Otherwise, he should wait awhile and see how it plays out.  Everyone said Larry Craig and David Vitter were toast, but they're still around.  Bill Clinton survived Monica because he hung around past the initial call for his resignation and fought.  There's no need for Spitzer to rush and I don't think a poll on the day the news breaks is necessarily the last word on what his constituents will ultimately think.

The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's suspicious money transfers, initially leading agents to believe Spitzer was hiding bribes, according to federal officials.

It was only months later that the IRS and the FBI determined that Spitzer wasn't hiding bribes but payments to a company called QAT, what prosecutors say is a prostitution operation operating under the name of the Emperors Club.

* * *
The suspicious financial activity was initially reported by a bank to the IRS which, under direction from the Justice Department, brought kin the FBI's Public Corruption Squad.

"We had no interest at all in the prostitution ring until the thing with Spitzer led us to learn about it," said one Justice Department official.

Now, we've all heard the song about self-financing candidates and rich candidates - that they can't be bought because they don't need the money.  Spitzer is rich.  He doesn't need the money and his taking bribes would be implausible at best.

Like I said earlier:  johns don't get prosecuted in NYC and the only reason they might is (1) the activity is too flagrant, (2) there's another message being sent, or (3) the neighbors are complaining, a lot, about the noise.

Looks like we got DoJ going after a Dem - on an implausible basis - for being a Dem.  Reason #2.

I can wait or a day or two before I personally declare the career of a promising Democrat over.

A lot of the problems in this country come from knee-jerk reactions to things.  Though a day or so may reveal nothing new, I see no reason to call for someone's head a mere hours after a story breaks.

Two, if he resigns, David Patterson, our Leiutenant Governor will assume the office through the end of Spitzer's term (2010). Were that to happen, there will be no replacement for the Lt. Governor. The person second in line, is the Senate Majority Leader, Joe Bruno. As I mentioned in a previous thread, Joe Bruno (winger) is facing his own legal problems -- he's being investigated by the FBI for what amounts to a pretty extensive pay-for-play scheme. I won't go into the details, you can google them if you are interested. I will say though, that if he is guilty of the crimes for which he is being investigated -- I consider those to be much more damaging to our government and to the public good. He also has numerous other ethical black marks next to his name.

So, with a Governor Patterson in place and no Lt. Governor in place -- if for any reason Patterson is unable to perform the duties of the governor (either temporarily or permanently), then those duties would become the responsibility of Joe Bruno. And I think that would be a terrible, terrible idea. We just had 12 years of Republican leadership in this state, and the result has been that funding for mass transit has been gutted, tenant protection laws have been weakened to the point of being almost useless, the city of NY, where the vast majority of New Yorkers live, has been denied the funding and attention it needs for a whole host of other issues -- I could go on, but needless to say we need someone in office who can repair some of the damage done by George Pataki, not someone to build on it.

JMM was the first to note the silver lining: that Spitzer's resignation would take the driver's license issue off the table for November.  Cute!

I saw a note at MyDD earlier stating: "Clinton surrogates waste no time in tarring Barack Obama with the Spitzer scandal."  I was mystified: Spitzer is a Clinton supporter, not that it matters, but how could anyone possibly pin the thing on Obama?

There was a link to this post, which begins:

Hillary Clinton's unofficial surrogates in New York City have wasted no time trying to smear Barack Obama with the alleged involvement of Eliot Spitzer with a prostitution ring.

Seem to me it was at least as germane as the OT discussion of Law and Order/CI...

That's the overriding question here.

 Spitzer has not been charged.
 Spitzer likely (according to TL) will not be charged (despite what Fox says).
 This case could easily have been brought without ever mentioning Spitzer - this indicates its a political hit job.
 The US Attorney was the Bushco INS head prior to this job - do you think his personal political reliability for Bushco (and, for that matter, Mukasey and Giuliani - at the time, a likely candidate) might have been a major consideration in appointing him to the job in the first place?
 The Repugs have been working to hobble Spitzer since he came into office - do we want to force him to give them what they want?
 The Repugs have been using DoJ to take out Democratic officeholders and supporters one after another - do we want to ratify that strategy?
 This is an opportunity to show the two-facedness of the Republicans - when David Vitter got caught using a prostitute, he was forgiven, cuddled, and welcomed back to the Republican fold. He is still in office.  The alleged madam is still waiting trial.
 When Ted Haggard hired a male prostitute, he went through de-gaying, but he was still respected.
 When Jeff Guckert Gannon advertised his services on the internet, made a bunch of overnights at the WH, and then got a journalism career out of it - he got a journalism career.
 When the head of the WH Secret Service covered for Gannon's visits - he got promoted to head ATF.
 When Scooter Libby took a conviction for lying to protect Bush - he got a commutation.
 When Bush demanded immunity for his crimes - he bludgeoned the Democrats to within an inch of giving it to them - without ever telling them or us what, exactly, it was he and his administration did.

That last example is almost solely the result of Jello Jay Rockefeller's spineless approach to Big Scary Dick Cheney, and some half-worth Blue Dogs who'd rather be scared, than stand and fight.

So, which way do you want to go into an election campaign - with the specter that, at any time, the Republicans can unveil a new, more or less bogus indictment (ask Governor Seligman about that) to affect the election?

I am not a great believer in Evil (even though I am a at least once a week Mass RC), and I feel terrible that Spitzer Prosecuted people for a weakness he shares with them.

1.  Odd isn't that the DoJ never seems to be going after the Rs of late?  Where is the FBI investigation in to Vitter or the Scarboro man?  This could lead to blowback, but unluckily if a Dem doesn't win in Nov.

2.  Spitzer needs to resign and get the hell out of town.  This type of scandal isn't good in an election year & the timing smells funny.

3.  Which brings me to point 3. The big loser here may be Hillary as it may well remind people that do you really want bill roaming around the West Wing alone at 3 a.m.?  I think her websites scrubbing of his endorsement today suggests they are worried about the scandal. The Rs fear Hillary and this may have well been timed to damage her chances in the D primaries.