When Eliot Comes Marching Home Again

Today the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, was, according to the New York Times, "Linked to a prostitution ring." The news comes as a huge shock after his years busting such operations as New York State Attorney General. Elected by a landslide to the governor's mansion last year, he made fighting corruption and hypocrisy a centerpiece of his platform.

Since his election he has embarrassed himself in other ways, including a barely legal plot to discredit state senate majority leader Joseph Bruno. His approval rating has been in the dumps, and most people feel have felt mildly let down.

Now, however, he is guilty of one of the crimes he previously purported to fight. Consorting with a prostitute is a politically foolish and reproachable act. The shame, though, lies not in his actions, but rather in their conflict with his words. You can't deny that the hypocrisy of the situation is clear and beyond question or justification.

What a stunning piece of news. I distinctly remember saying not long ago that "Eliot Spitzer and Barack Obama embody the future of the Democratic party". Now I am eating my words. After spending years fighting white-collar crime on Wall Street and cleaning up New York, Spitzer had an opportunity to enter office with a mandate for change: to continue the fight against violent and business crime, improve state infrastructure, and mend the crumbling and underfunded city school system.

Instead, he squandered his landslide mandate and decided to spend his time fooling around instead of actually fixing the state's problems.

He has done much good for the state of New York, but the Democratic party doesn't have room for hypocrites. His actions already have and will continue to cost the party crucial political capital. Eliot Spitzer made a choice: he valued his desires in the bedroom above his moral code. As such, he should resign from office immediately. Albany sources have indicated that he may step down within the next few days.

Upon leaving, he would be succeeded by Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, a former state senator who I have met on multiple occasions (he was, as minority leader, an outspoken advocate of funding for my old public school). Paterson would be both the first black and legally blind governor of New York.

So when Eliot comes marching home again, it won't be with sounding trumpets or waving flags that he exits the governor's mansion. He'll leave justly wrapped in the mantle of hypocrisy and shame, and the party and state will move on.

And this is some change we can believe in.