What is this appearance of impropriety you speak of?
by digby
At a time when everyone assumes everyone else is a sell-out whore to somebody, this probably doesn’t raise eyebrows. But damn:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo nominated former U.S. attorney Michael Garcia to the state’s highest court on Wednesday, to fill a vacancy left by former judge Susan Read, who retired last year.
Garcia has a long career as a prosecutor and defense attorney at both the federal and state level, including his recent work on behalf of Republicans in the State Senate as they faced inquiries from the Moreland Commission established by Cuomo.
[…]
He returned to the Manhattan office as the U.S. attorney in 2005, where he had an outsized impact on state government, after a prostitution investigation identified Eliot Spitzer as a client, leading to the former governor’s resignation. (The office never brought charges against Spitzer.)
He’s a Republican through and through so it’s a little bit odd that a Democratic Governor would appoint him to the State Supreme Court. But then he owes him, doesn’t he, for making sure Eliot Spitzer’s career was ruined. Hey, a little backscratching is just part of politics amirite?
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