This probably is the end of any higher ambitions for Spitzer (though his two years as Governor has tarnished him already). However, I am not so sure that is the end of him in New York politics. A sex scandal is not what it used to be. So far, the facts are not as seamy as David Vitter (let alone Jim West, Bob Allen, et al.).

If he resigns, that is the the third tri-state Governor to resign in four years.

So what is it that goes through a Governor's mind when he calls the madame to arrange a shag while traveling? Does he think "Wow, this is really risky and could end my career, and I get off on that?" Or is it "I'm so powerful, no one will ever catch me." Or is it "Although I play a smart politician on tv, I'm actually one of the dumbest f---ing people around."

This was not a career killing scandal, just a Presidential-ambition killing scandal. He apologized but did not resign.

Just a guess ... we won't hear any more about Mr. Kroger wanting to be another Mr. Spitzer.

He should resign. Dems have higher standards that Repubs. I guess he did admit his involvement which is more than I can say for most Repubs involved in scandal but its not good enough. Plus I don't want Spitzer's name invoked every time a Republican can't keep his pants on.

Jonathan, I commend you for trying to jab, but you are off base. Kroger does not talk about Spitzer as a model, only Macpherson supporters use that comparison. If you actually listen to what Kroger says, he always talks about Mike Moore, the former AG of Mississippi. Moore was able to accomplish a lot in an office with very limited resources and in a state that lacks a liberal reform tradition.

How sad. He acted more like a republican than a democrat although he didn't hold himself up as being holier than thou. However, if it were a republican I would call for his resignation. So, he should go quietly.

Gawker of all places has a spirited defense of Spitzer staying in office. More or less, it seems to be the same defense of Clinton, circa-1998. However, I would add that compared to what Bill Clinton did, Spitzer's actions, while stupid (and admittedly illegal), raised fewer questions of corruption or improper use of personal power.

P.S. Kroger has not been pushing the Spitzer model. The relevant quote from September, emphasis added: "I'm not following Eliot Spitzer's game plan. He's not my model for this job. I don't need a model. I know precisely what I want to do."

Perhaps Spitzer can invoke the Vitter rule, if you're sorry and say you committed a terrible sin, then you don't have to resign. At least he didn't say, " I did not have sexual relations with that woman!" Meaning, it was sexual but there were no relations...

(David Vitter-the La. Senator, running on the fundamentalist Christian platform. He's confessed, he's forgiven, so what's the rub!)

If I had a nickel for every time John Kroger invoked the "Spitzer style" when on the campaign stump I'd have more money than both Oregon AG candidates combined. Hopefully, Oregon Democratic primary voters will now wake up and realize that Kroger's style is NOT what is needed in the AG's office. It can lead to nothing but problems and scandal.

"If I had a nickel for every time John Kroger invoked the 'Spitzer style...'"

You wouldn't have any nickels.

Kroger: "I'm not following Eliot Spitzer's game plan. He's not my model for this job. I don't need a model. I know precisely what I want to do."

"Finally," what are you talking about? Back in September of '07 (see link above), Kroger specifically said that Spitzer was not his model. Kroger has is own ideas and policy priorities for Oregon and he has never said New York was a model.

To to be fair, Kroger is an activist hack who would be in over his head as AG, but he isn't going to follow Spitzer's model. Except, maybe, to use the AG position as a springboard.

I think Miles nailed this one.

Maybe I'm missing something here. Let's say the Kroger or MacPherson DID in the past say they admired Spitzer's style...so what? That doesn't mean they approve of every one of his actions or had foreknowledge of these illegal actions on Spitzer's part and certainly not that they are in advance approving of everything the man will ever say or do.

You can only judge people based on the information that you have at that time. So, frankly, I'm not concerned with what either AG candidate said prior to this story breaking. Now, if either candidate states in response to this story breaking that they think that Spitzer's actions in this regard are admirable, THEN we have a problem. Until then, it's water (and Spitzer's career) under the bridge. Next!

Oops - there goes another Hillary endorser. Time to reject and renounce?

I say this is a Republican hatchet job against one of our rockstar Democrats, and we should give him a vote of confidence, help Spitzer ride out the mess for the next two years and get re-elected in 2010.

The Republicans are desperate to have a foot in the door for the post 2010 re-districting, and lynching Spitzer over a sex scandal is the way to do it. Are we gonna let them?

Me, I support a Governor who FUCKS.

JFK fucked. RFK fucked. Martin Luther King fucked. And Justice William Douglas, the greatest liberal on the Warren Court, got himself a new 20-year old wife every 20 years. They were heroes.

