Rick Lazio? Yeccchhh

I was born in Brooklyn. When I was two, my parents, about to have a second child, decided to move to Long Island, where the schools were supposed to be better. I think that's part of what built Long Island-- a euphemistic way of talking about "white flight." First stop was Valley Stream, basically a walk from the Queens County line and then after a few years to Roosevelt, habit deeper into Nassau County. Roosevelt became one of the first big African-American suburbs and my parents decided to move back to Brooklyn. A few years ago, The Atlantic did an update on a long and much-discussed top-- the state of segregation in the suburbs. "Want to see what segregation looks like in America today? Take a drive on New York's Long Island, one of the most racially segregated portions of the country. I grew up there, and the differences between adjacent white and minority towns can be so sharp it's as if invisible fences divide them. Two villages, Hempstead and Garden City, lie adjacent to one another in Nassau County. Hempstead has a medium household income of $52,000. Garden City's is $150,000. Hempstead, in parts, resembles an inner city-- with bodegas, laundromats, low-rise apartment buildings. Garden City is a suburban idyll, with tree-lined streets, gourmet grocery stores, and large colonial-style homes. Garden City is 88 percent white; Hempstead is 92 percent black and Hispanic (split about evenly). The transition between the two villages occurs within one block, a visual whiplash.

"Long Island is becoming more diverse, Nassau County is becoming more diverse," says John Logan, a Brown University sociologist who has been studying demographics since the 1970s. "But within Nassau County there's been hardly any change in the degree of segregation. The predominantly minority areas are becoming more minority. And the predominantly white areas are staying mostly white... [He] finds that blacks and Hispanics who earn over $75,000 a year live in areas with higher poverty rates than whites who make less than $40,000.

A good way to evaluate these neighborhoods is to look at the elementary schools, which often represent a sub-community of a larger school district. Overall, suburban schools are academically better than city schools. But white suburban schools are better than black and Hispanic suburban schools. "The average black or Hispanic elementary school student attends a school that ranks below the 45th percentile in the state," Logan writes in his paper. The average white student in the suburbs? They attend schools that score above the 60th percentile.

What's true of the schools is true of many of the resources in black suburbs: They are objectively better than those in the city. Poverty rates and crime rates are lower in these communities. "There are reasons why you would move to a predominantly black suburb as opposed to staying in the predominantly black, or black and Hispanic, inner-city poor neighborhood-- it's a step forward," he says. But that does not make up for the fact that, by many measures, blacks and whites are living in different worlds. "I think that's the underlying situation that then becomes the basis for frustration and anger when something happens to spark it," he says.

There has been progress. Black/white segregation has been declining over the years. In 1980, fewer than 6 million blacks lived in the suburbs. Now 16 million do. These numbers are more dramatic for Asians and Hispanics. In solidly middle-class neighborhoods, Logan finds, whites won't leave when minorities move in, like they might have in previous decades. But that is mostly occurring in places with already good public resources. The suburbs are a cornerstone of the American dream. But, for right now, the realization of that dream looks very different in black and white.

Earlier this year, Long Island's top newspaper, Newsday reported that "Nassau County’s white population dipped below 60 percent for the first time in its modern history in 2018, as Latino, African-American and Asian populations across Long Island grew while the number of non-Hispanic white residents continued to decline... The population estimates for July 1, 2018, reflect a decades-long trend that has transformed Long Island from overwhelmingly white to a more diverse place, where Hindu temples and supermercados share the landscape with synagogues and Italian bakeries. Less than 30 years ago, Long Island was more than 84 percent white, according to the 1990 census. In 2018, about 59 percent of Nassau County residents and 67 percent of Suffolk County residents were white, according to the new estimates. Since 1990, the number of white, non-Hispanic residents dropped by nearly 400,000.

