Editorial: Spitzer must go

Seldom has such political potential come to so little.

Democrat Eliot Spitzer entered the governor's mansion a little more than 14 months ago on the strength of a campaign calling for ethical reform in Albany and governmental transparency. His success as attorney general, coupled with the public's disenchantment with business as usual in the state capital, afforded him what amounted to a mandate - 70 percent of the vote.

But since taking the oath of office on Jan. 1, 2007, Spitzer seems to have gone out of his way to prove his critics correct. They warned that the very trait that served him so well as state attorney general, his prosecutorial demeanor - political opponents called it arrogance - would ill-suit him as state leader.

What sounded like partisan sniping has proven politically prescient.

The hard-nosed prosecutor, who earned his reputation by taking on moneyed interests, the Mafia and, ironically, prostitution rings as attorney general, has presided over one of the most disappointing gubernatorial administrations in state history.

A petty dispute over Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's alleged abuses of state aircraft led to charges the governor's office used state troopers to smear Bruno. Those disclosures were followed by Spitzer's wildly unpopular proposal to allow illegal immigrants in New York to obtain drivers licenses. While the motivation may have been sound - to better document New York's illegals - Spitzer proved politically tone deaf to the chorus of opposition. His arrogance and stubbornness before finally withdrawing the plan cost him much political capital.

And now this.

Allegations tying the governor to a high-end prostitution ring came as a shock and an embarrassment to all right-thinking New Yorkers. That the former "Sheriff of Wall Street" built much of his reputation on fighting corruption - governmental and otherwise - makes his actions, if true, ironic. And worse. They were not just immoral, or unethical, they were illegal. And for the father of three daughters, they should have been unthinkable.

Now, Eliot Spitzer must resign.

Sadly, he has lost the confidence, the respect and the credibility necessary to lead his state. Spitzer has broken the hearts of his family, the public trust and the law.

Daily Messenger