Eliot Spitzer, crusader against Wall Street's abuse of individual investors, is to resign as Governor of New York State, according to Fox News. If true, this marks the end of a remarkable political career. Just over a year ago, when the former Attorney-General took power in Albany, he was widely regarded as the one politician determined enough to break the administrative gridlock in the state, and a possible presidential candidate for the Democrats if he succeeded. Instead, Spitzer's resolve was easily mistaken for arrogance; the governor became bogged down in a political war with state Republicans, and the seemingly incorruptible crusader is now under indictment for prostitution charges, according to Fox.

Well, there goes any hope of political reform in New York State. The New York Times is reporting on the newspaper's website that Eliot Spitzer is connected to a high-class prostitution ring. By connected, one presumes they mean the New York Governor, until recently touted as a future presidential contender, was shagging the call-girls. Emperors Club, which rented out prostitutes at rates of up to $5,500 per hour, was broken up last week by federal investigators; but administration officials would not disclose whether it was that particular agency that had identified Spitzer as a client. The ethos of Emperor's Club must have resonated with the notoriously perfectionist and hard-charging Governor. The outfit's slogan: "for those accustomed to excellence."

[journo]: funny moment on a conf call just now
[journo]: it's Eliot Spitzer and govs of NJ and OH
[journo]: pluggign hillary to reporters
[journo]: and all the questions are from NY reporters to spitzer, and he sort of grumbles
[journo]: and then azi paybarah from the observer asks yet another
[journo]: question for eliot
[journo]: and spitzer says
[journo]: "you guys are owned by a new jersey real estate guy"

New York governor Eliot Spitzer is getting pilloried left and right for his kind of stupid proposal to tax illegal drugs. He introduced it as a (serious? Nobody really knows) proposal to close the state's budget gap by laying taxes on coke, weed, and smack. In reality, many states use these drug taxes as a tool to seize assets from dealers under tax evasion charges [WP]. Right-wingers hate the idea because it appears to be soft on crime. Left-wingers hate the idea because it reveals the underlying hypocrisy on the war on drugs. But why should you, the average Philly-rolling person on the street, hate the idea? Because if it actually happened, those dime sacks would get a lot smaller.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer just announced that on his ballot today, he wrote in Giants coach Tom Coughlin for President and QB Eli Manning for Vice President. Which, first of all, is not even how primary voting works. And secondly, Eli is not old enough to be president.

Lawyer, political commentator, politician, New York's 54th governor and, most famously, Emperors Club VIP's Client No. 9. Since his resignation from office in 2008, Spitzer has made attempts to improve his reputation through dedication to philanthropic causes and pro bono legal work. He attempted to make a return to the limelight in 2011 by co-hosting a show, Parker Spitzer, on CNN, though it was cancelled before its first birthday.

When Hero Governor Eliot Spitzer got the MTA to freeze subway fares at $2, he also promised that the raises in other fares would drop from the proposed 6.5% to 3.85%. So naturally the MTA is now going to raise the cost of the monthly unlimited Metrocard from $76 to $81, in the hopes that no one will bother to do the math involved in figuring out that everyone is a greedy liar. [NYT]
[Image via NYDN]

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and New Yorker editor David Remnick hustled to beat each other on profiles of Eliot Spitzer, notes the Observer; technically Graydon won with publishing online first, but Remnick won with extended access. Yeah, yeah. Apart from that silliness, we hear that Spitzer's press minder who was handling the reporters is kind of an idiot! After Nick Paumgarten's New Yorker profile was already in edits, Spitzer's guy was asking him, "What's going to be in the piece?" That's just sad. Real political operations—see Team Clinton—don't have to ask, because they already know.

Vanity Fair is offering those of you who care a "sneak peek" at their January cover story, a David Margolick treatment of Eliot Spitzer's first year in Albany. In it, our steamrolling governor manages to both play fast and loose with accepted ethics as well as alienate his own party and the press. It reads mostly the way you'd guess—young Eliot was the cupcake-baking Tracy Flick of practically every realm he's entered. While in the sixth-grade at Horace Mann, he carried a Samsonite briefcase and guessed that only four of his classmates were smarter than he was. We're pretty sure we would have felt morally-obligated to kick his ass on sight.

