WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR White Plains Variety. Review by John F. Bailey. October 25, 2002:To put on a great show you have to have good material. The Fort Hill Players knew they had a winning show in the comedy of manners, Art, could they deliver the goods to hardened Broadway skeptics?

THE $200G “ALL-WHITE” CESSARANO: THE LEAD IN ART R. J. D Amato, R. Scott Faubel and Larry Reina as Serge, Marc and Ivan, three upwardly mobile sophisticates react to Serge’s new painting (which is all white), dominates the Fort Hill Players exact replica of the stage set for the Broadway version of Art. The all-white painting, (spotlighted), steals the show as a virtuoso player in its own right. It works its magic on you.
Photo by WPCNR Arts

The exquisitely accurate send-up of male bonding by playwright Yasmina Rez comes to life with the three amateur actors’ flawless cueing and playing to one another, bringing forth shocks, and laughs of recognition as the audience recognizes sides of themselves and friends they know.

WPCNR saw last Friday evening’s performance and we have to say that the exquisitely snooty R. J. D’ Amato, the impossibly cynical and judgmental D. Scott Faubel and the nauseatingly obsequious Larry Reina have done a great play “great honors” at Fort Hills Players production, the first Westchester County staging of the 1998 Tony Award-Winning play.

Restricted: Contains “Adult” Language.

Audiences should be warned that the script is seasoned with “realistic” language. The “F” word is used frequently as is the “S-Word.” But the three talented actors and Director Robert Kahn’s seamless timing make the salty syntax work with the script. The writing does not depend on profanity for effect. The 4-letter words, though obtain an eloquence in the elegant way the deftly performing trio deliver these late twentieth century euphemisms that replace more precise words. Every use of the profanity charts new depths of meaning of emotions in these “expletive deleteds.”

Expletives are not gratuitious, because when D. Scott Faubel as Marc in his smug tone describes Serge’s new painting as “S,” for the first time you know exactly what he really means, his precise staccato “t” at the end, drips with disdain.

All about the Ensemble

What makes Art tough on the actors is there is no intermission. The show runs one hour and 30 minutes, demands terrific bonding and attention on the part of the actors, when all three are on the stage, and the men of Art were up to the challenge. Robert Kahn, who directed the show, had his actors spend much time together bonding emotionally off-stage as well as on, and it showed in how hard and how well the show simply flowed between the three men

D Amato the elegant sophisticate to Faubel’s existential rebel, who take care of Ivan

The premise of Art is to explore the tenuous perceptions and mutual needs that bond men (and perhaps women, too). D’Amato’s tall, aesthetic Serge is very smug at having acquired a “Cessarano” for $200,000. Marc punctures this smugness and sophistication of Serge by expressing incredulity at the purchase of a “white” painting in the most belittling way, like some witheringly superior talk show host, pricking Serge’s confidence and sensibilities. As Serge extols the “confluence” of white lines he thinks he sees in the painting, Marc takes the audience into his confidence with marvelous stares of disbelief.

Serge and Marc’s posturings and reactions to each other’s sudden lack of confidence in what they have always come to expect from each other deteriates, the two actors satirize conversations about sports, politics, taste, finance that menfriends have every day. D’Amato delivers petulant hurt at an ever-increasing (and funny sequence) as he tries to explain his purchase to his friend Marc whom he has always shown off as one of his outrageous friends, only Serge is hurt now that Marc has turned his withering judgmental tendencies on him. Yes, we know that is a complex sentence, but this is a complex play that captures the protocol of male social interaction and its unspoken boundaries precisely. Men will laugh at this play, women will learn.

Ivan the Jester
Reaching you with the emotions of a friendship falling apart.

D. Scott Faubel is relentless as Marc, long the attacker who gains satisfaction of having his cynicism appreciated, only to find he is just as hurt when something he believes in is challenged. He and Serge come to blows when Serge, totally ripped that Marc hates his painting complains about the way Marc’s girlfriend waves her hand at cigarette smoke. This is a scene that tellingly and with great “yucks” shows how when we are really mad at someone we can seize on any small item to irritate us. (Any old flaw will do.)

Reina’s pitifully needy Ivan reaches the audience with his alarmed pleading for the two to show some reason (he does not want to lose them as friends.) It’s at this point that the demands of friendship, the point of the play, in WPCNR’s opinion, comfortingly wash over the audience like a caressing Caribbean wave.

