Blackstone going public

I don't get it. How do you take a company public who's entire purpose is to leverage private companies to extract value, etc.? It just doesn't make sense. My intuition says that this is purely greed and ego. I spoke with a friend of mine who is a Partner at Blackstone a month or two ago, and he gave me the whole song & dance that going public would give them a lot more leverage, and an ability to buy up other asset management firms, but I don't buy it. I think it's greed and ego. These guys are drawing way too much attention to themselves and I have seen this movie - I know how it turns out. Congress is already made them a priority to now tax them as ordinary income rather than long term capital gains. The scrutiny is only going to increase.

Disclosure: My broker from Merrill Lynch called me last night to offer me 500 shares of the stock. I took it. I doubt I will be a long term shareholder. However, I guess this makes me greedy as well, but I might as well make some money here.