in albany that the independent bookstore is one thing i think i can say with great pride that we do correctly in this town, so lloyd asked me to introduce him and i would like to point out his earlier book is priceless the case that brought on the visa mastercard bank cartel and the book you'll be talking about today and insiders clinical of italy and spritzers tragic reign. lloyd, without further ado, it's all yours. [applause] ..

>> i have another book called priceless i have a similar book tour at the time and i felt the need to talk about the background of that book because most people were not familiar with what had gone on there and the backdrop what that was i don't think that is necessary to night i think most of you know, about eliot spitzer and the spitzer administration provide think that is a

necessary. the subject matter of the book is very well known in the city and state and in the united states. as i travel around the world since this has happened i have been to thailand, india, a number of times he and everybody knows about the plague year as i call the 17 months that encompass our transition to power in the 14 and a half months of the eliot spitzer short and tragic train instead of selling you about the backdrop i will tell you about why i a wrote the book the single question was asked the most was when this was happening, did you know, what elliott was doing? and no. now the question i asked why did you write the book? i will tell you why and a little bit about the book

and i will do a little brief reading and i will answer your questions which is the most important part than if your move to to buy the book i will sign the book. why did the right to the book? i have a non elliott 28 years. when he was sworn in as governor we have been close friends and colleagues for around a quarter of a century. he was my intern and i was the attorney general's office. we were law partners for almost four years and a law firm that we were founding partners called constantine and partners so he was a named partner in the firm. in 1991 elected attorney general i ran his transition

to help hire his executive staff and organize the office then i went back to my law firm at. but i was named one of the cochairs of the governor transition and i thought at that moment that i will leave the practice of law and july and elliott and serve him in albany eight or 12 years then go to washington with him when he became president of the united states then i would be dying a peaceful and virtual death after serving the last 27 years of my life and government and that was the operative assumption on that day. what obviously it did not work out that way. during the administration i was his senior policy adviser and despite all of that, on march 2008 when i found out about what you found out on march 10, ended

abruptly came to an end, i felt i did not understand what had happened. i am not talking about the scandal of the prostitution scandal i felt i did not know what had happened in the previous 17 months of the transition and administration. i knew the facts. i was there for most of the facts. working in the administration with a fairly close proximity. but i did not know the meaning of those facts. i turned decided to try to go beyond the mere fact still look for the truth and that is what happens when you write a book like this and you really open your mind and explore the facts and go beyond the mere fact and factoid day and to seek truth. i did that for myself initially i wanted to understand what the hell had happened.

what happened to to the enterprise was which so much hope and expectation had been poured into and how we came apart so quickly. that is why i did it. once i did that for myself i realized not only i but the people of new york court in a similar position. january 4th 2007 they were told everything about new york state would change on day one and on march 122008 when elliott resigned, they knew that most things had changed and changed for the worse frankly and since then things of new york state have gotten even worse with no end in sight. i felt the people of the state of new york deserve to know what happened to and

not with prostitutes but their government. the phrase in my head was from another book from the autobiography of malcolm x and i remember malcolm had said we did not land on plymouth rock. plymouth rock landed on us. that people felt plymouth rock and landed on them all they have gotten was three minutes 46 seconds into public appearances along the lines to those much is given, much as expected i screwed up and i am leaving good luck. i felt the people of the state deserve to know a lot more and need to understand more than that. not about the prostitutes but about their government there past, the current likely future governor. legislature attorney

general, the district attorney for the various agencies the mind boggling number of redundant agencies there to investigate official corruption in the state. they need to understand what troopergate was all about. i don't think very many people know what that is about and if you read this book once and for all you will understand what that was all about. but was that driver's license initiative? what the hell was that all about? this book really explains a that was about. the budget. someone said that making the law is like making sausage. making a budget is like for the people going to the pennsylvania dutch country. that is even worse.