Thursday, the New York Times reported that "Well before Rep. Peter King announced that he would retire next year, enough evidence existed that his prospects for re-election on Long Island as a Republican were narrowing. Democrats now outnumber Republicans on Long Island, a once unthinkable development in a traditional conservative stronghold where voters backed every Republican presidential candidate, bar two, from 1900 to 1988… The numbers on Long Island enumerate the challenges for Republicans. In 1996, registered Republicans in Nassau County outnumbered the Democrats, 360,000 to 257,000. By this year, the number of Democrats had rocketed to 411,000. The number of Republicans, by contrast, had dropped by more than 30,000."

Basically there are 5 Long Island congressional districts representing Long Island voters:

• NY-01- Lee Zelden- R (eastern Suffolk Co.)- 75.2% white
• NY-02- Peter King- R (western Suffolk Co., South Shore Nassau Co.)- 62.3% white
• NY-03- Tom Suozzi- New Dem (north shore)- 68.7% white
• NY-04- Kathleen Rice- New Dem (western Nassau Co)- 57.1% white
• NY-05- Gregory Meeks- New Dem (a Queens district with a small piece of southwestern Nassau Co.)- 10.9% white

The second district is looking increasingly shaky for Republicans. The Democrats now have a registration advantage over Republicans, a new development. Obama won it both times, although Hillary lost it to Trump by almost 10 points. Peter King was reelected in recent years because he was Peter King, beloved on the transpartisan super-corrupt Long Island establishment, not because he was a Republican per se. All things being equal, a Democrat is likely to win it in 2020. Rick Lazio begs to differ. He was born in Amityville, in the eastern end of the district, although he represented the North Shore district (now NY-03) for 4 terms in the past--1993 to 2001. He was known as one of Congress' most corrupt members, taking immense amounts of money from Wall Street while serving as chair of the House Banking Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. To this day, the over $7 million in bribes Lazio took from the banksters is more than any other currently serving House members other than Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ($9,472,747) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer ($7,355,624) two other paragons of corruption.

Since King announced he isn't running for reelection, 16 Republicans launched trial balloons, as did half a dozen Democrats. The Democratic Party had already solidified behind Babylon town councilwoman Jackie Gordon, a centrist. The Republicans are looking at a vast array of candidates including Billy Joel's former girlfriend, Islip town councilwoman Trish Bergin Weichbrodt, state Senator Phil Boyle, state Assemblymen Joe DeStephano, Doug Smith, Phil Ramos, Mike LiPetri and Andrew Garbarino, former Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, current Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Lazio. He says he's seriously considering jumping in. "I have lived in this district my entire life. It would be unusual if I didn’t give some thought to the representation of the district. I know these folks well and have been among them my whole life... I won this swing district four times, the last three by 2-1 margins, enjoyed broad-based support of Republicans, Democrats and independents and carried it against Hillary Clinton by nearly 20 points," Lazio said. Except its was a different district then, the North Shore district, not the South Shore District.

Since leaving office, Lazio has worked as a corporate lobbyist, CEO of the Financial Services Forum, and as an executive for JP Morgan Chase.

He is currently an executive at alliantgroup, a giant consulting group that helps major companies score tax breaks and other government business.

That resume could give Democrats ammunition to paint Lazio as a corporate and government insider as politics in New York-- and across the country-- take a populist turn.

But Lazio insisted that his business background would be viewed as a plus.

“In my role at alliantgroup I serve as an advocate for small and medium business, cybersecurity, energy efficiency and workforce development,” he argued.

One veteran Long Island Republican, who requested anonymity, called Lazio’s trial balloon “bullshit.”

The Republican bench on Long Island has thinned out after Democrats toppled four GOP incumbents in last year’s state Senate races.

What's Next For Steve Israel-- And Steve Stockman?

