Bare knuckles ambition --- Ken Lewis vs. Andrew Cuomo

Ken Lewis must be feeling up against the ropes. He apparently told Spitzer wannabe Andrew Cuomo that he was pressured by the government to not give any disclosure about Merrill Lynch's deterioration as the deal was up for a shareholder vote. Ignoring the fact that he sought the deal, set the price, and praised it to no end in September and was praising it again in January and February as a great contributor to earnings, he now wants to be seen as having been forced by the big bad government to do the deal. This is so Nations Bank, a behavior pattern that began with the takeover blame mentality of his mentor Hugh McColl. Go back through all of the acquisitions and you'll need most of your fingers to count the number of times that NB and then BofA trashed the reputations of managers whose companies they absorbed for any flaws and accepted the praise for any benefits. This may not be abnormal, in general, but with this crowd it was almost always included ugly personal attacks. Lewis is under pressure and hand grenade Hugh's training is what he is falling back on. By December the deal was ironclad, and disclosure was the ultimate choice of the company. He wanted to get the deal done, he always has.

Lewis's action might be seen as subjectively defensible as he was being questioned under an action by NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Did Lewis know that his comments would become national headlines, or did Lewis presume that there was some legal and ethical propriety that would dictate a New York attorney general's disclosure and actions. Wouldn't it have been a plausible assumption that his testimony in a civil action would be part of an overall mosiac that would lead to a court ruling. Not with Andrew Cuomo of course. The transparently politically ambitious Cuomo had an opportunity for a hat trick: national headlines for himself; an attack on a Republican from the Bush admnistration; and a reputation as standing up to and bringing to justice a powerful corporation. How could he miss the opportunity. He didn't, Spitzer used the same tactics, Rudy too in the City. Cuomo may feel like a real smart guy now but somehow one would think these tactics may no longer work in the later rounds. This is not a new punch, just an old low one.