Room Eight | “The Cold Twenty Thousand”

A Novel By James “Gatemouth” Ellroy (author of "Albany Confidential")

Chapter One

Roger Stone

"They sent him to New York to kill a Jew Prosecutor named Eliot Spitzer. He was sure he could do it.

The Senate Republican Campaign Committee flew him. They supplied first class fare. They tapped their slush fund. They greased him. They fed him twenty cold a month.

Nobody said it:

Kill that Jew. Do it good. Take our hit fee.”

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Retaining Roger Stone as your consultant is sort of like choosing Hannibal Lecter to be your caterer. One cannot pretend to be shocked when the bill of fare includes “Mr. Todd’s Pies”. This was the man who closed down the 2000 presidential recount in Dade County, Florida, the man who created an anti-Hillary 527 called “Citizens United Not Timid” (I would cite it as an example of the depths to which right-wing hate mongering has plumbed to in our nations, if it were not so reminiscent of the stuff I now read about Mrs. Clinton from called "progressive" thinkers), the man who single handedly inflicted box office poison Al Sharpton’s presidential campaign upon the Democrats in 2004. Roger Stone has a picture of Richard Nixon tattooed on his back. Some have said that he also has a swastika tattooed on his heart, but this is surely not the case—they’d have to find it first.

When I posted a piece outlining the Roger Stone conspiracy theory of Eliot Spitzer’s downfall, I wasn’t quite sure whether I’d written a parody of left/liberal conspiracy-think, or an example of it.

But, I did harbor suspicions. Aubertine wins the election. Putsch has finally come to shove. After nearly 14 months, “Day One” actually seems to have arrived. And then, before the new child named “Reform” could even be Christened (surely Silda would not permit a bris), it gets Kristened instead. Game, set and match. We’ve switched from squash to basketball. An hour into Paterson's administration, and Fred Dicker was already calling him the greatest Governor since Al Smith—what sensible person wouldn't be wary?

All the wrong people in both parties were a little too bit happy with David Paterson’s ascension. It was Day One and everything had changed. Back. In the sections of his inaugural speech drawing the loudest applause, Paterson came to bury Spitzer, not to praise him. Ominously, he stated "I am David Paterson and I am the governor of New York State”, appropriating a line from the work of Aaron Sorkin, a well known and indiscreet connoisseur of high priced prostitutes.

Then it got worse.

It may have taken a black bag man who doubled as a nymphomaniac to locate the dirt on Eliot Spitzer, but David Paterson nocturnal emissions were so out in the open that even he himself could find them. It’s been said that the force of will which has guided the new Governor’s life comes from living at the mercy of his one unreliable eye; but it appears that the one unreliable eye people are referring to which exerts so much control over Paterson’s life belongs to his trouser snake. No matter, “charge it to the campaign committee”. Call it , “constituent service (with a smile) or even “polling expenses”. Roger Stone didn’t need his specialized knowledge in his seminal area of expertise in to find this out, all he needed was a couple of drinks with the only Democratic Presidential hopeful whose fortunes he ever tried to advance (although there are rumors that Stone also tried to help McGovern get nominated).

Is the end game to make Joe “Phil Leotardo” Bruno our Governor? Or, will everyone be more happy with the political gelding (would that he were the other kind) who currently occupies the orifice? I mean office. Either way, it’s win-win for Joe Bruno.

Given the forgoing, the incoherent speculation about Republican conspiracies bubbling up from places like “Mother Jones”, which make broad general statements but fails to lay out any useful details, is just an annoyance. Believe the rumors or not, they still required an explanation. I decided to play James Ellroy.

Ellroy's "American Tabloid" concerns the JFK assassination; his sequel, “The Cold Six Thousand” picks up the story with MLK and RFK. I never believed the conspiracy theories, but it was nice to have them outlined in a coherent and entertaining manner (“Tabloid” is only about 10,000 times better than Oliver Stone or Jim Garrison ever got with JFK’s demise). I decided to attempt to do the same.

But once I posted my attempt, I was deluged with a plethora of loud criticism from most of New York’s best bloggers, calling me a lunatic or worse. What’s worse, they sent it to my email, rather than my blog, which would have at least driven up my numbers. On Room 8, my readership trailed behind a hissy fit posted by EnWhySeaWonk after Rock Haskshaw obtusely blamed him for comments posted by others.

Then came vindication:

Beach man told FBI of alleged Spitzer sexscapades

Posted on Friday- March 21, 2008 on “The Miami Herald”

BY AMY DRISCOLL

Almost four months before Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a sex scandal, a lawyer for Republican political operative Roger Stone sent a letter to the FBI alleging that Spitzer ''used the services of high-priced call girls'' while in Florida.

The letter, dated Nov. 19, said Miami Beach resident Stone learned the information from ''a social contact in an adult-themed club.'' It offered one potentially identifying detail: the man in question hadn't taken off his calf-length black socks “during the sex act.''

Stone, known for shutting down the 2000 presidential election recount effort in Miami-Dade County, is a longtime Spitzer nemesis whose political experience ranges from the Nixon White House to Al Sharpton's presidential campaign. His lawyer wrote the letter containing the call-girl allegations after FBI agents had asked to speak to Stone, though he says the FBI did not specify why he was contacted.

''Mr. Stone respectfully declines to meet with you at this time,'' the letter states, before going on to offer ''certain information'' about Spitzer.''The governor has paid literally tens of thousands of dollars for these services. It is Mr. Stone's understanding that the governor paid not with credit cards or cash but through some pre-arranged transfer,'' the letter said.

"It is also my client's understanding from the same source that Governor Spitzer did not remove his mid-calf length black socks during the sex act. Perhaps you can use this detail to corroborate Mr. Stone's information,'' the letter said, signed by attorney Paul Rolf Jensen of Costa Mesa, Calif.

The letter also notes that while Stone believes the information is true, he ''cannot swear to its accuracy'' because it is second-hand.

James Margolin, a spokesman for the FBI's New York office, would not say whether the bureau had received the letter. A spokeswoman for Spitzer also had no comment.

The letter was written several months after allegations were leveled at Stone that he had left a threatening phone message at the office of Bernard Spitzer, the ex-governor's father, regarding ''phony'' campaign loans involving his son's unsuccessful 1994 bid for attorney general. Stone denied making the call but resigned as a consultant for state Senate Republicans in Albany.

Spitzer, the crusading attorney general who became governor, resigned March 12 amid allegations he was a client of a high-paid prostitution ring, the Emperors' Club. Four people have been charged with operating the ring. Spitzer has not been charged. A federal affidavit described a rendezvous between Spitzer and a prostitute known as Kristen, since identified as Ashley Alexandra Dupre, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on Feb. 13.One of Stone's lawyers, Fort Lauderdale attorney Robert Buschel, said the letter's release is an attempt to set the record straight about Stone's possible part in the Spitzer drama. Stone confirmed the letter and referred The Miami Herald to his lawyer for comments.

''The conspiracy enthusiasts on the Internet are going wild over Roger Stone's role in the fall of Eliot Spitzer. We felt it was important to lay out for the public exactly what Mr. Stone did tell the government,'' said Buschel, a partner in Rothstein, Rosenfeldt, Adler of Fort Lauderdale.

Stone works as a partner in a separate public affairs and consulting company with the same name — Rothstein, Rosenfeldt, Adler — in the same office as the law firm.

''We trust this information was helpful to federal authorities in making their case against Mr. Spitzer,'' Buschel said

“Gatemouth stood tiptoed. Gatemouth made a picture frame. Gatemouth got a full window view. The club head arced. Joe Bruno screamed. Blood sprayed from the panes”