Eliot Spitzer Resigns
NY Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned this morning, ending a once-promising political career.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, reeling from revelations that he had been a client of a prostitution ring, announced his resignation today, becoming the first governor of New York to be forced from office in nearly a century.
Lt. Gov. David Paterson will replace him - becoming the third African-American Governor in the nation since Reconstruction and the first legally blind governor.
Mr. Paterson is liked and respected by leading figures in both parties, but is also considered untested. In 2006, he surprised the Democratic establishment in Albany by leaving the Senate — and the possibility of becoming majority leader if the Democrats capture a majority there — to run for the largely ceremonial post of lieutenant governor.
To a degree, striking his own course is characteristic of Mr. Paterson, who became the Senate minority leader in 2002 by staging a rare coup against Senator Martin Connor.
Born in Brooklyn on May 20, 1954, he was raised in a powerful Harlem political fraternity that would become known as the Gang of Four. It included his father, Basil, a former state senator who later served as deputy mayor and New York’s secretary of state; Percy E. Sutton, the former Manhattan borough president; Representative Rangel; and David N. Dinkins, the city’s first black mayor.
An early childhood infection left him with severely limited sight. Because New York City could not guarantee him an education without placing him in special education classes, his parents bought a house in Hempstead and he attended school there. He went on to graduate from Columbia University and Hofstra Law School. Mr. Paterson, who has completed the New York Marathon, is now an adjunct professor at Columbia.
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March 12, 2008
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Mar 12, '08
And yet Vitter and Craig go on and on and on.
I guess sex is only wrong if a Democrat does it. And considering which is the party of the NeoCalvinists, I'm baffled.
Mar 12, '08
Well he broke the law and being the senior most government official and a crusador for anti-corruption and clean government, he should have known better.
Mar 12, '08
Ooh, "broke the law"!
So if they find that your favorite candidate for US Senate once exceeded the speed limit or copied a music DVD, you'll throw him under the bus?
I'm glad there was a time when Americans didn't have this priggish attitude. JFK would never have gotten his foot in the door, and Martin Luther King would have been left to rot in jail. By the progressives.
11:59 a.m.
Mar 12, '08
Oh, OK, I remember Basil Paterson! I wasn't making the connection. This is his son. VERY interesting. Can't wait to see how he does. I am rooting for him.
Mar 12, '08
Posted by: Admiral Naismith | Mar 12, 2008 11:25:55 AM
Ooh, "broke the law"!
So if they find that your favorite candidate for US Senate once exceeded the speed limit or copied a music DVD, you'll throw him under the bus?
Sorry Adm., running up and down the eastern seaboard nailing prostitutes is frowned upon. And I doubt such legal minutia as you describe would force anybody out of political office -- prostitution and adultery are on a much higher plateau.
Mar 12, '08
Dear Admiral,
Uh, democrats are FAR less likely to resign for ANY reason, sex or otherwise. As a conservative repub myself, Craig has always needed to go. Republicans are far more consistent and clear on moral issues than dems have ever been.
YOU paying for sex with a prostitute is your business, a governor breaking the law in the exact same way he was upholding it earlier as attorney general is just plain poor judgement. And Clinton did not get impeached for a BJ either.
Mar 12, '08
Hey, Adm. Hillary Milhous Naismith, quit being such an amoral ignoramus jag-off. The issues here are rank hypocrisy, gross arrogance and startling abuses of power, not just extramarital sex and betrayal of one's wife and children (although those ought to count for something with regards to a politician's trustworthiness and honor, I would think). Are you so ethically underdeveloped and "ends-justify-the-means"-driven you don't get that aspect of it, or (as I rather suspect) merely a Republican troll looking to stir the pot?
12:57 p.m.
Mar 12, '08
It should be noted that transporting (or causing such) a prostitute across state lines is a FEDERAL crime, violation of the Mann Act, and he will no doubt be in a world of shyte. The FBI does not investigate speeders or everyone with a CD burner (thank goodness!), but if you speed across state lines with a bunch of bootleg Perry Como recordings to sell them in Branson, you may get their attention. As unfortunate as this situation is for the people of New York and Gov Spitzer's family, in a way I am glad he got caught as it may serve as a warning to other Democrats to keep their metaphorical fly's zipped and walk the straight & narrow. Please please please pay attention Democratic leaders! And I hope Republicans (especially in Congress) just laugh it off and keep on messing up, and getting caught as well. The longer folks like Craig & Vitter stay in the corruption & sex scandal spotlight, the better the chances for Dems to defeat them.
Mar 12, '08
I feel like we get burned sometimes by rushing to judgement like this. It's hard to say what could come to light that would result in a different outcome (than his resignation) but I wonder if it would make a difference if it turned out his wife knew and/or benefitted from this arrangement. I know of a few marriages that resort to something like this for medical and other reasons. I don't think I could take it but I dare not judge women who do what they need to in order to hold their families together.
It just strikes me that he could certainly have afforded a lovely mistress if he had wanted one.
Chess
Mar 12, '08
I like the no condom, stay classy Spitzer, hope your wife has no STD's
1:24 p.m.
Mar 12, '08
(can we fix the spelling of Spitzer in the headline please?)
Mar 12, '08
With every cloud comes a silver lining and the elevation of Patterson to Governor certainly is the silver lining in this situation. Marty Connor is the embodiment of the corrupt, Democratic establishment in Albany and Patterson's ability to stand up to him in 2002 was a turning point for Progressive Democrats in New York.
1:58 p.m.
Mar 12, '08
He resigned because his political enemies were circling, and he would have been impeached. Arguing about the nature of the "crime" is really beside the point, unless you are NY legislator.
Craig is still in office not because his Senate colleagues want him there, but they have no means to remove him.
3:39 p.m.
Mar 12, '08
Thanks, Stephanie, it's fixed. I've looked at that headline like a dozen times today, never saw it!
Mar 12, '08
Hm, has Lt. Gov. Paterson passed the Hillary Clinton 3-am-telephone-call test? I think we need some local NY talent to "vet" Mr. Paterson. Geraldine Ferraro seems like an obvious choice.
Mar 12, '08
NotNeilGoldschmidt:
You forgot hubris. That's as much a part of his downfall as the money structuring or soliciting prostitution. Hubris isn't a crime, but it certainly led to a personal philosophy which facilitated the crimes.
Mar 12, '08
If Spitzer asked me for advice I'd tell him that 22 year old Jersey girls are fun, but nothing beats nailing a 15 year old baby sitter. That was some sweet stuff I got for a few years. The chubby chick that Bill had under his desk was an okay score but I still think I'm the winner. Babysitters rule!
1:40 a.m.
Mar 13, '08
FYI:
Mar 13, '08