Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Subject: Spitzer resigns as New York governor
Time: 8:29:00 PM EDT
Author: ddawncrawford71
Mood: Chillin'
Spitzer resigns as New York governor
Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announces his resignation beside his wife, Silda. "I look at my time as governor with a sense of what might have been," he said. Lt. Gov. David Paterson will succeed him effective Monday.
The once-rising political star, embroiled in a prostitution scandal, will be replaced by Lt. Gov. David Paterson.
By Erika Hayasaki, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
9:47 AM PDT, March 12, 2008
NEW YORK -- Surrendering to intense pressure to step down after a federal wiretap investigation revealed this week he was a client of a high-priced prostitution ring, Eliot Spitzer announced his resignation as governor in a somber press conference today.
As his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, stood by his side, often looking at his face as he spoke, Spitzer said: "In the past few days, I have begun to atone for my private failings with my wife Silda, my children and my entire family," he said. "The remorse I feel will always be with me. Words cannot describe how grateful I am for the love and compassion they have shown me."
"I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me," he continued. "To every New Yorker and to all of those who believed in what I tried to stand for, I sincerely apologize. I look back on my time as governor with a sense of what might have been."
"There is much more to be done and I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work," he said, adding that in his public life he has insisted "people -- regardless of their position or power -- take responsibility for their conduct."
"I can and will ask no less of myself," Spitzer said. "For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor."
Spitzer's resignation will be effective on Mon., March 17, he said, to allow time for an orderly transition.
After spending more than 36 hours at home, the embroiled Democratic governor appeared to hold his head high as he left his 5th Avenue Manhattan residence surrounded by police just after 11:15 a.m. Spitzer's wife rode with him to his Midtown Manhattan office in a black SUV with helicopters hovering above.
An aide close to Spitzer told The New York Post: it was "an agonizing night."
The state's lieutenant governor, David Paterson, 53, will take over as the state's 55th governor. Paterson, a Harlem Democrat who has been nearly sightless since birth, was first elected to the state senate in 1985. He will be New York's first African-American governor.
Speaking before reporters in Albany, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno today said legislators must now work together to get on with the business of New York State and focus on fiscal challenges.
"As for Eliot Spitzer, my heart goes out to his wife and to his family; at this time he must deal with his own problems in his own way," Bruno said, "But it is now time for us and all New Yorkers to move forward."
Bruno, who said he has a good relationship with Paterson and expects to work well with him, will assume the responsibilities and duties of the lieutenant governor, which includes holding a vote on the Senate floor and taking over if the governor becomes incapacitated or is out of the state.
Spitzer's resignation came as Republicans in Albany and across that state ramped up calls for him to leave office after it was revealed Monday that he spent thousands of dollars for a prostitute named Kristen on the night before Valentine's Day at a hotel in Washington, D.C.
Republican minority leader Jim Tedisco had demanded that Spitzer leave office immediately or risk facing impeachment if he did not quit by tonight.
Democratic State Assemblyman Dov Hikind said Paterson's governorship will be good for the state. "He's a guy that will not terrify anyone, will not threaten anyone. He will not be a steamroller, just a good guy bringing people together. Democrats and Republicans."
Spitzer, 48, a father of three teenage daughters, was once considered a rising political star with presidential aspirations. He became known in Albany for his abrasive style and confrontational manner, earning the nickname of "steamroller" after describing himself as such and using profanity in a private call he made last year to Tedisco.
Spitzer's track record was marked by an earlier political scandal and legislative setbacks. In a separate episode last year dubbed "Troopergate," Spitzer's aides were accused of using state police to track the travel of state Sen. Joseph Bruno in an effort to embarrass the powerful Republican.
The governor withdrew a controversial proposal to allow illegal immigrants to get drivers' licenses, a move that embarrassed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who made contradictory statements about whether she supported the idea.
The dragnet that caught Spitzer paying a call girl occurred in an elaborate financial surveillance system that was expanded after the Sept. 11 attacks to snare terrorists, drug traffickers, international organized crime figures and white-collar criminals.
