In The Corner With Eliot

Michael Goodwin continues to pound New York governor Eliot Spitzer. Today he notes exactly how desperate Spitzer is to try to get some support for his faltering administration. The aftermath of the "troopergate" scandal is doing serious damage to Spitzer. The only hope he has is to buy supporters by glad-handing to the far left agenda. He's in a corner and hopes he can get some others to join him there.

Soon after the July 23 report from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo revealed the "Troopergate" dirty tricks scandal, a political operative wise in the ways of Albany made a prediction: Gov. Spitzer would make a sharp left turn to try to save his skin. "He'll pander to all the liberal interest groups and hope they'll protect him," the wise man told me.

Buy that man a beer. Two months later, the prediction has come true. The governor who took office vowing to clean up Albany has lost so much public support that he is reduced to feathering the nest of the unions and other liberals.

Surrounded by enemies real and imagined, Spitzer is on a binge, buying friends and supporters at the expense of everyone else. Good government, law enforcement and fiscal responsibility be damned. This is "Survivor: Albany."

In the last week alone, Spitzer said New York would provide driver's licenses to illegal immigrants with passports, he ended requirements for interviews and fingerprints to get food stamps and also plans to sue Washington over its denial of his plan to expand a health insurance program to cover children whose families earn up to $82,600. Spitzer also wants to hike the hotel tax again to build a more expensive Javits Convention Center, an idea favored by unions.

Goodwin points out that as the economy falters, the already dreadful finances in Albany will become stretched to the breaking point. It will mean either a massive tax hike or a massive cut in services soon. But Spitzer continues to offer bribes to the left as the only way to stay afloat at all. It is not a pretty picture in New York at the moment. Spitzer is digging a hole for the entire state.