Back in February, I wrote this about Gov. Eliot Spitzer:

“Most taxpaying citizens know he’s right that Albany is a disgrace and that (Sheldon) Silver and Joe Bruno, who contrls the Republican majority in the state Senate, are contributors to the problem.
“But he’s also dangerously close to looking like a spiteful bully, and it could backfire on him.”

Five months later, partisans and pundits (and even some Democrats) are calling Spitzer just that—a bully. As predicted, the governor’s style has indeed backfired on him.

But when I sounded the alarm, it was because Spitzer appeared to be using his considerable weight to publicly browbeat Assemblyman George Latimer, a capable Democrat from Rye with little power to do any harm to the governor. Latimer had the temerity to side with his boss, Assembly Speaker Silver, who pushed the controversial appointment of Tom DiNapoli to fill out the comptroller’s term vacated by the disgraced Alan Hevesi.

Spitzer had a right to be angry. It appeared that Silver pulled a bait and switch on the comptroller deal, and DiNapoli was nothing if not a crony handpicked by a man who surrounds himself with cronies and yes-men.
The problem as I saw it and expressed in my Feb. 13 column, was that Spitzer clearly picked on Latimer by dropping in on his Assembly district for an unrelated event and suggesting that Latimer would get his comeuppance next time he runs for re-election.

That episode made Latimer look vulnerable, but it made Spitzer look like a bully.

Now Spitzer is engaged in an epic battle against Bruno. And NOW people are calling him a bully! That’s nuts, the powerful Bruno is exactly the guy Spitzer should be slapping around. Same with Silver.