Eliot Mess

It was a huge political bombshell.
The editors of The New York Times rushed the news onto their web site in the middle of the day so they could claim “breaking news rights” to the juiciest sex scandal since some guy named Matt Drudge published a rumor involving a sitting president and a White House intern on his Internet blog.
The news shook the political world that is New York’s state capitol, Albany. The governor had been caught with his pants down - literally. Our crusading, squeaky-clean former Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, elected governor of New York after running a campaign in which he promised to clean up crime and corruption in Albany - to be the “sheriff of Albany,” as it were - had hired a call girl for at least two hours at a cost of $4,300.
Spitzer had been caught in a federal “sting operation” - identified as “Client 9” in federal wiretaps - of a high-priced call girl ring. It is alleged that he had a sordid tryst on February 13 in Washington D.C. at the Mayflower Hotel with a call girl whose code name was “Kristen.”
They allegedly spent two hours together in room 817 on the VIP club floor of the historic hotel just blocks from the White House.
The takedown of the Emperors Club VIP hooker ring started with an investigation by the IRS, who had been tipped by a bank about some unusual movement of money from accounts controlled by Spitzer. The probe of that activity led authorities to uncover his sexual escapades - Spitzer was allegedly laundering money to pay his bills at the Emperors Club.
Spitzer had to resign - plain and simple.
He has broken several laws. He was caught on the wiretap discussing paying for train tickets to bring “Kristen” to Washington from New York for a tryst on Valentine’s Day. The Mann Act makes it a crime to transport a person across state lines for immoral purposes.
Spitzer was caught on tape talking about sending his payment to the Emperors Club front company, QAT Consulting Group - “same as in the past.” Money laundering carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison; engaging in prostitution is punishable by a maximum of five years.
Spitzer had to resign and allow the government to reorganize around Lieutenant Governor David Paterson. Paterson will be the state’s first black governor as well as the state’s first legally blind governor.
No excuses, no pauses, no self-righteous posturing, no apologies would do - just a resignation.
Who better than the man seen widely as the reincarnation of straight-arrow Eliot Ness of the Al Capone days to know that his money and his payments for services rendered were going to further a criminal enterprise?
We accept your resignation governor. Now get on with the rest of your life and attend to your family.