The department behaved more like "a cheerleader for Empire's cause" than an "aggressive regulator," the report said.

The OTS was initially seen as an aggressive regulator, but was later lax.

Mr. Spitzer has recently been among the most aggressive regulators in investigating illegal actions by mutual fund managers and fund companies.

Drug executives had objected to Dr. Wood, describing him as too aggressive a regulator.

I am on the side of aggressive regulators to prevent the accident waiting to happen.

Mr. Connolly, 61, has retreated to Cape Cod where, in a telephone interview last week, he blamed problems on the "dramatic" real estate downturn and "more aggressive" regulators.

The investigators described the Insurance Department as "more a cheerleader for Empire's cause" than "an aggressive regulator."

Indeed, the report concluded that the department, one of the best-financed and largest in the nation, acted more like a "cheerleader for Empire's cause" than an "aggressive regulator."

The report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations depicted Mr. Curiale as a "cheerleader" for Empire rather than an aggressive regulator.

Would a Governor Spitzer also be a capitalist scourge - an aggressive regulator in the tradition of Theodore Roosevelt?