Intellectuals watch it!

Along the way to Art’s crisis point, the audience enjoys some witty satire of typical preconceived notions, art analysis, and stereotyped fixtures of the Sotheby-Parke Benet set from psychiatrists to dentists. D’Amato and Faubel’s superb conversational diction lampoons sophisticated banter so they are not only understandable, but natural, too. It reminds me of those Hamptons sundeck conversations with New Yorker readers at sunset, or on an East 83rd street balcony trying to impress a good-looking woman not married to you.

Reina playing the unsophisticated Ivan who perhaps has more reason than either of his superior friends, quietly displays that strength through sacrifice of pride (like a good wife) that eventually brings his two friends to a happy ending, and preserves what he needs: his friends. Reina though not totally the image of the part, too aging a flower child in corduroys for this, I thought, but that is quibbling. He occasionally overmodulated but perhaps that is more real for a crisis of friendship.

Reina’s Ivan is the most difficult part, so easy to overact, but ultimately he hit just-the-right note of pathos, mixed with reason and projection of the alternative to breaking up the friends brings the “odd trio” to higher ground. Reina a lawyer by trade is in the right part. D’Amato and Faubel have all the great lines, but Reina had to carry enough vulnerability to bring the two alpha males to their senses.

Moments to remember in theater

You will love the ultimate act of trust that Serge offers to Marc to close the argument over the painting and knits up the tattered fabric of their long friendship (It is completely silent and involves a magic marker that he offers Faubel to alter the painting.) D’Amato and Faubel get this absolutely right. The silence, the mutual acknowledgement of trust of giving in, giving responsibility is superbly acted.

The last lines sent the audience home with hopefully new perspectives on friendship:

“If I’m who I am because I’m who I am and if you’re who you are because you’re who you are, then I’m who I am and you’re who you are.”

“If , on the other hand, I’m who I am because you’re who you are and if you’re who you are because I’m who I am, then I’m not who I am and you’re not who you are.”

Simple. It’s a man thing, and perhaps a woman thing, too. See Art the way “The Odd Trio” of D’Amato, Faubel and Reina deliver it and you’ll understand.

The Fort Hill Players production is directed by Robert Kahn. Set design, tastefully and strikingly executed by Anthony Fabrizio and Joan Charischak. The just-the-right shade of lighting was created by David Ullman, and executed subtlely with deft hand by Light Board Operator Nancy Weiss. Terry Hanson colorcoordinated actors wardrobes and swathed the onstage chairs in their “distinguishing hues of white.”

Next production coming up is Charlotte’s Web for children, a free performance on November 10 at 2 PM at the White Plains Library.

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WPCNR Common Council Chronicle-Examiner. October 24, 2002: The White Plains Board of Ethics found Councilman Robert Greer to not be in conflict of interest in voting on the New York Presbyterian Hospital biomedical complex and proton accelerator facility proposal last August, in an opinion released Wednesday.
The ruling was in response to a criticism leveled by Lynn Huber of White Plains that because Mr. Greer’s wife works for the New York Presbyterian Hospital, he should not have been allowed to vote on the hospital proposal.

The Board of Ethics rejected Mr. Huber’s contention on two grounds: 1.) That the Board has no jurisiction, because, according to city code, “advisory opinions (of the Board of Ethics) are to on ethics-relateed matters involving prospective conduct and may be requested only by the individual officer or employee (Mr. Greer) whose conduct may be called into question.” Therefore, only Councilman Greer would have standing before this Board to seek an advisory opinion as to his prospective conduct.

However, the Board said, it was allowed “to receive from any person a written complaint questioning the compliance of any City officer or employee with the Code of Ethics,” and agreed to consider Mr. Huber’s letter a complaint, making the following accessment.

The Board of Ethics pointed out to Mr. Huber that Mr. Greer sought an opinion from Edward Dunphy, City Corporation Counsel, on just this ethics issue, and received an opinion from Dunphy at the time in 1998, in lieu of the Board of Ethics being operational at the time. The Board of Ethics noted to Mr. Huber that Mr. Greer, acting on Dunphy’s opinion disclosed his wife’s duties to the Council on April 6, 1998, and did so again at the August 5, 2002 meeting where the most recent NYPH proposal was considered and passed.

