<font size="5"><center>NY Gov Spitzer Expected To Resign</font size></center>
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The disclosure that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer hired a high-priced prostitute during a recent visit to Washington, DC first reported by the New York Times has quickly led to speculation that Spitzer will be forced to resign his office. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning Spitzer is expected to resign "perhaps as early as today, according to a person close to him." The Washington Post says "even sympathetic analysts said the governor...did not have a reservoir of goodwill to draw upon that might help him overcome this latest controversy." Republicans in Albany "said that if the governor tries to keep his job, they will probably question whether his state police bodyguards, who provide him 24-hour protection, were complicit in his actions, and whether any state money or facilities were used."
USA Today headlines its front-page story "Revelation Could Cost Spitzer Political Future," and reports "some Democrats may be hoping for a quick resignation to minimize the repercussions of the explosive disclosure, Democratic strategist Peter Fenn says." The Wall Street Journal notes in a front-page story that if the Governor does resign, "the state constitution calls for the job to pass to Mr. Spitzer's lieutenant governor and running mate, David Paterson, a legally blind former legislator." Paterson, adds the Journal, "is as widely liked as Mr. Spitzer is controversial," and "would become the state's first African-American governor."
On Monday, USA Today reports, Spitzer made a public appearance alongside his wife in which he "apologized to his family and the public." In its Style section, the Washington Post says "nearly every post-scandal news conference is like every other. There's a script to these things, as we all know, and...Spitzer followed it to the letter yesterday in seeming to acknowledge his involvement with a prostitute and apologizing for it." Noting Mrs. Spitzer's presence at yesterday's event, Dana Milbank writes in his "Washington Sketch" column for the Washington Post that "whatever Spitzer...did with a petite brunette nicknamed 'Kristen' on the eve of Valentine's Day last month at Washington's Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, it probably wasn't as monstrous as what he asked his wife to do yesterday."
The Christian Science Monitor reports "the case is being handled by prosecutors in the public corruption unit of US attorney Michael Garcia's office."
All three networks led with the story, devoting a total of 14 minutes and 55 seconds to it. ABC World News referred to the scandal as "nothing short of a political earthquake." On NBC Nightly News Dan Abrams of MSNBC said, "When you are talking about federal crimes, there is specific federal statutes that talk about enticing, inducing, transporting, someone to cross state lines to engage in prostitution. And that is the sort of crime that he can be charged with -- and you are talking about something like up to twenty years." The CBS Evening News reported, "In the turbulent world of politics, this could be a category five storm."
On ABC World News, George Stephanopoulos said, "I think it's going to be very, very difficult if not impossible for him to continue in office." NBC Nightly News said "the pressure on Spitzer to resign is already immense." Likewise, the CBS Evening News noted "there is real pressure on Spitzer tonight to step down."
Writing in The Politico, Ben Smith remarks on the Spitzer's "dramatic fall," and also says that "in his hour of political need, Spitzer has few important political allies," as he "rubbed politicians the wrong way, in particular, with his insistence that every fight be a matter of personal principle -- a bruising style that takes on bitter irony given his current predicament." The Christian Science Monitor reports Spitzer's "long history of morally righteous statements is prompting speculation that he will be forced to step down. The reason, say political analysts, is that the public, which forgives many political sins, abhors hypocrisy."
The Los Angeles Times notes "plenty of salacious details" about Spitzer and his ties to the prostitution ring have already emerged, and proceeds to outline them. The New York Times also runs a detailed account of the run-up to the alleged encounter under the headline "Affidavit: Client 9 And Room 871."
The New York Times says in an editorial that Spitzer's "short, arrogant statement simply was not enough, not from the Sheriff of Wall Street, not from the self-appointed Mr. Clean who went to Albany promising a new and better day." In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal writes, "The stupendously deluded belief that the sitting Governor of New York could purchase the services of prostitutes was merely the last act of a man unable to admit either the existence of, or need for, limits."
Clinton Sidesteps Questions About Spitzer The AP reports, "Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton carefully sidestepped questions Monday about the sex scandal." Said Clinton, "I don't have any comment on that. Obviously I am sending my best wishes and thoughts to the governor and to his family."
In The Politico, Ben Smith writes Clinton is "the most powerful New Yorker in politics," and "though Spitzer supports her, she and her aides bear him no goodwill. They view his abortive plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants as the beginning of her fall in the polls, and his recent refusal to travel to Ohio for a campaign event did little to repair the breach." USA Today notes Spitzer "is a 'super delegate' supporting Clinton against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination."
Meanwhile, the Washington Times reports, "The accusations that...Spitzer patronized a high-priced call girl tarnishes, if not undermines, the Democrats' attempt to portray the Republican Party as the party of corruption in this year's elections, even as it probably ends his own political career."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_080311.htm
