Goodwin on Lying, Cheating Spitzer

Pathological is the word that comes to mind. Ding-dong, the witch is dead, the only good that can be said to come from such a tragedy. Michael Goodwin of the Daily News has the goods on why Spitzer’s political demise is good news for the Empire State.

He brought more corruption and sweetheart deals for friends. He talked a good game but, against all odds, he actually made Albany worse.

In rapid fashion, he spawned a cottage industry of state investigations, with rumors of indictments of one or more of his top aides rampant. His own role in Troopergate, where his office used the state police to smear a political rival, still has not been fully revealed.

He achieved no reforms of substance or process. He was so distrusted by his colleagues that he had ceased to be taken seriously.

They had concluded that, in Spitzer’s world, the rules were only for others.

New Yorkers, and New York Democrats, deserve better.

One thing I’d like to note: I’m glad that David Patterson, and not the heir to yet another political dynasty, will likely become New York’s next governor. There’s no doubt in my mind that Patterson or New York city comptroller Bill Thompson) or former state comptroller H. Carl McCall or Thomas Suozzi or even the hapless Rick Lazio all would’ve made better governors than Spitzer. Same goes for the Republican Spitzer crushed in 2006, John Faso. Imagine if Michael Bloomberg had run, or Rudy Giuliani. Even the lifeless husk of Al Smith would have made a better governor.

Below, you’ll find a list of other people I’d rather see as governor of New York state:

*Michelle Obama

*Emperor Xerxes, as portrayed in the movie 300

*the charred remains of my own leg, which I’d gnaw off for purposing of expelling
Spitzer from office

*Rahm Emanuel

*Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel

*celebrated bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel

*Martha Emanuel, the Emanuel brothers’ mom

*Jeremy Piven

*Jeremy Piven’s dad

*despised Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev (added bonus: Friend of Bill)

*Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit

*Nina Garcia

*Michael Kors

*Michael Myers

*Mike Myers portraying Simon, the British boy who loves to draw

*Jamie Lee Curtis

*a rhinoceros

*an elephant tusk

*Ghostface Killah

*Ghostface Killah portraying a “Dubai tycoon” in the new Iron Man movie

*Carla Bruni

*Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, together

*Unicron, devourer of worlds

*a delicious sandwich made of shame, disgust, and hatred

*Cambodian menace Hun Sen