The Board in its letter to Mr. Huber concluds that, given Councilman Greer’s reasonable reliance on the Corporation Counsel’s opinion, the absence of any change in circumstances since the opinion was rendered, and his consistent disclosure on the official minutes of the Common Council’s meetings of his wife’s part-time employment with New York Presbyterian Hospital, there is no basis for an investigation of Councilman Greer’s vote…

The Board dismissed the complaint by a 3-0 vote, Gerald Stern, Nancy Barry and James Noonan voting for, with Mark Elliot abstaining. William Vrooman was absent.

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WPCNR High Noon News. From the Sayegh Campaign (EDITED) with John Bailey Reporting.October 23, 2002. UPDATED:Three community leaders in the 88th Assembly District came out strongly criticising Assemblywoman Amy Paulin’s conduct Wednesday, in drawing attention to the ethnicity of her challenger’s financial supporters, said a news release from Tony Sayegh’s Campaign.

Thursday, the Journal-News endorsed Ms. Paulin as their choice over Mr. Sayegh in the 88th Assembly District three days after the introduction of Ms. Paulin’s anti-Arab remarks.

In related fallout from the “Amy Tape” released by Mr. Sayegh Monday afternoon, the Journal News printed a correction Wedneday to its report that the reporter heard on the “Amy Tape,” Robert Fois, who conducted the interview, was fired. The Journal-News today printed a correction on page A-2, saying he was on “leave of absence” from the Eastchester Town Report. WPCNR interviewed Mr. Fois Tuesday on “his side of the story.”

The news release from the Sayegh campaign says, “Miles Ehrenkranz, Jewish community leader in Scarsdale and New Rochelle, said today that Assemblywoman Amy Paulin should issue a full apology for her remarks.

Ehrenkranz’s sentiments were echoed by Sam Spady, New Rochelle civil rights activist and Sebastian Bulfamante, who is president of the New Rochelle Italian-American club.

“Unacceptable.” Pursued Ethnic Issue.

“The Assemblywoman’s response thus far is unacceptable and falls short of what the public deserves,” said Ehrenkranz, “The tape is clear: Amy Paulin raised the issue of ethnicity, she continued to pursue the issue of ethnicity, and she suggested that race should be a consideration in the campaign for the Assembly.”

Sayegh’s release notes that “Ehrenkranz, Spady and Bulfamante noted that Paulin attempted to defend her remarks rather than acknowledge they were inappropriate.

“Appalling.”

“It is appalling that Assemblywoman Paulin would raise the ethnicity of Tony Sayegh’s supporters under any circumstances,” said Spady, “Those of us who have devoted years to erasing ethnicity as an obstacle to achievement know that nothing short of an apology will do.”

Spady went even farther in the news release: “This time Amy Paulin was complaining about Lebanese-Americans. Perhaps next time it will be African-Americans or Italians,” said Bulfamante, “The whole idea is repugnant.” In the taped interview, Paulin compained that many of Sayegh’s supporters were Arabs. “The sad thing is that Tony’s parents, who are Lebanese Christians, personally know the scourge of discrimination and thought that in America they had left it behind.”

Jewish leader particularly offended.

The news release goes on to quote Ehrenkranz extensively, taking Ms. Paulin to task:

“Unfortunately Amy Paulin is trying to hide behind the motive of a reporter or arcane rules of what is on the record and what is off the record. But there is only one motive that counts, which is Amy Paulin’s, and so far it seems devoted to playing upon ethnic divisions. As a member of the Jewish faith, I am embarrassed by her remarks and feel that Ms. Paulin should have known better than to take issue with people’s ethnic backgrounds.”

Paulin Does Not Issue Statement on WPCNR Request. Fois claims she screened his stories.

WPCNR contacted Amy Paulin’s office Tuesday, after learning from Mr. Fois, the reporter on the tape, that he was on Leave of Absence taken at his request, and had not been fired. Mr. Fois also reported that there was more conversation on the “Amy Tape” he was uncomfortable in releasing.

WPCNR requested a statement from Ms. Paulin on the matter and requested she contact WPCNR because WPCNR wanted to verify that there was more of the taped conversation that had not been released by Mr. Fois to Mr. Sayegh.