And who had the pristine sexless scandal free sex lives? Nixon, Reagan, Helms, and George W. Bush.

At least our scandals don't involve wiping our asses with the Constitution.

I wish Spitzer a great continued career serving the people of New York, for two full terms as Governor, and then in the next Senate seat that opens.

This is way too much fun!

Will Hillary reject his super D vote?? I guess when you demand such precise action to sever the support of a perceived adverse backer, you must abide your own expectations. eh? Let's see how this plays out?

Here's the answer, that didn't take long did it.

"Clinton Declines to Comment on Spitzer By Perry Bacon Jr. OLD FORGE, Penn. -- Asked about the controversy that has engulfed Albany, N.Y., today, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) declined to comment on reports that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a supporter, was involved with a prostitution ring.

"I don't have any comment," she said. "I obviously send my best wishes to the governor and his family."

Here's the answer, that didn't take long did it.

"Clinton Declines to Comment on Spitzer By Perry Bacon Jr. OLD FORGE, Penn. -- Asked about the controversy that has engulfed Albany, N.Y., today, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) declined to comment on reports that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a supporter, was involved with a prostitution ring.

"I don't have any comment," she said. "I obviously send my best wishes to the governor and his family."

Not to delve too far into minutiae, but why would Hillary send her "best wishes" to Spitzer? That seems like an odd thing for a presidential candidate to say about someone facing a federal felony indictment.

My guess at Hillary's first reaction was duck. Pretty reasonable course. Her problem is that the question won't get asked just once.

It obviously isn't her fault, but how she deals with it will say something. This is the kind of crap that happens in large systems and has to be dealt with.

Denounce and Reject, I say!! We can't have this sort of thing going on, in the official offices of govt. Statehouse or White House.

Regarding the three options Miles gave, I vote for #2, that was the Bill Clinton mindset as well. Hubris gets 'em every time. Yeah.. hubris.. winners of beauty contests ???

kind of odd that an individual that rallied against excess on Wall St. paid an excessive amount for a hooker.

To paraphrase the great Charlie Sheen (no slouch in the prostitute department): "I don't pay them for sex; I pay them to leave afterwards."

I suspect ES has (or had) a similar philosophy.

Dang. now back to work.

New Yorker article about Spitzer from December. Perhaps the hero worship was questionable even then.

A marine biologist developed a race of genetically engineered dolphins that could live forever if they were fed a steady diet of seagulls. One day, his supply of the birds ran out, so he had to go out and trap some more. On the way back, he spied two lions asleep on the road. Afraid to wake them, he gingerly stepped over them. Immediately, he was arrested and charged with transporting gulls across sedate lions for immortal porpoises.

Shakespeare had one of his characters in "Cleopatra" say, "Frailty, thy name is woman." Shakespeare was only half right. Spitzer is not the first, nor will he be the last, man to lose his head over a piece of tail. But I wonder how many people are calling for him to leave office but excused Clinton, Vitter and others for their transgressions? Perhaps, Spitzer should move to Europe where the people are more tolerant of affairs and mistresses.

Well, it is the oldest profession. If he'd gone to Nevada, where it's legal, there would be no problem. I'm a bit curious as to why he went to Washington... people are more used to that sort of thing there? shrug

Should he resign? That's up to him. Mayor Gavin Newsom didn't resign from his job in San Francisco after being caught sleeping with the wife of his chief of staff. He went on to win re-election. I see this as morally equivalent in the eyes of the public, even though Spitzer may have actually violated a law (some laws?) by paying money in his instance. So, if he chooses to, he can probably ride it out.

Will it do more damage to the party or to any movement that he is trying to shepherd if he resigns, or if he doesn't resign? I think that is the real question here.

Spitzer has been toast since Trooper-Gate last year. The New York State Democratic Party would probably best be served if he stepped aside today. We're within touching distance (two seats) from taking over the State Senate for the first time in four decades. From what I've heard from friends back East everyone in Albany, on both sides of the isle, want him out. My guess is that he hold on 'till 2010 and decides not to run for re-election, clearing a path for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to be the Democratic nominee. Dems can forget about taking back the Senate in 2008 thanks to this latest scandal.

PS: It's kinda sad that the reaction of some Obama backers here is to try and tie Hillary to this scandal. Why should she denounce his super delegate vote? It's a vote she's earned by winning every single county in the state except for one. Was Bobby Jindal held accountable for David Vitter's infidelity? Let's get real here. This has and shouldn't have anything to do with the Presidential race.

