NYS Governor Spitzer Linked to Prostitution Ring

Update: Out of the frying pan...

CBS and Fox are reporting that Spitzer will resign tonight at 7 PM ET. That moves Lieutenant Governor David Paterson into the top slot, the first African-American NYS Governor. Unfortunately, Paterson has some baggage of his own:

February 19, 2008 -- ALBANY - In a different type of blind justice, Lt. Gov. David Paterson insists race did not play a role in his decision to replace a white staff photographer with a black one because he doesn't see black and white - literally.

Paterson, in his sworn deposition in a lawsuit against him, claimed his blindness prevented him from knowing the race of either photographer when he made the staffing changes in 2003, when he was Senate minority leader.

Paterson has been legally blind since developing an infection in infancy that left him blind in one eye and with very limited sight in the other.

"Given my visual impairment, I did not know for certain the race of either," Paterson, the state's first black lieutenant governor, testified in the case.

Paterson's current chief of staff, Charles O'Byrne, yesterday dismissed the statement as a "Paterson quip, a joke."

The judge didn't see Paterson's sworn testimony as a joke.

Paterson is widely considered more liberal than Spitzer. Great. More liberal than the idiot who wanted to hand out NYS licenses to illegal aliens.

*****

Holy crap. Forget the licenses for illegals controversy. First term Democrat New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer may be a whoremonger.

From the New York Times:

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning...

...Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.

But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers.

And for you hypocrisy buffs, there's this:

Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.

Thank God Spitzer's a Democrat. Otherwise this revelation might adversely affect his career.