The New York Sun reports:
Any hopes that State Inspector General Kristine Hamann would clear the air around her dubious investigation of the Spitzer's administration misuse of state police were dashed yesterday when she testified before a Senate investigative panel. Her testimony was full of self-contradictions, inconsistencies, and abandonment of logic.We wonder if the U.S. Attorney will be looking into these matters.
Ms. Hamann opened by declaring her opposition to proposed Senate legislation that would require her office to hand over investigations of the executive chamber to the attorney general. "I would be stripped of my ability to be an inspector general in the most important cases," she said. "Your proposal would deprive the governor of the ability to investigate his own staff." It would have been only a half credible line of argument even if she hadn't flubbed her big assignment. In any event, what she is arguing is that conflicts of interest are her business. Her office is designed to handle them.
Without missing a beat, Ms. Hamman proceeded to excuse how her office was incapable of handling the most "important case" of her eight-month tenure. Why? Well, because of a conflict of interest. She ordered her office to abort its investigation of the governor's office after she determined that Mr. Spitzer's chief of staff, Richard Baum, to whom she reports, might have been involved in improper activity. Her detection of a conflict of interest didn't stop her from concurring with Attorney General Cuomo's report on the scandal, which strongly suggested that Mr. Baum was aware of the effort to tarnish Senate Republican leader, Joseph Bruno.