Stockman was never convicted for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing-- and, the Texas Republican Party being what it is these days, he even wound up back in Congress. But the former drug addict has had a number of ethics problems in the House and is now facing criminal prosecution, along with several of his staffers. Grand jury subpoenas have already been served but Stockman, who won't be going back to Congress next year, may just flee to Texas and ignore the subpoena. Stockman told Boehner that he's "consulting with counsel to determine whether and to what extent compliance with the subpoena is consistent with the privileges and rights of the House." Three of Stockman's staffers are cooperating with law enforcement and appear to be giving evidence against him.

In a scathing report made public in June, the Office of Congressional Ethics said Stockman may have violated federal law and House rules when he accepted campaign donations from two of his congressional staffers, lied to investigators and attempted to impede their work. Stockman’s campaign falsely identified the donors as family members of the employees in subsequent campaign finance reports, the OCE found. The congressman later told OCE that the staffers resigned before making the contributions and were then re-hired, according to the report.

Steve Israel hasn't been charged with any crimes yet. He's just threatening to quit Congress if he's isn't given a leadership position-- even after his catastrophic and demonstrably incompetent and corrupt two terms as a failed DCCC Chair. No one can accuse DWT of being Monday morning quarterbacks in regard to Israel. We've been consistently and very regularly exposing his incompetence and corruption for years. The New York Daily News reported Monday that feelings among his Democratic colleagues were mixed after he "made public statements immediately after the elections in which he said that while he was done serving as the DCCC chair, he wanted a place at the leadership table and would otherwise consider giving up his House seat." The News opined that "It takes some chutzpah to seek a new leadership job fresh off heading House Democrats' electoral committee in two cycles that left them with the fewest seats they've had since the 1940s."

His district has a neutral PVI and could be very easily won by a well-financed Republican. He made a deal with the GOP not to target him-- the only PVI neutral district in the country that went untargeted in 2012 ands 2014-- but with former Congressman Rick Lazio getting ready to run in 2016, Israel-- who has never had a serious contest in his life and (obviously) doesn't know the first thing how to win elections-- may feel without leadership clout to raise cash and appearances, he will be too vulnerable to win. The News report doesn't mention Lazio, who left Congress to run for the Senate (against Hillary) in 2000 when Rudy Giuliani had to step out of the race to deal with prostate cancer. Lazio was crushed by Clinton because of his shady connections to Wall Street. She beat him 3,747,310 (55.27%) to 2,915,730 (43.01%).

Before their election-day mauling was even over, Israel's Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was defending his tenure with a hard-to-sell argument: It could have been worse.

Noting an average loss of 29 House seats by the President's party in his sixth year, the DCCC pointed out it had raised funds that helped temper a GOP surge and limited lost seats to about 15.

But Israel (D-L.I.) irked some colleagues with public statements immediately after the election in which he said that while he was done serving as DCCC chair, he wants a place at the leadership table and would otherwise consider giving up his House seat.

"You'd think there would be an effort to show a little more humility," said one House Democratic source.

While the DCCC chair is an often thankless job that entails constant travel and fundraising, losing should have consequences, the Democrat said.

"Just because you willingly took this job doesn't mean you should get a reward at the end of the process," the source said.

"I don't know how you promote up someone who failed so badly," said another source, a Democratic consultant with DCCC ties. "The Democratic Party shouldn't have social promotion."

Israel declined to comment, but his office produced testimonials from a series of fellow Democrats, including defeated members.

In a statement, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi lauded Israel's "astuteness," "management of mobilization efforts," and "messaging."

"Through what was a very tough night, Steve proved to be House Democrats' MVP," Pelosi said.

She's very loyal to her friends-- or so out of touch with reality that it should be frightening to House Democrats who are about to reelect her party leader. We've spoken to numerous defeated Democrats who all attribute their losses-- at least in part-- to Israel's abysmal job at the DCCC. One is about to publish a scathing OpEd in a major newspaper.

Israel's most likely leadership post is the chair of the Democratic Steering Committee, which oversees committee assignments. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) is leaving that post.

Through a spokesman, Pelosi, who picks panel members, declined to comment on whether she'll choose Israel.