The federal Bank Secrecy Act requires financial institutions to report suspicious transactions to the Treasury Department. Those transactions are then reviewed and, in some cases, passed on to criminal investigators if they suggest potential illegal activity.
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Spitzer Resigns, Citing Personal Failings
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, with his wife, Silda, announcing his resignation at his Manhattan office on Wednesday.
Published: March 12, 2008
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, whose rise to political power as a fierce enforcer of ethics in public life was undone by revelations of his own involvement with prostitutes, resigned on Wednesday, becoming the first New York governor to leave office amid scandal in nearly a century.
The resignation will be effective on Monday, and Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson will be sworn in to replace him.
In an appearance that lasted 140 seconds at his Midtown Manhattan office, the governor — with his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, at his side — offered an apology to his family and to the public and said he would devote himself to serving “the common good.”
“From those to whom much is given, much is expected,” Mr. Spitzer said. “I have been given much: the love of my family, the faith and trust of the people of New York and the chance to lead this state. I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me.”
“Over the course of my public life, I have insisted — I believe correctly — that people regardless of their position or power take responsibility for their conduct,” he said. “I can and will ask no less of myself. For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor.”
Mr. Spitzer, 48, spoke in a somber but steady voice, his usual barking tone softened by contrition. He took no questions. His wife, in a dark suit and brightly colored scarf, looked off to the side of the podium, occasionally glancing up to reveal deep circles beneath her eyes.
Immediately after the remarks, Mr. Paterson offered sympathy to the governor and his family in a written statement. “It is now time for Albany to get back to work as the people of this state expect from us,” he said.
The sudden and stunning end to Mr. Spitzer’s political career came less than 48 hours after it emerged that he had been a client of a high-end prostitution ring, caught on a federal wiretap that had been prompted by his own efforts to quietly make payments to the agency, Emperors Club VIP.
Mr. Spitzer issued a brief apology on Monday after the news was first reported on the Web site of The New York Times, then he disappeared from public view. The governor, an unabashed fan of the spotlight, spent Tuesday in seclusion in his Fifth Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park, engaged in what associates described as an agonizing day of deliberations with his wife, lawyers, and a handful of close friends.
It remained unclear on Wednesday what legal implications, if any, Mr. Spitzer will face from his involvement with the ring. His lawyer, Michele Hirschman, reached out to federal prosecutors this week to strike a deal in hopes of avoiding charges. But the United States attorney investigating the case issued a statement shortly after the resignation saying that his office does not have any arrangement with the governor.
In Albany, where state government has stood still since the scandal broke, lawmakers sent words of support to Mr. Paterson and offered a few final requiems for the departing governor.
Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican leader of the state Senate who once labeled Mr. Spitzer “a spoiled brat,” shunned the fiery rhetoric he often used to refer to his chief political foe.
“I’m going to leave it to the governor and his family to sort out how they deal with present circumstances and the future,” Mr. Bruno said at an unusually restrained morning news conference. “And frankly, I have them in my prayers.”
In the State Assembly, which convened just after 1 p.m., a chaplain read from Psalm 51, a Bible passage in which King David, after committing adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of a friend, pleads with God to “cleanse me from my sin.”
The chaplain then added: “Bring healing to the Spitzer family.”
Fallout from Mr. Spitzer’s resignation also reached the presidential campaign. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will lose the governor’s support as a Democratic superdelegate, a post he must now relinquish. “I’m deeply saddened by this turn of events and my thoughts are with Governor Spitzer’s family during this painful time,” Mrs. Clinton said in a statement released by her campaign.
Mr. Spitzer becomes the first New York governor to resign from office since 1973, when Nelson A. Rockefeller stepped down to devote himself to a policy group, and the first to be forced out since William Sulzer was impeached in 1913 over a campaign contribution fraud.
“I look at my time as governor with a sense of what might have been,” Mr. Spitzer said in announcing his resignation. “But I also know that as a public servant I, and the remarkable people with whom I worked, have accomplished a great deal. There is much more to be done, and I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people’s work.”
It was such work that Mr. Spitzer chose to devote his life to, in a career whose ascent was as dizzying as its precipitous fall.
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