WPCNR wanted to find out whether or not she had repeatedly gone over and complained about Mr. Fois’ stories about her before as they appeared in the Town Report, actually prescreening them with Eastchester Town Report editors, as reported to WPCNR by Mr. Fois, and as alluded to in the Journal News report.

However, at this point, (Wednesday afternoon), Ms. Paulin has not responded to clarify whether she said more on the telelphone that day in July, and whether she did complain to the Eastchester Town Report about Mr. Fois’ reporting and went over the stories with the editors.

Reporter vs. Editor

After speaking with Mr. Fois twice Tuesday, WPCNR learned from Mr. Fois that he decided to take the tape to Mr. Sayegh in early September when his editor Mike Moritz twice refused to listen to the tape, once in July and again in August. Mr. Moritz denied to WPCNR that Fois offered to let him hear the tape.

“That is 100% incorrect,” Moritz said in a phone interview with WPCNR. “Lynda Wyssing, (another editor) asked for the tape. He never produced that tape. Never brought the tape in. We (he and Fois) had a conversation that he had serious concerns about what Amy Paulin said, containing “derogatory” comments about Mr. Sayegh made “off the record.”

Moritz told WPCNR that he advised Fois if it was “off the record” he did not want to hear the tape:

“I asked, well what is it? On the record or off the record, and he indicated it was off the record.”

At which point, Moritz said he did not want to know about it.

Unethical action.

Moritz advised WPCNR that he considered Fois’ turning over the tape to Mr. Sayegh unethical:
Fois shocked.

Mr. Fois was distrubed to hear this recollection of his two approaches to Mr. Moritz on the matter. Fois said, “I told him the tape contained remarks derogatory to not only Arabs, but Jews, Catholics, all ethnicities,” saying he was very explicit about the contents. He said that Mr. Moritz and Ms. Wysing were always “too busy” to listen to the tape.

Took it to another editor for an opinion.

Fois said he was so disturbed about what Paulin had said on the tape that he spoke with Mr. Sayegh about it in July, but did not divulge the contents of the tape.

He also said he took it to another newspaper editor, whom he did not identify, for an opinion on how “on the record,” or “off the record” the first portion of the tape was. After review, the editor advised Fois that he was within his journalistic ethics to release a portion of the tape.

Matter of Conscience over alleged “Whispering Campaign.”

Fois told WPCNR he agonized over whether or not to release the tape. He said he felt Mr. Sayegh’s family, his background, had been hurt and unfairly maligned, especially when he encountered evidence of a “whispering campaign” against Mr. Sayegh circulating within the Assembly District 88 confines from Ms. Paulin and Jim Maisano.

Asked if he could bring forth persons who had heard these “rumors of Arab-funded” involvement, Fois said he did but would not identify them because they were “fearful.”
Mr. Moritz, Eastchester Town Report Editor said he had heard nothing of such a “whispering campaign.”

Scarsdale Today editor, Sean Cover, of the Westchester Network said he had heard nothing about a whispering campaign, and said Paulin, a resident of Scarsdale, had Scarsdale all locked up, but he did not know how strong she was in Eastchester or New Rochelle which were more Republican.

Fois said he worried greatly about what he called “the tragedy of the untold story, that never appears,” and that was why he ultimately decided to release the tape to Sayegh. He said he agonized over it.

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WPCNR Afternoon Trib & Post. October 22, 2002: Tony Sayegh, Amy Paulin’s challenger in the 88th Assembly District, played a cassette tape on television Monday evening, which revealed Amy Paulin, in her own voice, the incumbent Assemblyperson, making what Mr. Sayegh characterized as “a display of blatant racism and discrimination.”

Here is the complete transcript of that tape recording. This was a telephone conversation between Robert Fois, the reporter, whose comments are preceded by the prefix “RF.: Ms. Paulin’s comments are identified by the suffix, “AP.”

According to Robert Fois, there is more incriminating comments from Ms. Paulin on the tape (that was agreed to be off the record at the time the conversation was recorded in July) that he has not made public.

Fois is debating whether or not to disclose to WPCNR, in light of Ms. Paulin’s remarks in today’s Journal News report, the rest of that conversation. Here is the transcript of the tape disclosed so far, which was disseminated at Mr. Sayegh’s Monday evening news conference to all media:

When we join the beginning of the telephone conversation, Mr. Fois (RF) and Ms. Paulin (AP) are about to discuss the Financial Disclosure Filings just filed in July. Let’s listen by way of the printed word. WPCNR identifies the documents in question, all characterizations of interruptions and speech are part of the transcript. Here we go:

RF: So what’s up?

