But wait — I never write about politics!

The past couple of days have found me sighing deeply and saying things like, "Eliot Spitzer, I'm not angry with you, but I'm very, very disappointed," and "Eliot Spitzer, didn't I warn you that pride comes before a fall?" and, months before, "Eliot Spitzer, Joe Bruno is a fucking street fighter and he will take you down one way or another so, for the love of God,  stop taunting him. Prep school did not prepare you for this. We're talking M-O-B here, and not the kind that Michael Kors disparages."

Anyway. I thought that Spitzer would "fall" and "break his knees" while running one day, but I suppose resigning in disgrace after being implicated in a high-class prostitution scandal is close enough. Not that he didn't get himself into it through his own obviously illegal and tacky actions, but the whole thing smacks of ... something. (David Byrne agrees.)

Honestly, I'm more than a little heartbroken. Spitzer kicked ass as Attorney General. I was thrilled when I learned he was running for governor, I voted for him with enthusiasm and I was really rooting for him once he took office. But I have to say — he was a lousy governor. I was disappointed in him long before this all happened. I think it was about the time the second-to-most-recent MTA fare hike went through and he didn't do anything about it even though the agency had two sets of books, one of which showed a huge surplus, that I started to get suspicious that he wasn't going to do anything particularly helpful. And then when he got bogged down with all the infighting, I just wanted to shake him. And cry. Like it or not,  Bruno is an immovable object in New York State politics and, while Spitzer was a force to be reckoned with, he was not an unstoppable force by any stretch of the imagination.

When the story first broke the other day about him being involved with a prostitution ring, I looked around the office and asked if anyone even knew who the lt. governor was. None of us knew — and we're all reasonably aware (quasi-)journalists. I was ashamed; I used to know this kind of thing without thinking about it. I had to look up her last name, but I remember Betsy who used to fight with Pataki all the time because, well, she brooked no guff and was always in the news. Then Mary Donohue took over, and she was easy to remember even though she didn't do anything particularly memorable while in office because when I was in high school, she was the district attorney of the county I lived in and she would sometimes act as judge of the mock trial competitions I was in. The current lt. gov., David Paterson, who has not yet been sworn in as governor as of this writing as far as I know, has a good track record for issues that I think are important (pro alternative energy and stem cell research) and apparently is well respected by both parties. It's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out, though, however it goes, I'm proud of my state for (soon) having the first legally blind governor in the U.S. and a little shocked that he's New York's first African-American governor — and only the fourth in the country ever.

Sort of a disclaimer: For what it's worth, I grew up near Albany, and lived and worked downtown at a law-related nonprofit for several years after college. My last two years there, my office windows had a beautiful view of the Capitol building across the street. I used to see — and eavesdrop on — the bigwig politicians out and about at restaurants and bars. Not that it should lend any weight to any of my opinions, but I am speaking from my experience observing the Albany political machine at close range. (Also, I miss having my own office. It had a door I could close and more than one window.)