and this explains how that is made. remember the comptroller election when he pled guilty to a crime? what was that about? this book explains with that was about. the ongoing nightmare of the failure too properly compensate both judges and legislators in the state. but that is the ongoing nightmare in the state. garbage and and garbage and this book explains how that happened. and why those compensation levels in 11 or 12 years ago. this book exclaims the calamitous failure to reform school spending and upgrade public higher education to reform the inefficiency of

the state's roughly 5,000 local governments. all of that as a result of the historic failure of the plague year. in knowing what actually happened may give people information and understanding they both deserve and could use to make things better. when they confront the policy issues when they go to the ballot box next time and have a choice of some of the people involved because it was not just eliot or all of us. looking at some of my colleagues we are part of the spitzer administration but there were many other people in default. the book? that is why i wrote the book itself. probably 290 pages i had to

read it three or four times and it was 600 pages then i broke down 290 pages. 50 of those are what you have heard about already. 50 pages are about the ending of the terrible 61 hours and the fight to keep eliot from resigning and all of those revelations. of the book begins that way about 10 pages and ends about 40 pages of that. but the core of the book is what i talked about. the ending is very compelling, heart rendering it is not about client nine. that was waged buy me in by

sister emilie to try to get him too not resign. that was the most important part about that. most of the people became disillusioned. i was disillusioned all year long. those two people up front here know that too what is going on? the best state attorney general in the 220 year history encompassing 1550 state attorney general said how he could have performed this way i did not understand what was going on. then my understood what was going on. i understood what had caused most and, if not all of

this. i love my disillusionment and a fight that we made during those three days was to say this is terrible. the u.k. and survive this. what would have happened to ted kennedy? teddy kennedy spoke at my commencement june 1969 and 3 or 4 weeks later and chappaquiddick occurred. a wealthy man coming he could have gone quietly into the sunset and lives the life of a rich man but he didn't. he said i am carrying the hopes and dreams -- dreams of a lot of people the hopes and dreams of the people of massachusetts and a certain part of united states. he went back and thought for

the rest of his life he is deified the last six months of his life but with that exception he took crap every day for the rest of his life because he knew he had a responsibility. with a little passion to say settle them, you can survive this but you owe it to everybody else to put up the fight. to be the great governor you were meant to be among the very best in history but we lost that fight. after that introduction of the book it gives you a brief history of the relationship between eliot and me which i have already given you than into the transition off to power

which i thought was the abysmal transition three lost an amazing opportunity eliot spitzer was the best game in the country for a progressive. several years for the formation of a democratic national government we could have the best and brightest but instead we settled on some good and some pour and some local prospects from people like me instead of going out there and getting the very best to run the various agencies in the state. we talk about the failed opportunity and i write about that. inauguration. remember that? forty-five seconds after taking the oath of office has attacked joe bruno and

george pataki? but especially bruno and silver people they would meet in the next two weeks to do virtually everything they would have to do and replace so the next thing the book goes through is that whole thing where eliot the essentially picks a fight that he could only win if the people he just insulted where letting him win you just us and discuss the entire state and country but then it goes into the 20072008 budget. in the book i said that was very subtle but the most telling failure both substantively and procedurally of the administration. to get these opportunities once every 10 are 15 or 20 years we have to address major issues the way schools

are funded, medicaid spending which was choking off virtually every other initiatives we wanted to do and all of that could have been addressed in the budget but by that time we had completely alienated the legislature eliot had drawn a line in the sand. i will allow only budget if that is necessary to have a good budget and i will have this process done in the light of day and open and in the very end he opted for the on-time budget and closed the doors, did it if it was smoke-filled or not no-smoking allowed on the second floor anymore but it was smoky in there and behind closed doors and it was a vintage clothes store c +, b negative budget and a lost opportunity. you don't get this every

year. the issues we were addressing are issues you get a chance to address once every so often. we pass the health care bill this year you may think it is great or that it stinks but the first opportunity to do that since 1993 when clinton failed to do this, hillary clinton, the next opportunity that can milan was 16 years later. you don't get another chance because there is another budget. that was the most telling figure of the year. onto the judges' salaries that is addressed in the book. judges' salaries and

legislators' salaries happen or they were 11 or 12 years ago. this book explains how that happened 2007 was a year they could be raised very easily and would you fail to compensate the people who fail to govern you, a garbage in, garbage out. that is what happened so this book explains that. and in doing that we alienated a key committee of 1300 state judges. then on to what i called in the book the recent unpleasantness that i called troopergate that i set up the time to my colleague, i will not call this troopergate tore use the gate i will not do that.

