On Leno's show, he touted his record pursuing financial crimes, telling Leno "Wall Street desperately wants me to lose", because of his previous work as attorney general; he added that he would use the comptroller's control over the city's pension funds to pursue Wall Street again.
"Congress has already expressed its intent to limit the role of the states in regulating national banks — especially when such conduct involves the exercise of powers granted to the banks by federal statute and regulation," Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr. wrote for the majority, saying the regulation was a proper use of the comptroller's office's authority.
Again and again at the news conference, the mayor and comptroller used three terms to describe their overhaul (which still requires state approval): depoliticize, professionalize and streamline.
Eliot Spitzer, who plans to finance his campaign for New York City comptroller using his family's considerable wealth, disclosed on Tuesday that he earned more than $4.2 million in 2012 and paid about $2.1 million in federal, state and city taxes.
William C. Thompson Jr., a former city comptroller, used Mr. Bloomberg's early response to the storm to underscore his criticism of a leader he says can be distant and Manhattan-centric.
More frequently, comptrollers use their power to clash with other city politicians and build their resumes.
Crundwell, the town's longtime comptroller, used the millions to build a horse-breeding empire so enormous that federal investigators are still auctioning it off, piece by ill-gotten piece.
Impressively intelligent — Mr. Goldin was a top-ranked student at the Bronx High School of Science and went on to Princeton and law school at Yale — he stood for things, had a reputation for unchecked arrogance and ambition and used the role of the comptroller's office as expansively as Mr. Spitzer plans to.
Perhaps Weiner, who is running for mayor, and Spitzer, who is running for Comptroller, could use some of the same tactics to rebuild their relationship with us.
Asked whether they were using the office as comptroller as a steppingstone to some higher office, they all answered no.