AP: Oh, nothing much, what’s up with you?

RF: You have the filing?

AP: Uhh my filing is filed, but I actually haven’t seen a copy of it yet, so I’m waiting to get a copy from my treasurer.

RF: Ok I just need the numbers that’s all.

AP: Yeah, I actually called him (Paulin’s Treasurer) today to see if he could get it faxed to me but his fax wasn’t working so you know we keep having…. I mean the checks keep coming in so that’s why I don’t know what he actually…you know because there was a cutoff date what we got in before the cutoff date and what came in after. So, probably it’ll get posted by tomorrow.

RF: All right, the problem is my deadline is tonight.

AP: I said to him what does it look like I have? You know, actually cash in hand, which is your first question.

RF: Right.

AP: He estimated probably somewhere like almost $100,000 of cash in hand.

RF: Okay.

AP: So, uhh but it’s rough, you know, but he wasn’t sure.

RF: Any loans? Is it just general donations?

AP: It’s a combination loans, it’s a combination of you know [unintelligible] and contributions.

RF: Let me ask you, have you heard about his (Sayegh’s Financial Contributions) filing at all?

AP: I only heard that he had $100,000 roughly also, something like that.

RF: Right. I mean, what’s your reaction, I’m just curious.

AP: Well, I haven’t had a chance to look at the filings yet but uhh, you know, but what I hear most of the money is from outside the district.

RF: His (Sayegh’s) money?

AP: Yeah.

RF: Interesting I didn’t know that.

AP: Yeah.

AP: In fact somebody just said they left it here. Let me see if it’s in my pile (Sayegh’s July Financial Filing). Uhh, yes…yes, here it is. Let’s see I can sit down and do a breakdown but it does look as though most of the money is outside the district.

RF: Now let me ask you in terms of what you’d (Paulin) expect to raise…[she cuts him off]

AP: Bobby you have to take a look at these filings.

RF: Really?

AP: Yes.

RF: What do you mean?

AP: Just take a look. I don’t want to say anything…you know on the record.

RF: Why is it that bad as far as the money?

AP: No. When you see the names, you’re gonna want to take a look at the filing. Okay?

RF: What kind of names are we talking?

AP: Just take a look.

RF: I mean, are we talking questionable individuals?

AP: No. Just…I’m telling you just take a look. Okay?

RF: Okay.

AP: Okay take a look and I don’t know if you’ll see the same thing I see here but take a look.

RF: All right.

AP: All right, take a look. I mean without…I’m literally looking at it with you for the first time but I don’t want to put a number on it…I’m gonna do these numbers but it looks as though, you know, maybe up to 75 percent is outside the district…maybe more. I mean it’s uhh…I’m finding very few district names.

RF: Are you inferring that this is more of a candidate that’s getting sort of a Washington beltway type then a Westchester type?

AP: It may be family and friends I don’t know who these people are.

RF: Okay.

AP: You know I don’t know who these people are but they’re outside the district and uhh and there’s a lot of um…look…just look, just take a look…you know.

RF: Does it become an issue for you as far as the fact that he has money out of district?

AP: No. You know what money…

RF: Or where his roots and obligations will be or is that more of the focus there?

AP: You know I have been very proud that most of money has come from uhh grassroots support from people who live in the 88th Assembly District.

RF: Ok. Is that more of a issue of a Republican party locally that’s not giving…[she cuts him off]

AP: Can I say something totally off the record? Then maybe you’ll need to know why you have to take a look. It’s probably…50 percent are Arab names. It’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen this.

RF: Really?

AP: Yes. 50 percent. It’s more than…50 percent are Arab names…and I’m Jewish. Uhh, you know, I, I, uhh…and they’re maxing out on him. It’s unbelievable.
RFh: What do you mean they’re maxing out?

AP: [repeats] $3,100. $3,100 from all these Arab names. Now a lot of them are family members you know…and they may all be family members.

RF: Right.

AP: But you know, but I’m telling you, Bahari, Jahaba, I can’t even say these names. [laughing]

RF: No, no, and I understand what point you’re making in that respect but you know when you say Arab it’s a generalization. I believe he’s Lebanese.

