The emperor—literally—has no clothes

When Eliot Spitzer took office a year and two months ago, the New York Post expressed high hopes for him as someone pledged to “clean up Albany” from day one of his administration. The Post was immediately disillusioned, and became increasingly more so. Based on the reporting of its veteran Albany correspondent Fredric Dicker, the Post was at the forefront of exposing Spitzer’s astonishing pattern of out-of-control bullying behavior, as when he told a Republican legislator, “I’m a f_____g steamroller, and I will destroy you,” and then, far more seriously, when he improperly and possibly illegally used state police to gather damaging information on a political rival, followed by his months-long refusal to come clean on the matter despite repeated promises to do so. And now there is the repeated patronage, by the dictatorial and self-righteous governor of the Empire State, of a high-priced call-girl ring called the Emperor’s Club. So this is the New York Post’s moment. Today, an an editorial appropriately entitled “NY’s Naked Emperor,” the Post calls for Spitzer’s immediate resignation.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 11, 2008 11:57 AM | Send