i called it true. the first abizaid we spend any time whatsoever, one second trying to let everybody know what everybody already knew. everybody in the state already knew joe like to fly around on state helicopters and state airplanes and vehicles with the siren on. george pataki knew it he had already grounded him. nobody needed to hear that. at the time joe bruno was on his way out, under federal investigation pervade grand jury sitting there investigating him and his wife was very sick and die one year later and i like

joe bruno frankly. when we drove here tonight we passed the exit to the stadium. show. accomplished a lot for the state not exactly my cup of tea but at that point* all he wanted to do was to get people so instead weeks ended all of this effort to discredit somebody under federal investigation on the way out. when all of this cayman to light to discredit joe bruno nine investigations were done. by the attorney general three done by the albany district one by the state investigation commission one by the senate investigation

commission two with the inspector general and one by the public integrity commission that exceeded the ethics commission, not one of those investigations was done in a professional manner and this book explains how all of those investigations were mishandled and how those investigators violated the law scores of times in attempting to do a relatively simple and straightforward investigation of bad conduct by state officials. then we get a break and go right into the driver's license. what was that all about? the policy this stage retreat the effect that had on national politics that affected the 2008 presidential election and at the time 78 states for granting licenses for good

reason for 11 states had done it but now it is dangerous. you cannot adopt this policy because the plague of new york spread to the rest of the country and effective policy around the country? then the book goes into a period of recovery. a change in tactics a brilliant state speech that was written by a colleague of ours to deliver brilliantly by elliot day much better budget, an election when of the north country and as i write in the book although our expectations were lowered i want you to understand what we were shooting for this star's we're not shooting at the horizon but at least shooting straight early

2008. when it just seemed everything was finally starting to come into place, i had that conversation with eliot sunday night at 10:37 p.m. march 9, 2008. the next day at 1:00 p.m. everybody else found out about it than the book ends with those 61 hours in the month after when we tried to pick up the shattered pieces of our careers. i would like to do a little reading to make the point* of this book is not just about the ending the chapter called changing course or changing this objective is about the policies of granting drivers' licenses to undocumented aliens and i have edited to focus and for

those who don't know when i refer to the sec and that is the governor's office and unlike troopergate but it is true anyway when it drops the battle between eliot and two negative to joe bruno intensified in 2007 when casualty with a package of bills in the legislative priorities and those in the assembly but on our last was campaign finance reform property-tax rebates with the construction of three energy power plants and other bills involving public authority reform, round fuel cleanup expansion of the dna database and the healthy school nutritional plan. the priority of the

legislature was $1 billion of capital projects which the members campaign on in the election to be held in november 2008. a compromise which would have resulted in the enactment of both sets of bills and others by the legislature were skillfully crafted with this style and insurance. after troopergate erupted bruno and the senate majority walked out maybe the bank in the dumpster one and happen the administration had shifted from enacting new laws to the major progress that could be achieved in the public authority directly under the governor's control. the agency is pushing reform within existing budgets. without new legislation and in the two months between the july 23 quote will report in september 21 hour press office and those in the agency heralded scores

of the initiatives using three state housing agencies pump hundreds of millions and to affordable housing projects and a program designed to slow the wave of housing foreclosures beginning to sweep across new york and the nation of state economic development became the focus of more than announcements l it began several programs that confronted the reality of the emigrant population legal and undocumented. these and other programs that assisted were important to eliot a second-generation american he interested the new york economic vitality have always benefited from the constant influx of immigrants most like eliot's grandparents and illegals like my own mother. the legislature out of town eliot seemed to settle down a bit and despite all that has happened eliot seem

stoically committed and at peace right after labor day eliot made a television appearance as a guest commentator along with john mcenroe his old rival on the tennis courts. in my estimation it was the best tv appearance he ever made his exuded poise confidence and command while chatting about his sport that he loved and played an and the recent battle with the legislature the hopeful image i took away from the appearance was of two men who conquered their tempers and inner demons to become dominant ruled champions. september 212007 announcing another initiative intending to benefit the american population and the state as a whole. coming from the department of motor vehicles the legislative required not additional funding receiving