AP: He’s Lebanese, so they may all be family and friends but he’s probably got 300 names on here and 150 of them are you know, or a lot of them, maybe 100, you know I don’t want to exaggerate.

RF: Okay.

AP: You know, so, you know but that may not be your issue, but I’m gonna look at this. God…

So ends the released portion of the transcript of Mrs. Paulin’s conversation with the Eastchester Town Report reporter, Robert Fois, recorded by Mr. Fois last July. The audio of the tape may be heard on the Sayegh campaign website, www.tony2002.com/tape.

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WPCNR White Plains Variety. Book Review By John F. Bailey. October 20, 2002. Updated. The Jeanine Machine was delivered in plain white box from Hudson House, (ViviSphere Publishing, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 158 hot steaming pages), to WPCNR Friday, within one day after WPCNR purchased it by phone. It was left by an unidentified courier who somehow eluded the countywide dragnet to intercept shipments of this book.

Photo by WPCNR News

This lift-you-right-out-of-your chair book rivets the reader by naming sources and telling all about how, in S. Richard Blassberg’s opinion, Tony Castro lost the 2001 election for District Attorney to Jeanine Pirro.
The Jeanine Machine is a white heat of indignant resentment written in the searing humiliation of defeat. It bristles, bleeds, festers with personal invective and character judgments of county officials, politicians and his primary target. Blassberg is in a fine rage. There is no attempt at genteel, literary style. He slices, dices and filets reputations. He fires in a staccato style like a Sergeant Joe Friday, relentless in his prosecution of Westchester’s top prosecutor.

He has Jeanine Pirro and the Westchester power brokers, whom he calls “The Cabal” for lunch here. It’s a book of an individual who feels he and his man Castro were wronged by a rigged system. It’s made sobering by a marshaling of incidents, coincidences and accounts of Ms. Pirro’s alleged actions during the campaign which are not comfortable to read, and raise questions about her motives and her use of District Attorney powers.

Upton Sinclair returns.

If you remember the relentless cadence of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, you will recognize the uncompromising attack style affected by S. Richard Blassberg, former Campaign Manager for Tony Castro.

S. Richard Blassberg
Photo from Book Jacket by WPCNR

Ms. Pirro defeated Mr. Castro by 52% to 48%, a closer-than-expected race, that Blasberg says cost her nomination for Lieutenant Governor with George Pataki on this year’s ticket.

Blasberg tells, in a fascinating countdown of the ill-fated campaign, how he feels his man, Tony Castro, was defeated by Ms. Pirro’s alleged behind-the-scenes maneuvers. He charges she perceived favored treatment of her candidacy by The Journal News which calls her “public relations arm.” Rarely have I ever read such a direct attack on major media outlet news judgment.

If you admire Jeanine Pirro, don’t open this book.

From the former attorney’s first sentence in the preface, (“I come to the task of producing this manuscript with several objectives, the most compelling of which is to expose finally to the full light of public scrutiny the oppressive, malicious, and criminal regime that is the Jeanine Machine,” ) to the last, (“Thus, the removal of Jeanine Pirro from the District Attorney’s Office, by whatever lawful means, at whatever moment, will bring a new and brighter day to the people of Westchester County.”) Blassberg pulls together in one place a documentation of Ms. Pirro’s perceived transgressions since emerging in the public eye in 1994.

Reminiscent of Hell to Pay, the “inside” story of Hillary Clinton, this book is shorter, punchier, and reads with the reckless abandon of a Walter Winchell broadcast, without the “Commentary” key slide disclaimer.

Lawyer-approved.

The scholarly thoroughness of these events and his observations of them, we have to take his word, and the word of the persons he quotes by name and attributes to, with 32 footnotes. At any rate, if he is ever sued for libel by Ms. Pirro it should be a dandy trial requiring 24-hour coverage, with a parade of witnesses everybody knows. He quotes and names and describes who did what to whom, and how he thinks they did it. Ronnie Brokaw, spokesman for ViviSphere Publishing said the manuscript and its documentation had been screened by the firm’s lawyers. WPCNR hopes they are good ones.

