Deep South Radio

Technically, being accused of corruption does not make you guilty.

But in the Court of Public Opinion, State Sen. Carl Kruger has already been tried, convicted, and sentenced, at least according to a group of prominent politicians, officials and government watchdogs.

“Sinful,” declared Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

“Toxic,” wrote Working Families Party executive director Dan Cantor.

“Tawdry,” said Common Cause New York executive director Susan Lerner.

The schadenfreude, insiders said, has as much to do with Kruger’s personality as it does with the timing of the scandal.

“Everyone who’s been paying attention to politics in Brooklyn, has long known that these two gentlemen play pay-to-play politics,” said one politician who asked not to be named, referring to Kruger and Assembly Member William Boyland, Jr., who was also accused of accepting bribes. “They are shady folks, period.”

Kruger’s personal life is already the source of much speculation and innuendo. But his political behavior did not win him any friends either.

Dan Feldman, a former Brooklyn Assembly member tried to explain why.
“A high percentage of the time, I’m amazed and shocked when these people get into trouble. Frankly, this is one of those cases where I’m not shocked—I just didn’t get good vibes,” Feldman said. “Most politicians are very gregarious. With Carl, you never got the
feeling of any kind of personal connection. I don’t mean to be cruel—to some extent, it felt like you were talking to a computer.”

That, Feldman said, was unlike several other disgraced senators of recent years, like Vinnie Leibell—“Vinnie was a pretty likable guy”—or Guy Velella—“he was very well liked.”

Kruger is the third of the four Amigos to be indicted, but so far—aside from having his position as the ranking Democrat on Finance stripped—he does not have the political fate of Hiram Monserrate (expelled from the Senate) or Pedro Espada (brought down in a crushing primary defeat) ahead of him. And Kruger’s lawyer has said the Brooklyn Democrat plans to fight the charges.

That fight, though, is already over in the mind of Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn district leader, who said he had no apologies for calling for the senator’s resignation even before Kruger has set foot inside a courtroom.

“Did you read the indictment? Did you read the complaint?” Restler asked. “We’ll be better off when Kruger leaves the State Senate and we have a reform-oriented and honest legislator serving the 27^th district in Brooklyn.”

Timing may be another issue. When former Leibell resigned just before pleading guilty to laundering $17 million of taxpayer money, there was less outrage. That, though, was not at the height of budget season, or when Gov. Andrew Cuomo was looking for another chance to talk about changing the culture of Albany.

Accumulation of scandal plays a part in the presumptive condemnation as well, said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause, who came out with her own statement of condemnation within hours of the indictment’s announcement.

“Part of it is always cumulative,” Lerner said. “But when you combine the central role that [Kruger] has played in the State Senate in the past several years, fact that he was head of the Finance Committee, that makes this even more alarming than the usually upsetting corruption that we have seen.”

Or as Baruch College professor Doug Muzzio put it, “Clearly there’s a straw and camel’s back phenomenon going on here.”

Some wondered how much further the scandal would go. Would there be more arrests in addition to the eight already?

“The cynical analysis is this is the tip of something much larger and this could explode,” Muzzio said. “It’s not only waiting for the other shoe to drop. There seems to be a whole shoe closet here with shoes ready to fall out.”

— with additional reporting by Jon Lentz

(Source: cityhallnews.com)