it hundreds of millions annually making the state safer and more secure in the process. eliot announced december 2007 the diem fee would resume issuing driver's licenses through 2002 the year the agency under pataki began to requests social security numbers as proof that the license applicant was lawfully driving in new york state. the purpose was to enable illegal aliens to obtain a driver's license. new york was hardly alone they have simile licensed a legal set the time seven or eight were doing it for committee tangible and quantifiable benefits would accrue and all of that seemed to matter for about four days. rationality prevailed during their brief period of the program was applauded by the

police and immigrants rights groups that recognize large numbers of illegals would finally come out of the shadows. this brief rationality was made possible by the hospitalization by the nation's most rabid invigoration fear monger ford joe bruno's first reaction was the same and concise "we had hundreds of thousands here and i am not sure if it serves the public good to deprive them of the ability to go to school or go to work to do the kinds of things you have to do to lead a normal life. this statement was the calm and considered opinion from one from upstate the only way to get around was to use a private vehicle apparently spoken to by republicans there were already really

against the plan is on call mac a political move on the part of the governor to get these people be holden to him. they can go. they are not evenly go. that the margin of many had been provided by aliens voting illegally in the party it made their illicit residency both possible and cushy with privileges to our people then a heated debate ensued. the last guy being from the county about to defy the governor to take him to court, the argument was the ugly shouting match with racism and fear about terrorism after lou dobbs

got out of the hospital returning to his show in durant became a nightly national event. most of dobbs guest jolie and smashing the pin down the but one night, jose a new york legislator of puerto ricans in to send appeared in support of the governor after his appearance he was bombarded with hate mail including a demand for him to return to mexico. these people all look and sound like. with the last component we know they are here. and when we allow ourselves with least glance obliquely at them late october 20076 weeks after the debate when national i had a very he did send a breakfast meeting with david paterson and eric

schneider men and several latino legislators. the lawmakers spoke with passion about the practical symbolic importance of the plan to their constituents. the most important point* was a challenge to look around the restaurant behind the counter in the kitchen to see the illegal population to prepare and serve our food and washing your dishes keeping the place nice and clean so politicians could trumpet a fanfare for the common man by dining with such a regular joe establishment it was a sobering challenge but since then looking up the of state committee to see these people every where making my life more pleasant and the most prominent of the national leaders who were sucked into a debate of those seeking nomination of the democratic party in 2008

after it held october 302007 several candidates were drawn into taken the position of elliott's plan proposed senator christopher dodd of connecticut squarely opposed am barack obama had been clear, concise in his support of his initiative and in contrast to the yay and eight clinton had been all over the place and opposing and reacting with it candidates and tim russert who noted the inconsistency and heard governor that night as the candidates had debated to critique the candidate in

cyberspace focusing on the leading candidates' views my support for obama and four hillary were well known and her the catalyst rapid-fire back and forth#1 h invollary cln just give the best defense on national television that i have heard yet. drama. email #2. she always takes heat for it. loyal. >> you listen with 40 year. i heard was pretty and equivocating as usual and edwards and obama sap tours and obama's supported us without equivocation. email number four. you got me there issues the one who has anything to lose by defending it. email number five agreeable. she was a disaster.

a tough position she is giving way to the emerging central criticism of her that she won't take a real position on anything. the next day guiliani the leading candidate for republican nomination launched a broadside attack against hillary over meandering position on the license plan and attacks on hillary continued over the next two weeks and months for the first time she showed real folder brevity of what many people have predicted would be a clinton run away among those betting heavily was david paterson as the state's powerful senate majority leader, the largely ceremonial job from a 10 in governor. and in the united states senate and the election of president than seemed likely

that would be their main the chomper in node deputy majority leader malcolm smith in succeeding him as governor because by january january 2009 neither would have succeeded as president pro tem cory of the senate. on the question of whether eliot would have appointed patterson to replace him i don't think he had an answer other regardless of he had made any implicit commitment hideout he would have nominated him like hillary. i do not believe bill it would have rest placing any of those hands with his fate. david paterson it is a variable -- as hillary hobbled over the license issue others had their debt

support one was a possible exception had come from mayor mike bloomberg. he had worried out loud while giving illegals the same licenses would render them ineffective as necessary for boarding domestic flights part of that was not true. butter brought into play a contentious issue of realization. that it was immediate and angry and bloomberg is wrong at every level. dead wrong. legally wrong, morally wrong, ethically wrong paygo being of many statements earlier 2006 nawaz of the first time mike bloomberg had forgot and the boundaries of his authority on the issue clearly outside his jurisdiction.