Governor Spitzer will hold a press conference at 9 to recommend that the MTA hold off on a fare hike. NY1 may not cover the conference live, because the Governor's office is all the way up on the 34th floor.

Andrew Trees—the teacher fired from Riverdale's tony Horace Mann School in January and the author of Academy X, a novel satirizing life inside an elite private school very much like Horace Mann!— filed suit today in Bronx County's New York State Supreme Court. He charges the school with breach of contract and defamation. Trees has been awful quiet since his firing—now we know why!

Today's spoooookiest Halloween story is about how a scary troll named Michael Chertoff called up our governor and made him back down from his plan to give driver's licenses to aliens. Because letting Hondurans drive to work will lead to a hundred more 9/11s! The Homeland Security chief bullied Gov. Spitzer into supporting a weird "tiered" license system in which illegal immigrants will have theirs printed with invisible ink on cocktail napkins with a big stamp that says "DO NOT LET ON AIRPLANES" while us citizens get the totally brand-new and fucking terrifying-sounding "Real IDs" that have microchips and spycams and GPS devices in them probably. So Spitzer kinda caved like three different ways here and now everyone is mad at him again! Except Chertoff, who promised to keep that Homeland Security money flowing into Albany.

"Hey, Hymie! Wanna get in on the best deal of the fall? Shh, c'mere. I've got a pair of tickets to the High Holiday services at Temple Emanu-El — you know, the one that Spitzer and Bloomberg go to — that I'm willing to part with at a major loss! You will not find a better deal than this all season, Jewish word of honor! Everyone knows that God only listens your prayers if you're praying alongside famous people! Don't be a schmuck your whole life, snap up these scalped temple tickets today!" Actually, we didn't even need to go with a joke on this one. The Craigslist pitch alone is enough.

Roger Stone, who so totally did not make that obscenity-laden phone call to Governor Spitzer's father, reviews Frost/Nixon, the play he wasn't actually at during the time the call was made. His verdict? "I highly recommend the play to Governor Elliot Spitzer because it underlines the dangers hubris and the inexerable web a public official tangles himself in when he tells a lie. Since the play has closed I hope the Governor can catch a revival." You cannot make this stuff up. Also, watch your ass, Ben Brantley. [Room 8]

A political journalist who will remain nameless poses a query about the political consultant who allegedly left that mean message for Governor Spitzer's dad:

Advice from an aide to Hillary Clinton to a former Spitzer aide: "Those pesky press people will sneak up behind you when you least expect it!!! Assume they can always hear you and are always watching you for any type of reaction!!!" [NYS]

Big swinging Republican political consultant Roger Stone has "resigned" in the wake of accusations that he left an obscene phone message on Governor Spitzer's father's answering machine. Stone still proclaims his innocence, but it's pretty clear that the state Republican party realizes the last thing they want to do is make the governor look like a victim, which is a role Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno would like to preserve for himself. [NYP]

Things just keep getting weirder for Eliot Spitzer. The papers are awash this morning with the news that Bernard Spitzer, father of the beleaguered governor, received an abusive phone call from Republican political consultant (and, as the Post notes, known swinger) Roger Stone. The governor is, of course, currently embroiled in the controversy over whether or not he directed the state police to issue damaging information about Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's use of state aircraft for political purposes, but the current fuss concerns an earlier scandal—taking money from his dad.

Does Joe Bruno feel the noose tightening around his neck?As Governor Eliot Spitzer continues to die the death of a thousand cuts in the ongoing investigation of Statetroopergate or whatever the hell we're calling it, an interesting facet to the examination of the use of state planes for political purposes by the Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Graftsville) - the thing that got the governor into trouble in the first place - emerged yesterday.

You remember that scene in The Godfather, Part II where the Nevada senator wakes up in the whorehouse next to a dead prostitute and Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagen shows up and tells him, don't worry, we control this place, no one will ever know, we'll help you out? And then, for the rest of the movie, the Corleones own the Senator? For whatever reason, we were reminded of it when we saw the news yesterday that Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver was stepping up to defend Governor Spitzer in the recent Bruno brouhaha. It's almost like Silver and Bruno concocted some devious, complicated plan to roll the governor, making him wounded and dependent. Or, you know, maybe they just knew he'd fuck up on his own and decided to sit and wait for it. That's what they're good at, those guys.