Anger at Israel was particularly sharp among some New York Democrats in the wake of a smarting result in the congressman's own state, where Democrats lost three seats.

Democrats even failed to oust an indicted member, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island), despite spending millions on attack ads.

Critics also faulted the DCCC for failing to anticipate a close race that nearly ousted Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-Rochester).

Many cited dismal recruiting of candidates in New York.

Grimm opponent Domenic Recchia, touted by the DCCC, proved a poor candidate.

Sean Eldridge, 28, the husband of a Facebook founder Chris Hughes-- who ran against Rep. Chris Gibson in a Hudson Valley district that President Obama carried in 2012-- was quickly defined by Republicans as a youthful carpetbagger.

Aaron Woolf, a filmmaker who runs a locavore grocery store in Williamsburg, never seriously competed with 30-year old Republican Elise Stefanik in a North Country district.

"Having a DCCC Chair from New York is supposed to mean you find someone better there than the artisanal pickle-selling hipster from Brooklyn," the Democratic consultant said.

Eldridge ran in a D+1 district and was roundly rejected by voters there after spending $4,659,027, $2,840,000 from his own personal fortune. Recchia confounded everyone with his lackluster performance-- except people who know anything about him. And the artisanal pickle-selling hipster from Brooklyn... even Israel gave up on him early and wrote the Democratic-held district off as unwinnable.

Israel may have hoped he could leave politics and become a literary figure. He wrote a novel, The Global War on Morris, on his iPhone during the campaign-- instead of doing his job. It should be out in January... but people who have read parts of it all all pretty unanimously agree that F. Scott Fitzgerald, J.D. Salinger or John Steinbeck he'll never be. No, not even Nathaniel Hawthorne or Philip Roth or Don DeLillo.

Welcome to the wacky world of NYS gov't, where the trick is knowing how to make which wheels turn the right way

Here's the caption that appeared under this photo this afternoon on the nytimes.com City Room blog: "Rick Lazio announced he was withdrawing from the governor's race on Monday in Manhattan." No need, it seems, to identify the woman shooting that death-ray glare at the Rickster. Hmm, she does seem intimately familiar with the sap whereat she's glaring.

by Ken

Welcome to the wacky world of New York State election law, where our motto is, "Ya want a certain result, I know a guy what knows a guy."

Can you tell what's wrong with this report filed this afternoon on the NYT's City Room blog?

September 27, 2010, 12:02 PM

Lazio Drops Out of Governor’s Race

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Former Representative Rick A. Lazio has agreed to have his name removed as the Conservative Party’s candidate for governor, in a decision that bolsters the candidacy of the Republican candidate, Carl P. Paladino.

Mr. Paladino is expected to agree to have his name replace Mr. Lazio’s on the Conservative Party line, according to a person close to Mr. Lazio who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to upstage Mr. Lazio.

Mr. Lazio had been under pressure from Republican Party officials to exit the race on the Conservative Party line ever since he lost in decisive fashion to Mr. Paladino in the primary.

Mr. Paladino, a multimillionaire developer from Buffalo, is running an insurgent campaign fueled by Tea Party support against his Democratic rival, Andrew M. Cuomo, the state attorney general.

While Mr. Paladino appears to be making some inroads against Mr. Cuomo, who enjoys a large campaign war chest and a much more formidable organization, he would have had a difficult time winning had Mr. Lazio remained on the ballot.

In a state where Democratic voters far outnumber Republican voters, Mr. Paladino will need every vote he can get, and many voters who may have supported Mr. Lazio would be expected to back Mr. Paladino.

For the Conservative Party, the deal allowing Mr. Paladino’s name to be substituted for Mr. Lazio’s was critical. For any party to remain on New York State’s ballot, it must receive at least 50,000 votes. Had Mr. Lazio stayed on the ballot, that was not considered a sure outcome.