bloomberg inaccurate reaction and the angering and hy-vee credible response occurred the first week of the debate and made it safer for those to oppose elliott's plan. since they were challenging says they're becoming viewed by many it came from hillary in support when shelley jumped ship to buy 2,007 the polls are running almost 70 percent against percodan a defection by democratic legislatures made them what day think unthinkable. are increasingly likely after the presidential debate that john be called for eliot to pull the plug

to pass the bill to block it a senior executives every tree on election day in new york and a late-night conference call of november 12. the retreat had been cancelled and rescheduled several times when it convened on election day and the initial agenda kept changing as many events unfold and one was to build a second floor consensus for removing the minority leader. but having recently performed so badly there seem to be little futility and bt a dead horse. to put 75 in a complaint with joe bruno but just could not do it because it just was not right and

malcolm had flooded the assignment has started to point* fingers the continuing efforts preceded renew in this manner and to put noncommittal by using him as a messenger with sheer stupidity eliot -- the retreat for the most part with the hopeful and pervasive sense that things cannot get any worse. by the former exit polls suggested that our problems are not causing losses with contest around the state. the plan had not gotten a planned it seems to them it would have eventually happened on november 12 to 7 -- 2007 i accompanied eliot too any event that the liberal arts college honoring modern dance legend

procter focusing on nelson rockefeller legacy in the performing arts and state universities we were chatting with a group of friends it cause popularity ratings to decline from year 7230 i threw eliot aside and asked him what he would do if hillary overwrought called and asked him to pull the plug and deprive the republicans of what was being perceived as a potential and he calmly responded he was governor new york and i took that assurance to the bank and a conference call it that night with all but i on the senior staff tried to persuade might not need to argue the merits as most of those thought the plan was

beneficial to have the reputation of backing down from clear stated principles whenever we were faced with the opportunity of the feet. near midnight 2012 eliot said he "crossed the rubicon and would stick with the planned early the next morning as i was getting ready to leave the trip from the north country, eliot called me at my home to tell me hillary had phoned to drop the plan and his voice was somber and sad before i can ascii said he agreed to pull the plug in washington d.c. the next day for november 14, 2007. i appreciate the fact before i could hear the news any other way.

i did not try to change his mind are rated him for doing something he clearly did not want to do. the question was how he could have been so resolute the night before when i pose to the hypothetical that had now come to pass. and instead of asking it to with my a tribe to the adirondacks with mayor jimmy rodgers and lunch the next day with one freshman assemblyman. who was this guy i was making small talk with? not eliot. that moment was death valley not because the license plan was so important but it was a good plan initially especially giving the federal government consistent failure too comprehensively don't the problems created by the permanent illegal alien population. to have real problems of the

administrative complexities provided not wreck in this particular moment was a low plain because of the spectacular reversal of his poll numbers it was a complete reversal once they stated publicly to the senior staff. and to begin the process of checking account but the thing about low points unless you have not engage them correctly there is no place to go but up. thank you. [applause] that is what the book is about. it seems like it was sent

less debris facts sir from a very, very detailed discussion and similar discussions of troopergate and judges and of the control room and attorney general dick cetera. i would be very pleased and honored to answer any questions hopper. no questions? >> nick and always count on a friend. [laughter] everybody knows all of the bad things that happen in new york state to everyone and then dashed hopes. they know about the bad things that were the result of all of this. but aside from new having written your book, was there

anything from this awful event do you think? >> let me answer the question this way. reading about the good stuff in the book, the things we attempted and someone very close to this administration asked me and tried to dissuade me from writing this book why don't you write about all of the good stuff that was done and all of the dedicated people? and i did dedicate the book to those people. i am looking at some of the people i dedicated the book. the dedication is that this book is dedicated to the hundreds of men and women that followed eliot spitzer to albany in 2007 to improve new york state and a staff

of the second-floor will continue to find work after we departed. there was a lot of good work during that time and did good work was so overwhelmed with the lost opportunities that when i greeted the administration views to be a college professor. i gave it a decent rate. it was capable of a-plus work the failures of this administration could not be remedied in the day a week were a decade when it goes down with all the policies

in with that administration championed so what i said to this person, that book will of the good stuff would be just a sadr book and this one because it would be about negative taupes taupes -- hopes and perhaps somebody will write that book. the damage that was done goes on and on and happening today in new york state. the reason we don't have a budget now has to do with day bitter harvests from the spitzer administration the election next year is likely to produce more battery funds. but if you read the book carefully you will see all of the great ideas. we did some stuff.

