Bear Mountain Compact No Longer Operative

There was an old axiom known as the Bear Mountain Compact that that predates the Vegas shtick: What happens in Albany, stays in Albany. It refers to the idea that politicians would be able to get away with all manner of ethical and criminal acts that they wouldn't be able to in their home districts and such acts would not be uttered once the individual crossed through the area of Bear Mountain in Orange County (others refer to it as the Tappan Zee rule).

Well, as much as politicians would love for the Compact to continue in effect, the fact is that the Compact is well and truly dead. Politicians are getting caught up in political scandals left and right and many have fallen in just the past few years, and there are more on the horizon.

Alan Hevesi (D) looks like he's about to make a deal with the Albany District Attorney to resign and pay back the state in exchange for not being indicted.

Meanwhile, Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer), the last GOPer standing is under federal investigation for potentially steering contracts via member items (aka the legal slush fund) the way of his consulting business. The investigation appears to be focused on business dealings with an associate:

One person familiar with the situation, who would not say whether he has been contacted by federal agents, said the investigation appears to include Bruno and a business partner and friend of the Republican leader -- Jared Abbruzzese.

Bruno, in an abruptly called late afternoon news conference at the Capitol, revealed the probe and said he learned last spring it was going on. He said subpoenas have been issued, and he did not believe he was the target of the inquiry.

"I have nothing to hide," Bruno said. "They are going into background over the past five or six years."

Bruno added that he has hired William Dreyer, an Albany lawyer and former federal prosecutor. The New York State Republican Campaign Committee paid Dreyer's firm about $2,400 between July and November.

Abbruzzese, of Loudonville, could not be reached Tuesday. His attorney, Stephen Coffey, a former Albany County prosecutor, said he is "not aware of Abbruzzese being involved in any federal investigation or prosecution." But told of Bruno's revelations, he said it "makes sense ... they're looking at anybody involved with Senator Bruno."

John Pikus, the FBI's special agent in charge in Albany, declined comment, referring questions to the office of U.S. Attorney Glenn T. Suddaby. Calls to the U.S. attorney's office in Albany and Syracuse were not returned late Tuesday.

Paul Larrabee, a spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said he could not comment on the legality of member-item grants going to for-profit organizations. Asked repeatedly over the past week, Larrabee said he couldn't offer an opinion on the matter because "it's just not a priority at this time."

This appears to be along the lines of State Senator Efrain Gonzalez's (D-Bronx) case. For what it's worth, Gonzales is the seventh member of the NYC delegation in Albany to be indicted in just the past three years.