So what's wrong with this story? Nothing, except that it's illegal. No, it's not illegal to publish crap reporting. What's illegal is what our Rick purports to be agreeing to. Naturally he has every right to announce that he won't campaign as the Conservative Party nominee. He doesn't, however, have any legal authority to authorize having his name removed from the ballot.

Mr. Halbfinger correctly reports the Conservative Party's stake in getting Mr. Lazio off its ballot line. The central reality of officially recognized minor parties in New York State is the bottom-line requirement that to remain on the ballot -- any ballot for any office anywhere in the state -- for the following four years, a party must field a gubernatorial candidate who draws at least 50,000 votes. It was the nail in the coffin for the unlamented Liberal Party (which political wags liked to point out was neither liberal nor a party) in 2002, when, ironically, it gave its gubernatorial nod to the soon-to-tank Andrew Cuomo.

As I pointed out recently, now-Governor-in-waiting Cuomo used the 50,000-vote rule to blackmail the genuinely liberal Working Families Party into accepting his considerably more rightward platform before he would accept its ballot line. There was next to no chance that the WFP could scrounge up a candidate who could rack up those magic 50,000 votes.

Ironically, the Conservatives placed themselves in that same trap, back when the dreadful Lazio seemed the certain GOP nominee. Sure he was unelectable, but he could garner them their 50,000-vote fix. Until it turned out that he couldn't manage much more than half of Paladino's vote total in the primary. And unlike the WFP, which could at least abase itself and agree to Cuomo's terms for accepting its nomination, the Conservatives seemed truly trapped, because by law it was too late to remove Lazio from the ballot, unless . . . unless . . .

The crucial missing piece of information was included by the Daily News's Celeste Katz and Ken Lovett, whose account was posted an hour before the NYT's Halbfinger's:

Bronx County Republican Chairman Jay Savino confirms that Rick Lazio will be nominated for Supreme Court judge at the party's nominating convention tonight, judgeship being one of three ways (other than moving out of New York or dying) that Lazio can get off the ballot for governor.

"We had a meeting of the county executive committee, and we discussed our judicial options, one of which was Rick Lazio, and I anticipate tonight he will be nominated," Savino said.

Which presumably also, by the way, explains the timing of the Lazio "decision" to yield the Conservative ballot position to Paladino. With the Bronx GOP set to decide tonight who its judicial nominees will be, that's the last chance to get Lazio the hell off their line, short of forcing him to move out of state, or having him killed. Presumably no official announcement of the nomination had been made when Lazio announced his withdrawal from the gubernatorial race because, according to the Daily News reporters, he and Bronx GOP chairman Savino had been "playing phone tag" regarding the judicial nomination. Savino is quoted as saying, "I believe that he will accept, but I can't say that I've had a conversation with him personally."

NOW HERE'S THE WRINKLE

So I think we can consider it a done deal. But there's still something distinctly weird about the deal. Usually when party bosses use a judicial nomination to clear the path to nomination for a more favored candidate, they're actually paying the SOB off with a judgeship. Whereas Lazio isn't getting a judgeship, he's just getting a nomination -- for a judgeship in the Bronx he stands very little chance of winning. In fact, it's a job he doesn't even want. (Remember that in NYS, the Supreme Court is about as un-supreme as you can get. It's basically our bottom-level state trial court.) As my colleague Phillip Anderson (of The Albany Project) points out, Lazio "doesn't have to move to the Bronx, campaign for the job (which he won't) or serve if he's elected."

Presumably our Rick's plan all along was to return to the moneyed halls of JPMorgan Chase, which has already made him a millionaire, albeit one with, already, some serious ethical questions. He just didn't expect to be, er, available so soon. More like, oh, November 3. So what he's getting out of the deal is off the ballot, so he can put this nightmare gubernatorial race behind him and get back to his real world of bankster megabucks.