In a discussion regarding this scandal, several of us agreed that politicians like Spitzer, Neil Goldschmidt, Bill Clinton, Larry Craig, etc... almost seem to have some kind of personality disorder. It's one thing to have affairs or commit other transgressions, but to so with a seemingly oblivious disregard for public consequences seems so bizarre, yet is fairly common for big name politicians.

Lin Qiao: NICE!

Garlynn: you can't possibly believe that Spitzer would have "no problem" if he'd simply traveled to Nevada to hire a "legal" prostitute.

Notably, Spitzer hasn't been indicted by the Feds. But he does face the NY State Commission on Public Ethics which is concerned about New York laws. He also faces possible discipline from the New York Bar.

More importantly, the "hasn't been indicted yet" defense is a losing public relations strategy. Especially for a guy who ran on the Superman/

If Spitzer is indicted, it is likely to be on the financial crime known as Structuring

Which (in its simplest form) transferring small amounts of money to preclude tripping bank reporting thresholds stipulated by the IRS

He should resign. Dems have higher standards that Repubs.

Slick Willy, the cigar man, didn't, and the Dems over the Repubs would be very hard to prove.

This deserves repeating: At least our scandals don't involve wiping our asses with the Constitution with the understanding that "our" doesn't include Democrats who voted to sign Bush's blank check to go to war on Iraq.

$4,000 per second and the boys in Iraq don't even get a happy ending?

I have been looking for pictures of the Notorious Kristen, but (alas) have failed. It does appear that February 13th was not Spitzer's first "meeting" with this particular agency.

Much like property crimes, the perps are rarely caught on their first night out.

Yeah, what's with that whole "stand next to your lying, cheating husband at his press conference" thing about, anyway? Seriously, why in god's name would anyone do that? Even if you forgive the guy later, let him hang in the wind for awhile.

My wife would still be sitting in the divorce attorney's office during the press conference. It would take her 3 or 4 days of forensic accounting before she would be able to fly to Mexico.

But I'm in full agreement with Kristin and Miles: why would you subject yourself to public humiliation just to make the philanderer look more respectable?

Misguided loyalty? Vested interest? Maybe she'll be wearing the Kobe Bryant limited edition 4 carat diamond at the next press conference?

Spitzer? God bless his daughters and family in public life on that one!

Isn't anyone else bothered by the utter hypocrisy of this whole mess. The dumbass used to prosecute prostitution rings!! I don't typically care about peoples' personal consensual sex lives, but prostitution is inherently exploitative and did I mention he used to prosecute prostitution rings? And on top of that, he probably didn't use protection! If you read the complaint, the woman he hired said he asked to do things she thought were unsafe. Ugh it makes my brain hurt. If he were a repub, besides not being surprised, i'd expect him to resign.

And also, I'm totally over this whole Spitzer-wife-bashing. You don't know what it's like to be her. She's probably in a state of shock and wondering what the hell is gonna happen in her life. If anything, I think Spitzer is a douche for even asking her to stand by him.

Er... just a quick public service announcement, as this seems to be a common misconception.

Prostitution is illegal in Nevada, in counties with populations over 250,000. In other counties, it is left to the county to decide.

Which means, if you're in Clark County (Las Vegas) or Washoe County (Reno), it's still illegal.

Not everything that happens in Vegas, necessarily stays in Vegas... at least, if you get caught... ;-)

Here's your "local angle" -- Spitzer, Silda, Novick and I were all in the same law school class. I don't know if Steve knew either of them. I didn't know Spitzer but did know Silda and was very impressed.

This is good fun for the John Stewarts of the world, but very sad for Silda and her children. Truly tragic, actually. I hope he resigns quickly and begins dealing with whatever "issues" gave rise to this mess.

Spitzer is toast, read some of the articles in the NY Post for more background. This wasn't a one time deal, he had been using the escort service for a while. The investigation started off as a corruption probe due to the funds being moved around shell companies. So this activity has been going on long enough to trigger the banks and Feds into looking at money movement.

Spitzer is an arrogant asshole so everyone is going to pile on. He has numerous enemies and they'll all be trying to stick the knife in. Lots of people hate the little bully so there is no way he survives this one.

Kind of funny that he had to import a hooker to DC though. I always thought DC was full of whores. Nice touch that he kept his whore at the Mayflower. That is the same place that JFK kept his mafia whore, Exner. And that is the place that Monica hid out at for awhile.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - State Republicans threatened on Tuesday to impeach New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer if he does not quit over a sex scandal that has raised questions over whether he could face criminal charges.

