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GOP schemer predicts more shakeups ahead

Ellis Henican

March 12, 2008

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First thing in the morning, I was on the Amtrak to Albany. I wanted to see with my own eyes how a whole city gloats.

It wasn't just that the Emperor had no clothes (unless you mean the Emperors Club VIP escort agency, where no clothes is kinda the point). It was that we've never had a politician alienate so many people so quickly and commit political suicide himself.

And it's hard to find anyone -- besides the tortured Eliot Spitzer, his lovely family and a few close aides -- even slightly mourning his demise.

Yesterday was beautiful, bright and crisp in Albany with just the earliest hint of spring. But before I could even make my way to the Capitol to gather up a new pile of reaction statements, my cell phone was ringing from a place even nicer than this.

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The call-back number said 202, for Washington. But the sunny voice on the other end could only be in Miami.

Yes, it was Roger Stone. And the exuberance in his voice made high-fiving Albanians sound almost morose.

"I didn't make him go to a prostitution ring," said the most famous and ruthless Republican dirty trickster who still walks the earth. "He did that all on his own."

Stone said that, even before I asked if his hand was somehow in Spitzer's latest trouble. I figured, somehow or another, it had to be.

"No comment on that," Stone said. "I will say I knew it was coming. That's why I wasn't too upset about the results of the special election," where a Democrat grabbed a supposedly safe Republican State Senate seat, leaving Democrats just one vote shy of control.

Conversations with Stone often go like that. Always cocky. A little cryptic. Leaving you wondering about more.

With a guerrilla-politics resume that goes all the way back to Richard Nixon, Stone's fingers have been in some of the most dastardly Republican schemes of the past 40 years up to and including the Florida 2000 presidential recount. He helped rich guy Tom Golisano make high-priced mischief in the previous governor's race. He returned to Albany last year on the dime of Senate boss Joe Bruno. Desperate to keep his tiny Republican majority in the Senate, Bruno figured Stone could help. And he helped, until he had to quit when a voice that sounded awfully like his turned up making threats on the governor's father's voice mail.

But Stone never really left.

He set up a 527 political-hit committee. He's been shopping anti-Spitzer stories for months. He's been warning darkly about some "really ugly" stuff to come.

Even though there's no evidence he sent the governor to a hooker or made the Bush Justice Department follow up on a banking tip, he's been energetically working to undermine the governor.

And he may not be done.

"Everything's about to change," Stone said.

Well, sure.

Of course it is. Spitzer, mortally wounded, will almost certainly have to resign. Standing ready to take his place and make double-big history too, Lt. Gov. David Paterson would be the first black governor of New York -- and the first nearly blind one.

That wasn't what Stone meant.

"My work isn't done there," he said.

"Just watch."

Is he just playing mind games? Is history about to go haywire again?

I'll just say this much, knowing Roger Stone.

Watch your back, David Paterson. Watch your back.

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