My thought here is that we should all band together and campaign like crazy for our Rick and put him over the top. Heck, he'll have more name recognition than anyone on any of the Bronx judicial slates. Can you imagine anything more delicious than Rick winning a judgeship that makes him commute to the Bronx, of all places, and at paltry judge's wages?

FINALLY, DOESN'T IT FIGURE THAT THE DUMBEST
WORD WOULD COME FROM PRINCESS SARAH?

Earlier today Howie tweeted an alert to a tweet from Alaska's onetime governor. She is, presumably, buoyed by this boost to her teabagging pal Carl Paladino's gubernatorial prospects. As usual, though, nobody gets it wronger:

Rick Lazio: u r Commonsense Conservatives (& other freedom-loving NY'rs) hero today. Thanks 4 selfless act 2 allow your great state 2 thrive

Well, she's never been one for, you know, facts, our princess.

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Those anti-gummint Republicans sure do love all those gummint $$$ they glom onto -- how 'bout a hand for John Kasich and Rick Lazio?

In July 1999, an ebullient Rep. John Kasich (R-OH, right) announced he was abandoning his bid for the presidency, and would support Texas Gov. George W. Bush. (Oh look, he's there in the photo too! Doesn't seem to, uh, quite know what's going on.)

by Ken

It's just a theory, but maybe all those Republicans who preach the uselessness and financial irresponsibility of government are believing from personal knowledge and experience -- their principal relationship to government $$$ being their all-consuming quest to glom onto it for personal enrichment and for the enrichment of their family, friends, and hangers-on, including people who can contribute to their further enrichment, like as not via other government $$$. The idea that that money might be better applied to the public good is apparently unimaginable to these sleazoids. They know that government has nothing to do with the public good, whatever the heck that might be, and they know because, after all, they are the government.

Tonight, a couple of cases in point featuring the Party of Greed and Selfishness.

One is a tale told today by our pal Al Kamen in his Washington Post "In the Loop" column:

Kasich's Buckeye bucks

The Dems wasted no time Monday jumping on a Dayton Daily News article about how Ohio gubernatorial candidate and former GOP House member John Kasich was paid $50,000 a year for seven years to teach a course at Ohio State University.

"Hypocrisy," the D's alleged, to ask for colleges to "tighten their belts" and then "rake in cash from them." Kasich, the article said, got about $4,000 per campus visit as a "presidential fellow." In a 2008 report to a security industry regulatory body, Kasich said he worked there four hours a month, according to the article. He also served on panels at banquets and forums.

Kasich campaign spokesman Rob Nichols said Kasich, former chairman of the House Budget Committee, got "what OSU thought his teaching was worth," and "they kept asking him back." A school spokesman said the students liked him. (Yeah? Well, some adjunct professors at Georgetown get high ratings but only about $5,000 a semester -- and we have to grade all those papers. Okay, so maybe a little jealous here.)

The Daily News noted that "other politicians," including GOP Senate candidate and former Bush OMB director Rob Portman, "have taught courses" at OSU free of charge.

What? Free? Like, for nothing? And he wants people to think he's got good judgment?

Al, that roster of Georgetown adjunct professors who "get high ratings but only about $5,000 a semester" wouldn't include anyone we know, would it? Like somebody who notes that "we have to grade all those papers" and may be "a little jealous here"?


HEY, REMEMBER SNOTTY SLEAZEBAG RICK LAZIO? NOW HE'S MILLIONAIRE SNOTTY SLEAZEBAG RICK LAZIO

Our other case tonight involves former Rep. Rick Lazio (R-NY). You probably remember our Rick as that little snot, then a Republican congressman from Long Island, who thought he could browbeat Hillary Clinton into submission when they were fighting for one of New York's U.S. Senate seats, and wound up suffering deserved public humiliation, not to mention an electoral trouncing. Just possibly you've heard that he's seeking the Republican nomination for governor, and nobody else of any note is, meaning that he's set up to be trounced again, this time by NYS Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the all-but-certain Democratic nominee.

