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Eliot Spitzer's sordid saga is quickly unfolding into a classic lesson on the perils of hypocritical self-righteousness. But it also teaches the importance of the often underrated choice a leader makes in selecting his second in command. In a year promising many historic political firsts, David Paterson's likely ascendance would make him New York's first black Governor as well as the nation's first legally blind one. Unfortunately, his distinctiveness truly transcends these milestones. The lieutenant governor's unique law enforcement positions are beyond ultra-liberal -- they're ultra-moronic. As NY senate minority leader, he reacted to the 2000 acquittal of the four...

For a supporter, New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer (D) sure hasn't done Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) any favors lately. After all, it was Spitzer who, in the view of her advisers, caused the slide that put her where she is today, fighting from behind for the Democratic presidential nomination. A question about his proposal to let illegal immigrants get driver's licenses tripped her up in a debate in late October and ended 10 months of unquestioned dominance in the race for the nomination. Now, his apparent involvement with a prostitution ring has not only distracted attention from her...

A 22-year-old escort found on another call-girl Web site claimed to ABC News in a phone interview that Gov. Eliot Spitzer had been one of her customers two years ago when he was New York attorney general and that he was a nice guy who tipped well. "He didn't do anything that wasn't clean," she said, adding that she knew who he was because he had made calls from the attorney general's office in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The world is waiting to find out New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's fate. The governor is reported to be laying low, out of public view, following allegations that he spent thousands of dollars on "Kristen," the comely young brunette prostitute. Three New York newspapers want him to resign. On its editorial page, The New York Times said it was "hard to see how [Spitzer] will recover from this mess" but stopped short of calling for him to step down. Meanwhile newspapers around the world are commenting on the scandal. Here are some excerpts of press coverage around the globe:

This link is to the official "email the governor" in case any of you NY Freepers would like to encourage him to leave office ... Link: http://www.ny.gov/contact/index.html

"Client 9" T-shirts hit the Web Tue Mar 11, 2:59 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Who really is "Client 9?" The New York Times says it's the code name for New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer in court papers that link him to a prostitution ring, but now anyone can be "Client 9" with T-shirts available online just a day after the scandal broke. From simply "Client 9" with a large lipstick smooch over the top to "Just Call Me CLIENT 9," designers on Web sites like www.cafepress.com and www.zazzle.com are cashing in on reports that Spitzer had hired a...

Tehran's police chief, Reza Zarei, has been arrested after he was found nude in a local brothel with six naked prostitutes, according to report on the Iranian Farda News. Farda News is a website said to be close to the mayor of Tehran and former chief of the police forces, Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf. Following the raid, Zarei stepped down from his post as police chief. The news of his arrest however was not reported by any official Iranian news agency. According to a popular Iranian website Gooya, the order to raid the brothel was given directly by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi...

March 11, 2008 -- Tough-as-nails former corporate lawyer Silda Wall Spitzer was fond of telling people that her name meant "Teutonic War goddess." Yesterday, as her eyes welled up with tears and she inhaled deeply beside her disgraced husband, Eliot, she looked more like a woman whose world had just come crashing down. It had. Silda Spitzer - an Ivy-League educated Baptist Southern belle who married into one of New York's City's richest and most prominent families - seemed to have led a charmed life.

1) Let's start at the ending: Is there any way Spitzer can survive this scandal and remain in office? Right now, it looks like he'll be gone within hours. Then again, it looked that way yesterday at this time. One of the few lasting legacies of the Clinton administration is that Bill Clinton successfully defined this particular kind of deviancy down. Politicians can now outlast sex scandals. If there's a major legal problem at the heart of the Spitzer scandal such as Spitzer laundering money to pay for his dalliances, then he's a dead demagogue walking. But if it's just...

Democrats privately floated another option, telling The Associated Press that Spitzer was considering what was almost unthinkable immediately after Monday's bombshell apology: hanging on. "If the public is fine, he'll stay," said a Democrat who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Spitzer Spent Over $15K On Escort Service, Source Says Aides Expect N.Y. Governor To Step Down POSTED: 9:03 am EDT March 11, 2008 UPDATED: 5:07 pm EDT March 11, 2008 ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer allegedly used an escort service for at least a year and spent more than $15,000 for meetings with women from the Emporors Club VIP, a source familiar with the case told WNBC.com.

New York - At a hastily scheduled morning press conference at the headquarters of New York's exclusive Emperors Club prostitution ring, high priced call girl "Kristen" announced that she would  temporarily step aside in the wake of charges that she had engaged in sex with New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. "I made a serious mistake and betrayed the trust of my co-workers, my many clients, and my pimps," she said in a quiet voice cracking with emotion. "I will be taking a leave of absence to earn their forgiveness, and redeem myself in the eyes of the entire expensive whore...

Gov. Eliot Spitzer ended up as the subject of an investigation into a prostitution ring because his bank branch in Manhattan turned him in to the Internal Revenue Service as someone who might be engaged in suspicious currency transactions, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Video at link. "Bringing Some Passion Back to Albany" http://www.observer.com/2008/eliot-spitzer-bringing-passion-back-albany

Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer plans to file suit Monday against a raft of firearms makers and wholesalers, making New York the first state to take the industry to court, charging that it is partly responsible for the carnage from guns. Mr. Spitzer's suit marks a significant escalation of the legal campaign waged against the industry until now by 32 cities and counties around the country, including, most recently, New York City, which filed its own suit last week. New York State is taking a different legal approach than the local governments, exploiting an advantage that it has under state...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's connection to a prostitution ring could mean bad news for presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, who needs every superdelegate vote she can get. Spitzer, a Clinton supporter, is under pressure to resign. He remains a superdelegate only as long as he is governor, according to Democratic National Committee rules. If he quits, he would not be replaced as a superdelegate. Lt. Gov. David Paterson would become governor and he already supports Clinton, meaning the New York senator would lose one superdelegate. Sen. Barack Obama leads with 1,579 delegates to Clinton's 1,473. A...

Gov. Eliot Spitzer had planned to announce his resignation at 7 p.m. last night but abruptly changed his mind on advice from his lawyers, according to New York political figures familiar with developments. Spitzer ExposedOfficials in the New York state capital, Albany, say Spitzer's resignation could still come as early as today, and that Spitzer was involved in "transition talks." "It is inevitable; it is just a question of when," said one cabinet-level New York state official. Lt. Gov. David Paterson and his chief of staff reportedly spent the morning reviewing organization charts and assessing which members of the Spitzer...

"Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been soliciting high-priced hookers for at least six years and possibly for more than a decade, sources tell The Post.... Sources tell The Post that Spitzer had frequented high-priced hookers as far back as 2002 and possibly earlier."

I have been bugged out with the flu, and as a result I've seen a lot of the commentary — including, of course, "expert" commentary, which has been something less than expert. The general approach of the federal law to prostitution mimics its approach to gambling. They are activities that tend to generate big profits for organized crime syndicates, which profits not only enrich the racketeers but underwrite their various other rackets, including loan-sharking, narcotics trafficking, murder-for-hire, etc. In Governor Spitzer's case, moreover, it's worth remembering the Nevada senator character in Godfather II who is blackmailed into doing the Corleones'...

In New York state, even as cabinet-level officials began to prepare an orderly transition by briefing Lt. Gov. David Paterson on key details of their components of the government in anticipation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer stepping down, criminal justice officials launched a preliminary inquiry into how the disgraced governor slipped his security detail while traveling, state sources told ABC News. ABC News has learned that Spitzer routinely tried to push off the one or two state police officers who accompanied him out of town, suggesting to the troopers that they didn't need to accompany him as he went to the...