i think looking at a couple of young people working in the administration and doing marvelous work but it was just overwhelmed. i am sure something good happened that the tsunami hit. right? but people are not talking about the good caramel made that day. >> is there any think you think you could have done to make things different? >> yes. when you write a book like this you have got to do it was brutal honesty with respect to everybody else by yourself. probably 11 to 12 places where i take myself to task force delphi did not do right track as the book points out, when i saw, i

did not know what i was looking at but at the end of the transition i tend to letter saying i am not joining the administration. they had big to me and believe me and began crying and said please too not go to work for eliot and give me reasons i should not have a joint did ministration may have had a better ability to help him day guy who i believed him. i point* out that during the troopergate investigation i was one of five of the zero lawyers pressed into defending the sec and floor. i made a basic air their in the way that we handled that i should have abdicated the nassetta being a lawyer i should have advocated were screened at the top of my lungs we will turn over

every document regardless of the requirement to turn over every document and load them in a truck and had -- hand them over "new york times" and "the post" and it daily news and put all the witnesses and a bus and parked them in front of the commission and for us to say we want to testify now. i should have done that but instead will lawyer representing some corporation. people on the government. and when you do this let he

who is without sin cast the first phone. said to confess my sins it was the spitzer administration not the failure of the failings of simply one-man but others. >> good morning. >> how are you? >> i am sure many people will think this but comparing his success during head days his tenure as ag and then to see him and compare the governor point* of time is there that much of a difference between the role and the governor? was that a factor? >> i was last 100 times and in interviews and is the official interviewee of the manifest destiny and every time i was there they said you think you can make the

transition? the weapons were the complete indictment this guy who was so prosecutorial make the transition? i said of course, for ic him a transitions all the time. he does it with poise and confidence and i have not believed that it was that disconnect but he was a prosecutor but not the conciliator i believe the problem lies elsewhere but as i say of the book is pretty clear the conduct he was engaging and was going on its by the time he was governor he had to know even so brilliant he was the head of the bureau and the manhattan d.a. office. this guy knew he was going down and going down soon and walking around throughout that play gear with the

understanding there was a gun aimed at the back of his head and not a question when it would go off but do you know from your own life when english is going on you not perform you normally would in knowing he had all of this on his shoulders i believe that just tortured him. i don't think it was his inability to adapt but to do with the mental anguish that is because he was a human. >> you believe governor spitzer can rehabilitate

himself politically? >> i believe eliot is capable of most things. [laughter] and occasionally of doing that as well but i do. the guy is brilliant and again not just because he is march but in my neighborhood smart is just a dime a dozen. they're 1550 aig's of the country and i am a scholar was anything like eliot spitzer? his quality, his power, etc. and i think he still has all of that to intelligence he has had the stuffing kicked

out of him and i think if he does what i did frankly, he needs to do something like this. he does not need to publish it but go back over this period a time and connect the dots and connect the facts. examine all of these events, a question why he did the budget and why he picked those fights why he would draw a line in the sand then immediately step back over the line and why after while concede to the most ridiculous demands that shelly silver would make from the state university and we needed a tuition increase the public tuition in new york state is one half what it is the most dates and one-third of other

states and we need a tuition increase to improve so with those who could not afford the tuition increase but we had friends clearly and why the hell not? hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and they are no bargain. so they need to raise tuition and she says they will raise tuition if we get a pay increase? the old eliot would have said that is a lot of crap. of course, one thing has nothing to do with the other but the debilitated tortured eliot said yes. i guess so.

but if he goes over those issues and examines them with the precision only he can come the job is the second best like and i do this as well. i am not as smart as he is he had the benefit of really, really knowing what was going on and and if he does that his future is bound less but only if he does that. >> when it reporter was writing a book on the similar period and how you think it might be different from yours or how you might be remembered in the administration? >> he interviewed me for 21 hours and i know that because he told me. when he went ove