Silver being the voice of reason??? Something strange is going ion here. This is so typical using elected officials to sic the IRS on a foe.

SILVER TELLS GOV TO CALL OFF DOGS

October 13, 2007 — ALBANY - Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver called on fellow Democratic Gov. Spitzer yesterday to “take a step back” from his efforts to damage Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno by siccing the Internal Revenue Service on him.

Silver’s appeal came as Spitzer refused at a Manhattan press conference to discuss the extent of his involvement in the latest phase of the nearly three-month-old dirty tricks scandal.

“There’s no question about it,” the Manhattan-based Silver said when asked if the governor should halt his just-disclosed effort to persuade Democratic lawmakers to file tax-evasion complaints against Bruno (R-Rensselaer).

“I think everybody has to take a step back,” Silver, Spitzer’s most important legislative ally, told Albany’s WROW-AM. “I think we all have to take . . . a little bit of the politics out of it . . . and think [about] what the people of the state really want us to do.”

The Post disclosed on Wednesday that Spitzer aides tried to persuade Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) to have Democratic senators seek an IRS probe of Bruno’s potential tax obligations.

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