Spitzer takes shots at Obama, Bloomberg and Cuomo


New York - Disgraced ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer took another step back into political spotlight Sunday, appearing for a chatty interview at the 92nd Street Y on the upper East Side.

The hooker-happy former governor chided Mayor Bloomberg for aggressively defending Wall Street, President Obama's financial team for being too close to CEOs and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for refusing to answer tough questions.

Spitzer has been staging a comeback of sorts with increasingly frequent appearances on TV news shows, a regular column in Slate Magazine and sit-down interviews with individual reporters.

He's featured at length in a new documentary about his rise to the Governor's Mansion and fall from grace in a prostitution scandal.

His appearance at the 92 Street Y on the Upper East Side last night was one of his first before an unpredictable live audience of nearly 1,000. The audience included his wife, Silda, who declined to comment on her husband's political prospects. "I'm here off the record tonight," she said.

Some came ready to despise the ex-gov.

"He destroyed a family. He destroyed a government and I don't think he should be able to have a stage," said a woman who gave her name only as Amy.

In a 90-minute on-stage interview with CBS political analyst Jeff Greenfield, Spitzer won light applause for his comments on Wall Street regulation, the Supreme Court (potential nominee Elena Kagan is a college friend) and Albany's dysfunction.

He knocked Bloomberg for the mayor's robust defense of Wall Street as the city's chief industry. "Mike's a friend but I think he's fundamentally in error," Spitzer said.

He twice referred to Cuomo as "presumably" the state's next governor but said he won't consider endorsing him until Cuomo answers questions about issues like health care and charter schools "and shows the fortitude to answer them the right way."

When asked by an audience member why he chose David Paterson as lieutenant governor, he called his successor "a very bright individual."

He said he chose Paterson to help him work with the State Senate and its then-leader Joseph Bruno, but refused to answer a question about why Paterson has had so much difficulty governing. "It's an answer that speaks poorly of Albany, not David," he said.

In the end, Spitzer, who refused to rule out the prospect of running for office again some day, won at least some converts.

When Greenfield thanked him for appearing without setting conditions for the interview, he received a warm round of applause.

"I came here wanting not to like him and be angry," said Lee Berger, a retired teacher from the upper East Side. "But he was very articulate. He said the things I wanted to hear."

Sylvia Steinbrock of the Upper East Side described Spitzer before the speech as a "big mouth" but said as she left that her opinion of him had improved.

"I give him a lot of credit for coming here and listening to questions," she said.

Daily News

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