Veteran Crime Fighter Seeks Spitzer's Old Job

I was pleased to see that Eric Dinallo has thrown his hat in the ring, more or less, for New York State Attorney General. Evidently the job has a good chance of becoming vacant, since Andrew Cuomo is likely to run for governor.

Dinallo is mainly known for his role in the rescue of AIG when he was Superintendent of Insurance, and he drew high marks for his work in that job from consumer advocates. I remember Dinallo well from his days as lead prosecutor in the trial of the chief financial officer of A.R. Baron, and he went on to become a top deputy to Eliot Spitzer when he was attorney general.

Whatever the revisionist historians like to say about Spitzer, he certainly put the fear of God into Wall Street--not enough fear, as it turned out.

It would be interesting to see what happens if Dinallo gets the job. Hopefully he'll pick up from where Spitzer left off, and also continue Cuomo's credible job in consumer affairs issues.

© 2009 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.