I guess Pataki can kiss the Presidential run in 08 goodbye.Pataki calls for investigation into leak
8/23/2005 4:15 PM
By: Rita Nissan, NY1
First Lady Libby Pataki wants more face time in the media. In a conversation taped several years ago, she complains to former Pataki patronage boss Thomas Doherty that she's running across the state but not getting publicity, at least compared to Mayor Giuliani's then wife, Donna Hanover.
Doherty says: "I see you all over {but} I don't see your picture in the paper. I don't see you on TV. I don't hear you on the radio. So what the hell are you doing out there?"
Libby Pataki says: "Exactly. They have me running around for so much damn stuff."
Doherty says: "Bulls--- stuff."
Libby Pataki says:" Exactly. Take your mothers to day work. I spent seven hours running from here to there, and there was not one sentence. There were pictures of Donna Giuliani all over the papers. And then it's not like, you know, I'm not photogenic."
The secretly recorded conversations were first obtained by the New York Post from an anonymous source. The paper says it appears the recordings were made in the middle of the governor's first term.
In the next transcript, Doherty tells then Senator Al D'Amato about problems with then-state Health Commissioner Dr. Barbara DeBuono. He's upset because she isn't making patronage hires the administration wants.
Doherty says: "Just between you and me, if the f---ing commissioners of this state were any slower with this s---. I mean it got to a point where I called DeBuono on something on behalf of [Nassau County Republican boss Joseph] Mondello, and I said to her, 'You know you have a f---ing Democrat as your number two person, and you're telling me that I can't get my f---ing people hired?' And then Brad [then-Pataki Chief of Staff Brad Race] calls me up and says, 'You really can't call these people like that'. I'm like, 'Brad, does Barbara DeBuono work for us or do we work for her?' I said, 'Joe Mondello can't get a goddam job, and it still hasn't been done yet.' It's utter bulls---."
D'Amato says: "It's ridiculous."
Governor Pataki is calling for a federal investigation after transcripts of taped telephone conversations, some involving him and his wife, appeared in a New York City tabloid Monday.
Doherty is in all the recordings. He is now a lobbyist and consultant. He said, "I am appalled that my private conversations were recorded without my consent or knowledge."
It's illegal in New York to record two people talking if neither one is aware, and Governor Pataki is calling for a federal investigation.
State GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik said, "It's an atrocity."
But the tapes do offer a rare glimpse into behind the scenes politics.
Capital News 9 had a chance to talk to the governor about the tapes again, and he said he'll leave it up to the investigators to get to the bottom of his.
"I'm not going to comment on anything with illegal transcripts. There is a reason the state makes it illegal to record them. There is a reason the state makes it illegal to publish them," said Pataki.
However, Pataki did say that he doesn't think Thomas Doherty had anything to do with this.
http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/hea ... 5&SecID=33
Not exactly shocking here in NY that our state leaders spend so much time playing patronage games. If Pataki had just shut up about it this probably would have died. But they're screaming. Which means someone is putting the stick in the right place.