The Pirro Affair and a Cast of 95

There are 95 real people appearing in this book: all familiar personalities you read and hear about daily in the media: every Spano you can think of, Larry Schwartz, Reginald Lafayette, Dennis Wedra, Jay Hashmall, Robbie Schlaff, John Spencer, Al Pirro, Anthony Mangone, Mike Edelman, Dr. Giullio Cavallo, Kieran and Sarah Gaffney Mahoney, Gary Sherlock, and some of your favorite attorneys, too.

The book provides a one-sided view and critique of Ms. Pirro’s public position during the course of her husband Albert Pirro’s tax case, and his Peekskill Hospital conflict of interest affair. After documenting the findings of the tax case, Blassberg goes on to the far more juicy Jeanine Pirro-Tony Castro contest. He details the events leading up to Castro’s nomination, and the six months of the Castro campaign, where it went wrong. If you are looking for a balanced view of Ms. Pirro, this is not it.

Ba-da-bing!

In Chapter One, Blassberg tells how he became acquainted with “Westchester Law,” Jeanine Pirro style, in 2000. He picks apart as “demoralizing” the way in which the Pirro D.A.’s office drags out court proceedings, calling for multiple postponements, and filling up court calendars, he alleges, abusing the rights of defendants. The effect, he charges is to demoralize defendents into copping pleas to lesser charges to up the D.A.’s conviction rate.

He first learns of the Pirro prosecutorial style in a case he describes about an indigent, mildly retarded man he defended in 2000. He found that Ms. Pirro’s office withheld exculpatory (exonerating) evidence extending the criminal proceding to attempt to obtain a conviction.

Ba-da-boom!

Just warming up, Blassberg refreshes the federal income tax fraud case against Ms. Pirro’s busband, Albert Pirro, pointing out federal evidence which he feels shows Ms. Pirro knew the tax frauds Mr. Pirro was orchestrating.

He is at his best in making his case for Ms. Pirro’s using her power as District Attorney to first punish, in his opinion, Andy Spano for allowing a strong candidate (Mr. Castro) to run against her in 2001, in violation of the Spano style of pursuing apparent non-aggression pact with the Republicans.

Blassberg charges that Pirro was irritated that Jay Hashmall , the Deputy County Executive and Robi Schlaff, his assistant, both Democrats were working hard for Mr. Castro, a Democrat. The way Blassberg tells it, Pirro used the power of her office to punish Hashmall for his work on behalf of Castro, by leaking to The Journal News a story, alleging improprieties in Hashmall’s awarding four no-bid contracts while Spano was unavailable to sign off on the contracts. Hashmall was not prosecuted. Blassberg charges that the threats of a Grand Jury involving Hashmall were trumped up and could not have taken place in the time interval from when Pirro announced them and The Journal News reported them.

Pirro Media Pressure?

Blassberg charges that Pirro’s influence squashed a Castro policy statement scheduled to appear in the New York Law Journal involving the reporter, Lori Tripoli, that was to carry Castro’s “perspective” of what happened to Hashmell. The Law Journal even plugged the fact that Castro, “promising Tony’s (Castro) response.” And, it did not. Blassberg says, “within 24 hours, Tony was called and was told that once Jeanine got wind of the fact that there would be a forthcoming article, she contacted someone very high in management, and quashed the piece.”

After the Law Journal “stuff,” Blassberg adds to that coincidence, with a report of a New York Times reporter, Dorothy Samuels, who was instrumental in interviewing Mr. Castro which lead to the Times endorsement of him over Pirro, strange behavior:

“Immediately, upon learning of the New York Law Journal’s knuckling-under to Jeanine’s pressure I attempted to contact Dorothy Samuels of the New York Times, the editor who had interviewed Tony prior to his receiving their endorsement. She couldn’t get off the phone fast enough. I was left with a sick feeling.”

Blassberg shares his feeling that “Jeanine had reached them, too. My fears were fueled by the fact that, although Tony had received the prized Times endorsement following a 90 minute interview, which I had attended, that endorsement was eight days in coming. Further, it appeared just three days before election, leaving us little time or opportunity to capitalize on it.”

The Independence Party Endorsement that Never Happened.

Another intriguing matter is Blassberg’s story of how he feels Ms. Pirro used her power to prosecute to scare Dr. Giullio Cavallo of the Independence Party to switch that party’s endorsement to herself.

