Spit-Take on Wall Street

Listen carefully, and you might just hear howls of laughter rising from Wall Street as the allegations of New York governor Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring sinks in.

No one knows for sure yet just what Spitzer — the former state attorney general who made so many enemies on the street — did or didn't do. The New York Times reported on its website this afternoon that the Democratic governor told senior officials he was somehow connected to a prostitution ring.

Spitzer spent eight years as New York's attorney general, a job that allowed him to pursue civil and criminal prosecutions against corporate officers. His targets were high-profile: Dick Grasso, who at the time was chairman of the New York Stock Exchange; Hank Greenberg and other top executives at the American International Group; and Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

When Spitzer ran for governor in 2006, he practically waltzed into office. He campaigned for the post for nearly two years, kept other prominent Democrats from challenging him, and then rolled over a token Republican opponent that November.

Yet even before today's disclosure, Spitzer had shown he wasn't quite up to the job. His administration has been caught up in a dirty tricks investigation that alleged he went after Senate Republican leader Joseph L. Bruno over travel plans.

If Spitzer takes the big fall today, he'll join the likes of disgraced governors like New Jersey's Jim McGreevey, who quit in 2004 after disclosing he was gay. It wasn't the homosexuality that forced McGreevey out as much as it was the reports that he put his boyfriend on the payroll.

The man next in line to be New York's governor is David Paterson, who had been Senator minority leader. Paterson, who is legally blind, would be New York's first African American governor.

by J. Jennings Moss