Monday, March 10, 2008

Spitzer

Eliot Spitzer clearly had his eyes on the presidency.

He's finished, at least as far as the big job goes. His first year in office had been pretty rough but nothing had happened to dampen his possible presidential candidacy in 2012 and 2016. But being involved in a high-end prostitution ring? That's pretty bad. Particularly when he has showed such moral indignation over prostitution in the past. I don't know that he can't survive this in New York. But one of the Democrats' brightest stars is no more.

Addendum: You know who is probably really happy about this? Andrew Cuomo. He immediately becomes the big star in the NY Democratic Party (well, outside of Hillary I guess). If being a major NY politician automatically makes you a presidential possibility, this just popped Cuomo up a notch.

Addendum #2: A lot of bloggers are complaining that the media is all over Spitzer in a way they never were for Louisiana Senator David Vitter, a Republican who got busted in a prostitution ring last summer. True, but it's not about Spitzer being a Democrat as these blogs are hinting. It's about being the governor of New York as opposed to a fairly obscure senator from a small Southern state with a century-old reputation for corruption.