There is, however, more to our Rick, as Wayne Barrett reports in this week's Village Voice ("Inside Rick Lazio's Biggest Wall Street Deal -- The Chummy E-Mails"). It seems that since leaving government, Rick found himself a cushy niche at the country's largest money trap, JPMorgan Chase, where he's parlayed his connections into millions in salary and bonuses.

Wayne's story is about an almost-consummated deal between our Rick and another onetime New York Republican wunderkind, Charles Millard, based on Millard's stewardship of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Never heard of the PBGC? Don't know what it does? Not to worry. Neither, apparently, did our Charles -- not just when President George W. Bush appointed him to the job, but still when he pitched the Senate for confirmation.

Millard was still getting acquainted with the agency when he testified at his confirmation Senate hearing that September. Yet he was already talking about fundamentally changing PBGC's investment policy, shifting billions in assets from what he called "extremely conservative" investments to higher-yield ones. Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski, who then chaired the aging committee, did not hide her alarm. "I am really requesting as chair that before any board decision is even taken that you share" the new investment policy "with us," asking pointedly: "Do I have your commitment on that?" Millard said he'd be "absolutely be happy to discuss" the policy with the committee.

Millard had apparently sprung into this cushy job by latching onto Rudy Giuliani's mayoral crony bandwagon, after the failure of his run at electoral politics, when as a city councilman he challenged Democratic freshman Rep. Carolyn Maloney in her bid for reelection in that posh East Side Manhattan district.

Here's how Wayne outlines the story of Rick and Charlie's adventure in cahoots:

Within Hours of George Bush's May 3, 2007, announcement that he was naming Charles Millard head of the $64 billion Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), Rick Lazio got an e-mail about it from a fellow JPMorgan Chase executive.

"Assume you know Charlie Millard," wrote Tom Block, the bank's top in-house lobbyist, attaching the White House press release.

"I do know him well," Lazio replied.

Lazio would boast in subsequent internal Morgan e-mails obtained by the Voice that he was "very friendly with the head of PBGC."

How friendly? Lazio and Millard would soon start down the path of a near-billion-dollar deal that eventually ensnarled both in multiple federal probes that looked into their apparent efforts to game a government bidding process, as well as subsequent attempts by Lazio to get Millard a job.

This is the story of that stunning deal, Lazio's biggest score at Morgan, which earned him a $1.3 million bonus in 2008 and another $300,000 in the first four months of 2009, in addition to a combined $585,000 salary.

These details of Lazio's exercise in insider influence are emerging just as his gubernatorial campaign boasts that he's the man who should be elected to clean up Albany. The key facts about his conduct crawl from his own computer in an e-mail trail that reaches as high as America's number one banker, Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who was drawn in as Lazio pushed to win Morgan a lucrative contract that would put retiree benefits into risky investments.

No one will be prosecuted for this chummy dealing, because neither the quid (the allocation of the $900 million Millard awarded Lazio's firm) nor the quo (Lazio's efforts to get Millard a job) came to fruition, nipped in the bud by investigations that began almost as soon as the deal began to come together, leaving prosecutors with nothing more than compelling proof of intent. But a botched scam can be a blessing in disguise, as the electronic fingerprints of these two clumsy conspirators prove beyond a click of a doubt.

I'll leave the sordid details to Wayne to set out. Trust me, your stomach will churn and heave. At the same time, nothing he has to report will particularly surprise you.

Let's just note the irony that right now Carolyn Maloney (seen here with what's-his-name, one of those Democrats who apparently got a four-figure check from Fox's PAC), who pretty much zapped Charlie Millard out of elective politics, is facing a potentially hugely well-financed challenge from a candidate, Reshma Saujani, who's in the race exclusively as the candidate of Wall Street, which feels betrayed by "their" congresswoman for her active participation in the financial regulation reform legislation. Naturally, the very idea of government checks on unbridled greed and selfishness horrifies the financial community.

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