THE ELIOT SPITZER scandal is both lurid and sad, for the shame it brings to his family and for the disappointment it is generating in 3,086,709 voters who elected him governor of New York. Spitzer, a Democrat, came into office in January 2007 with an ambition to remake New York state government on a scale not seen since the days of Al Smith. Now his reform plans are as shattered as his reputation.
Spitzer's ambitions easily shaded into arrogance. He called himself the steamroller, and acted at first as though he had been elected New York state dictator. Seasoned legislators are not as easily cowed as miscreant investment bankers. When Spitzer's aides used State Police to spy on Joseph Bruno, the Republican Senate majority leader, Bruno deftly turned the harassment against the governor.
Spitzer made his reputation as New York attorney general by vigorously - some say overzealously - pursuing allegations of financial wrongdoing. Yet he apparently purchased the services of prostitutes by funneling money through a dummy corporation, an action sure to attract the notice of federal investigators concerned about money laundering. And last month he apparently asked a prostitute to cross state lines, from New York to Washington, another violation of federal law. Arrogance degenerated into stupidity.
While Spitzer was making the blunder of a lifetime privately, he was learning to tame and focus his political instincts. This January, as his second year in office began, he praised his political "partners" in both parties as he sketched a plan to upgrade the state university system. Last month he put organization and money behind a Democrat running for an upstate Senate seat that had gone Republican for a century. The Democrat won, reducing Bruno's Senate majority to a single vote.
There was so much Spitzer could have done: expand health insurance coverage, reform the courts, rationalize the budget process, loosen the control of interest groups in Albany. All these plans are frozen by the talk of "Client 9" and the late-night assignation at the Mayflower Hotel. Spitzer apparently craved secret sex even more than political power.
As of last night, having made his wife endure a humiliating show of televised support, he was secluded in his New York City apartment trying to cut a deal that would preempt a federal indictment. He was expected to offer in return his resignation as governor.
David Paterson, the lieutenant governor, is waiting to take over. An affable man and a Democrat, he had previously served 22 years in the state Senate. The acting lieutenant governor would be none other than Joseph Bruno, who would remain in the Senate.
Paterson may surprise New Yorkers with his leadership abilities and desire for change. For now, though, cynicism replaces the hope of Spitzer's election.
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