Blassberg charges Pirro threatened Cavallo with prosecution over doctored absentee ballots in the Dennis Wedra case. Blassberg says this is the story Cavallo told him to explain why he switched the Independence Party’s endorsement to Pirro. Cavallo has later denied making this statement, according to the book.

The Independence Party line gave Ms. Pirro the election, delivering 7,821 votes, which would if they were votes for Mr. Castro, have given him the election by some 3,000 votes.

Ridicule, Invective Weaken Narrative.

Mr. Blassberg’s anger at the all-too-real events he describes, leads him astray from his compelling story of the campaign. He makes value judgments about Ms. Pirro’s public appearances, fashion sense, motives, and lapses too frequently into insult: (“She suffers from the malady known as being a legend in your own mind.”)

Questioning Ms. Pirro’s appearance in court, for example, is a petty recurrence, referring to her penchant for wearing miniskirts, patterned stockings and 4-inch stiletto heels.

His interpretations of Ms. Pirro’s actions in public are unflattering, based on his observations and those of others at the events he describes. He names persons who saw the behavior to corroborate. Can we really believe Ms. Pirro, “with veins in her neck popping, she screamed into the camera, “I’ll debate Mr. Castro, anytime, anywhere!” This was supposedly on televison, so you could probably check it.

Tricks. Acting. Alleged Media Manipulation.

Political buffs will feast on the inside story of Castro’s fundraising, and Mr. Blassberg’s uncompromising charge that the Journal News was not printing his candidate’s press releases because they favored Pirro. Now, on this matter I, as one who receives press releases from candidates, do not print them verbatim, unless I think they are news worthy or have a news angle, so I don’t buy that. Every campaign writer thinks their releases are works of art and very compelling. But, I have to tell you, most are not. Blassberg gives you numerous examples on how he feels The Journal News slanted campaign reporting in Pirro’s favor.

The charge of Ms. Pirro leaking stories to the Journal News regularly during the campaign seems plausible based on his documentation in the book of how the stories appeared, and what stories were covered and which were not. But, it is circumstantial. You be the judge.

Serious allegations about Pirro being soft on organized crime.

Perhaps the most disturbing indictment Blassberg makes is what he calls Pirro’s failure to prosecute cases against organized crime, and makes an intriguing case for it, which should raise eyebrows.

His principle evidence for her “softness” is the string of prosecutions initiated against alleged mob-influenced construction deals in Westchester by the U.S. Attorney, Mary Jo White.

He feels she manipulates the District Attorney’s Office to promote her own career, of which he notes a number of examples. He charges that her internet sting operation was created to get the public’s mind off her husband’s tax conviction and the public’s perception of her knowing of the frauds being committed. And, there’s more.

D.A.’s Office a little empire?

Blassberg reserves serious criticism for the way Ms. Pirro operates the District Attorney’s office. He writes, “One need only speak with respected members of the Defense Bar to grasp the functional burden Jeanine’s persona has imposed upon the criminal justice system in Westchester. She refuses to entrust ultimate decision making authority to anyone other than herself, irrespective of how serious or mundane a case may be. Her objective is always the same, to obtain a conviction, and thus enhance her record and public image.”

He draws a series of circumstantial examples to illustrate this: the internet sting operation, her pursuits of high profile murder cases, the Hashmill case, and issuing supeonas as a weapon to get her way and create an impression. However, there is no identification of any individuals or attributions documenting this opinion of D.A. office operations. His criticism of her conduct of the D.A. office operations is weak, because of this troubling lack of documentation and attribution. He offers his opinion only, and the results he perceives. Of course, getting a person to speak out against the person he or she works for, or represents clients to, in litigation is next to impossible, as a reporter, no one wants to go on record as being critical of anybody in power.

The Janine Machine draws a disturbing picture. He closes by suggesting several ways Ms. Pirro can be removed from her stronghold of power: 1.) Defeat in 2005. 2.) Appointment to higher office (by Governor Pataki), or 3.) a Federal Investigation.

Not Benefit-Chic

This is no cute, tasteful, palatable, scholarly, cleared-by-a-battery-of-$500-Dollar-an-Hour-Libel-Attorneys- weekly news magazine expose that puts you to sleep.

Blassberg shakes you up. The Janine Machine is a tough in-your-face muckrake. It is not boring. What it means for residents of Westchester County raises more questions than it answers. You will be scared reading this one and you will read it in one night. It takes your breath away.