Eliot Spitzer reportedly ready to resign

Eliot Spitzer has called a news conference for 8:30 a.m. Pacific time during which he reportedly will announce his resignation as governor of New York after being caught up in an alleged high-priced prostitution ring.

Details will be posted as they occur, but looking ahead the obvious question is what sort of legal problems will he face -- and what sort of deal, if any, will he cut to make his exit?

-- Scott Martelle

Comments

[kat]

The feds will probably agree not to prosecute if he resigns. As long as Spitzer didn't lie to them they will probably let him go. In these types of cases, the government is mostly interested in eliminating a powerful elected official who puts himself in the postition of being blackmailed - it's not good for democracy.

I'll bet a lot of people are mad at Spitzer and I dont' mean just the voters or his wife. I mean the other clients, the women, and the people who ran the operation. A lot of people are out a lot of money and a lot of people are sweating this thing out hoping they aren't dragged into it.

This is not that unusual. Whenever a public official (like Trent Lott) resigns to spend more time with his family, it's usually something like this. The feds just want these guys out. Evidently Spitzer p- offed a lot of people over the years. If he just shuts up and goes on his way they might let it go.

[robinia]

When a politician's personal choice to exercise infidelity is publicly exposed then public scrutiny, judgement and disappointment that lingers, eventually ruins, or substantially damages creditiliby, of his political career. Where as actors, entertainers and athletes thrive should the exact scenario happen to them. All four professions are public figures, but there is something a politician which the public still expects accountability towards his wife and loved ones.

I, for one, am not concerned with the ramifications which Spitzer, and the Kennedy's, Clintons, Harts and Villagairosa's, are enduring or have endured.

I am curious of how their wives and children react and actually feel when their fathers are nationally exposed this way. I would love to be a fly inside their wives brain and emotional being during this tragic moral ordeal. Sometimes politicians, all men in general, think with the wrong heads. It's fun and pleasurable for a season, but it is the wives and children who did nothing but by de facto, are equally on the receiving end of public scrutiny emotionally. Directly or indirectly, they suffer the consequences of their father's ill-fated choices for the rest of their lives also. I would hate to be a married politician. Perhaps that should be a future criteria. Those who enter politics should remain single. Then their womanizing and all the potential pleasures and heartaches that go with it would only be hurting them, and not innocent loved ones who had no say so. Shame on you Mr. Spritzer.