Eliot Spitzer

Defense Attorney Ted Wells (center) was among the panelists.

MANHATTAN – Days before a House Judiciary Subcommittee launches hearings on the subject, legal experts at an event hosted by New York University’s School of Law considered whether sufficient checks and balances govern the process by which federal U.S. Attorneys select federal monitors to oversee deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) of corporations.

They also assessed in general the role of politics in prosecution, both at the state and federal level.

“No one should be exercising power without appropriate constraints,” said Michelle Hirshman, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York - but how the government would implement depoliticizing changes to federal monitoring contracts remains a question mark as Congressional lawmakers prepare for hearings.

The multi-paneled discussion unfolded against the backdrop of a gubernatorial bid on the other side of the Hudson River by former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, who during his tenure as New Jersey’s top cop appointed former Attorney General John Ashcroft to a no-bid federal monitoring job potentially worth up to $52 million.

Montclair attorney Jeh Charles Johnson hosted a fundraiser for Barack Obama in New Jersey last year.

President-elect Barack Obama has picked Jeh Charles Johnson, a Montclair attorney, top serve as general counsel for the U.S. Department of Defense.  Johnson served in the Clinton administration as general counsel for the Department of the Air Force, and is now a partner at of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a New York law firm.  He served as special counsel to the John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.

Two years ago, the bi-partisan

New York Governor David Paterson said he shares a special bond with Dennis Shulman, the blind rabbi and psychologist who’s running in the 5th Congressional District.

“I’m really proud of him. He’s a great person and we’ve got a lot of similar experiences, and it was a lot of fun to have some kinship,” said Paterson, who like Shulman has been legally blind since childhood. “There are a lot of African-American elected officials, but the only blind elected official I ever met was the former Lieutenant Governor from Maryland."

Shulman was in the audience when Paterson gave the keynote address at the New Jersey delegation’s breakfast this morning. Paterson actually endorsed Shulman before former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned, when he was merely Lieutenant Governor. Since then, he’s held two fundraising events with Shulman in New York City.

Both Shulman and Paterson said a third event is planned, though they haven’t worked out the specifics.

Veteran GOP strategist Roger Stone, who claims to have tipped of FBI agents that former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer “patronized high price prostitutes during trips to Florida,” is expected to outline his role in the Spitzer scandal as the guest speaker at a fundraising for State Sen. Kevin O’Toole, the Essex County GOP Chairman, on April 16 in Cedar Grove. 

David Paterson has been Governor of New York since Monday and voters already like him: he has a 46%-3% approval rating, and 65% of voters already know who he is, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released early this morning. Three-fourths of New York voters (75%) say he will govern effectively and 67% expect that he’ll restore trust in state government. The pollster said that revelations of his extramarital affairs caused voter attitudes about Paterson to shift slightly during the last night of the survey.

“Gov. David Paterson begins with good wishes. By big margins, New Yorkers think he’ll restore public trust – boy, can Albany use that – and be able to govern effectively,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Sunday at 10:30 a.m., catch Reporters Roundtable, hosted by Michael Aron and featuring The Bergen Record’s Charles Stile, NJN’s Jim Hooker, Mark DiOnno from the Star-Ledger and PolitickerNJ.com’s Matt Friedman.  The group will discuss New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s fall from grace, the U.S. Senate race, the budget and John Ashcroft’s recent testimony. 

The Star-Ledger won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for its coverage of the resignation of New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey. That puts some pressure on The New York Times to win a Pulitzer for their rather oustanding coverage of the events that led to the end of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's political career.

Eliot Spitzer is just the latest in a long list of political sex scandals that goes back to the Continental Congress. Politicker.com has a list of America’s Top 53 Political Sex Scandals that includes prostitutes, sex with minors, strippers, extramarital affairs, massages, nude swim parties, and even a murder. New Jersey gets three slots on the list.CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE LIST

If you’re interested in learning more about New York’s next Governor, read The New York Observer’s story on David Paterson from February 2006.  And for true political junkies, how’s this for a Loser of the Week nomination: Leecia Eve, who was supposed to be the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor in 2006 – until Eliot Spitzer decided he didn’t want her.