God has cursed me with Italian eyebrows. Big hairy catepillars that if they had their way would merge into one. I don’t have the will power to pluck each hair out by the roots by myself, so once a month a get a burly Eastern European woman to rip them off with hot wax. Yeah, that’s much better.
When I went to the salon today, somebody had forgotten to turn on the wax machine, so I had a half hour to kill until the wax became hot and runny. I didn’t mind too much, because I got to catch up on some important reading, like an interview with Sandra Bullock in Glamour. Later I turned to this article on Alan Hevesi in New York Magazine. Anybody outside of the area following this one?
It’s a sad tale. 35 years of public service. On the eve of a landslide election for State Controller, he was undone by scandal. The papers learned that he had a state employee chauffeur his sick wife around to doctor’s appointments and to keep her company for four years all on the public tab. He repaid some of the money just weeks before the election. He claims to have just forgotten. Now, he’s friendless and in danger of getting impeached.
And so Hevesi’s banishment is particularly excruciating. “It’s horrible,” says Hevesi’s son Andy. “This is a Democratic sweep, a landslide, something a Democratic pol who’s been in the game for 35 years has been waiting for forever. And now he’s on the outside.” His impressive career has been reduced to a single unseemly question: Did he get away with something? As one county official said, “It’s like he didn’t exist in the press until the scandal.”
Apt. 11d 
It does seem kind of sad, but he is the state comptroller for heavens sake. He should have known better.
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Hevesi has been extremely picky while auditing school districts to find out if we bought cookies for staff with district money yet he uses State money to drive his wife around. He should be in trouble, he forgot an important rule, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” I did vote for him in the last election because the person running against him was so clearly unqualified and I didn’t want Pataki to be able to choose his successor. I won’t mind if Spitzer boots him and chooses someone else though.
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Hevesi resigned today.
I did feel a little bad for Hevesi. I met him once at a function. Very charming and charismatic. However, I’m glad that Albany is cleaning up its act. Hevesi’s blunder shows how the culture of corruption is pervasive that even this “good government” politician didn’t think twice about using a government employee for personal reasons.
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