Spin Cycle

Andrew Cuomo has released his first AG ad. It's posted on his website.

This comes a week after Jeanine Pirro released her first ad, attacking the former HUD secretary's lack of legal experience. She skipped over Mark Green and Cuomo's other primary opponents, and Cuomo is skipping the primary battle too. Here's the text of the voiceover:

"Why are Jeanine Pirro and the Republicans already attacking Andrew Cuomo? Because they know Cuomo's the strongest candidate to carry on Eliot Spitzer's fight. In Bill Clinton's cabinet, Cuomo led legal battles to protect consumers against big banks and insurance companies, forged a national coalition to combat gun violence,
took on the Ku Klux Klan, and brought integrity and reform to a troubled agency. With Eliot, he'll keep up the fight for what's right. Andrew Cuomo for Attorney General."

So it nicely turns the Pirro attack into an asset in the primary battle -- he's supposedly the "strongest candidate." And in the release accompanying the ad Cuomo seems to have squeezed a compliment out of Spitzer's camp, which is officially neutral in the Democratic primary. Here it is:

"Eliot and Andrew are friends, and, of course, Eliot believes Andrew is better suited to be AG than Jeanine Pirro," said Christine Anderson, spokeswoman for Eliot Spitzer 2006. "Andrew was the head of a federal agency and has broad experience in public service."

Actually, that's the first time we've ever heard anyone describe Spitzer and Cuomo as friends. Over the years, we've kind of heard the opposite. But hey -- maybe the moon is in the Seventh House, and Jupiter aligned with Mars, and peace will guide the planets, and love will steer the stars.