Spin Cycle

In today's Wall Street Journal, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver accuses fellow Democrat Nassau Executive Tom Suozzi of trying to "rewrite his own history" in his primary campaign for governor against AG Eliot Spitzer.

Silver's letter responds to Suozzi's op-ed in the Journal last Tuesday, in which he wrote that the speaker -- whom he identified in quotes as Spitzer's "partner" -- offered up a "false choice" for reining in the cost of Medicaid: either slashing programs that help the poor or continuing spending, when Suozzi argued that in fact fraudulent expenses can be lopped out of the budget.

Today, Silver writes back, "I find it curious that Mr. Suozzi's account, both in his commentary and throughout his campaign, of how he 'turned around' Nassau County never mentions the legislature's key role in providing a state bailout for Nassau County totaling more than $100 million, creating a financial review board or the fact that the state allowed the county to restructure $382 million in county debt. At the time I was pleased to have worked with my Nassau County colleagues in achieving this Nassau County bailout package.

It strikes me that when Nassau County needed a bailout, Mr. Suozzi had no objection to 'partnering' with me or my colleagues in the Assembly. Nor did he mind 'partnering' with me when he has in the past sought and received campaign contributions and fund-raising assistance."

That, concluded Silver, is Suozzi's effort to rewrite his history. But we should note that to be historically accurate, Suozzi was not yet in office when the state in 2000 approved the bailout to which Silver refers. That county exec was Republican Tom Gulotta.

Michael Rothfeld