney general, Spitzer certainly took that office to new places. He resurrected an obscure but powerful law, the Martin Act, to bully business. He then used the reputation he burnished as a tough lawman to fulfill his ambitions to be governor.
Now he wants to weaponize the city comptroller’s office. Maybe he figures it will help erase memories of Client 9, in the same way Anthony Weiner must now be thinking that a stint in Gracie Mansion would help folks forget Carlos Danger.
But Comptroller Spitzer would be no joke: The office provides not only the ability to delay contracts, as Liu has done with Bloomberg, but also to subpoena enemies and wield numerous other tools. And everything in Spitzer’s life suggests he has one philosophy about power: It’s there to be abused.