The threat added to pressure on Spitzer, a Democrat and former state chief prosecutor who made his name fighting white-collar crime on Wall Street, to step down after a report that he hired a high-priced prostitute.

The Wall Street Journal quoted a person close to Spitzer, who is 48 and married, as saying he could resign as early as Tuesday but he wanted to deal with his family crisis first.

"If he does not resign within the next 24 to 48 hours, we will prepare articles of impeachment to remove him," said Assembly Republican Minority Leader James Tedisco.

"How do you know it's excessive?

What do you usually pay?

Ha ha ha ha ha got you there! Snap!"

paul g, that is a rude comment. Should the approprate answer be "ask your wife and by the way she owes me change for my $20?" I think not

no worries paul. Fark.com headline:"The booking agent for Governor Spitzer's favorite warned her that freaky Eliot "would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think are safe" - "Run an under capitalized hedge fund for me, baby, yeah""

The joke would be better if you got the facts correct. The girl cost $1000 per hour. He paid for 4 hours! No wonder the wife didn't get any action on Valentines Day (the next day). Poor old Spitz was wore out from a 4 hour shag with a hooker.

Read the transcript of the wiretap. He paid for the train ticket, mini bar, etc. He booked two rooms, one for her and one for him. He ditched the security detail and went to her room. He registered under the name George Fox who is one of his donors!

Latest news is that Spitzer has spent close to $100,000 with this escort business. That is why the FBI caught wind of it. He had so much money sloshing around in a shell company that they figured he was being bribed or was bribing someone. When they started to investigate the "bribery" they found the hookers.

Pat Ryan posted (incredibly):

"Reasons why the women in these stories might choose to stand by their man:

They actually continue to love them post-betrayal and think that the relationship is worth salvaging.

No betrayal occurred, because that's the nature of the relationship agreement between spouses.

They are fellow political junkies, who like their spouses have come to believe that they are somehow above the rules that they seek to impose on the rest of us."

Do you actually think, after looking at her face, that "no betrayed [may have] occurred, because that's the nature of the relationship agreement between spouses? I think, Pat, that it's time for you to get your eyes checked.

Pat Ryan posted (incredibly):

"Reasons why the women in these stories might choose to stand by their man:

They actually continue to love them post-betrayal and think that the relationship is worth salvaging.

No betrayal occurred, because that's the nature of the relationship agreement between spouses.

They are fellow political junkies, who like their spouses have come to believe that they are somehow above the rules that they seek to impose on the rest of us."

Do you actually think, after looking at her face, that "no betrayed [may have] occurred, because that's the nature of the relationship agreement between spouses? I think, Pat, that it's time for you to get your eyes checked.

Pat Ryan posted (incredibly):

"Reasons why the women in these stories might choose to stand by their man:

They actually continue to love them post-betrayal and think that the relationship is worth salvaging.

No betrayal occurred, because that's the nature of the relationship agreement between spouses.

They are fellow political junkies, who like their spouses have come to believe that they are somehow above the rules that they seek to impose on the rest of us."

Do you actually think, after looking at her face, that "no betrayed [may have] occurred, because that's the nature of the relationship agreement between spouses? I think, Pat, that it's time for you to get your eyes checked.

Pat Ryan posted (incredibly):

"Reasons why the women in these stories might choose to stand by their man:

They actually continue to love them post-betrayal and think that the relationship is worth salvaging.

No betrayal occurred, because that's the nature of the relationship agreement between spouses.

They are fellow political junkies, who like their spouses have come to believe that they are somehow above the rules that they seek to impose on the rest of us."

Do you actually think, after looking at her face, that "no betrayed [may have] occurred, because that's the nature of the relationship agreement between spouses? I think, Pat, that it's time for you to get your eyes checked.

Pat Ryan posted (incredibly):

"Reasons why the women in these stories might choose to stand by their man:

They actually continue to love them post-betrayal and think that the relationship is worth salvaging.

No betrayal occurred, because that's the nature of the relationship agreement between spouses.

They are fellow political junkies, who like their spouses have come to believe that they are somehow above the rules that they seek to impose on the rest of us."

Do you actually think, after looking at her face, that "no betrayed [may have] occurred, because that's the nature of the relationship agreement between spouses? I think, Pat, that it's time for you to get your eyes checked.

how does one afford to pay so much for hookers on a governor salary?

Pat:

Relationship? Is that what the kids are calling it now?

From my perspective, it sounds more like a transaction than a relationship.