Spitzer Vows To Push Gay Marriage

Eliot "Death Spiral" Spitzer has announced that he wants a hard push for gay marriage in New York next year.

ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer said at a private fund-raiser that he wants a Democratic-controlled state Senate to legalize gay marriage - a highly divisive and controversial issue - as one of its first priorities in 2009, a witness to the remarks told The Post.

Spitzer, a gay-marriage proponent, pledged to help Democrats next November win the three Senate seats they need to gain the majority.

"One of the first things we're going to do when [Senate Minority Leader] Malcolm Smith is [majority] leader is gay marriage," the witness recounted Spitzer as telling some 60 people who paid up to $10,000 each to attend the event in Greenwich Village Wednesday night.

"Everybody applauded when he said that," said the witness, who was among senators, Democratic activists and lobbyists at a fund-raising event for the Senate Democratic Committee. It was held in the library of the elegant West 13th Street home of HBO's "Oz" creator Tom Fantana.

Two other witnesses, including an elected official, said they couldn't recall Spitzer's exact language, but added that the governor suggested a Democratic-controlled state Senate would follow the state Assembly's action this year in passing, for the first time ever, a gay-marriage bill.

Let's recap, shall we? Licenses for Lawbreakers®: DOA. Internet sales taxes: DOA. Taxes for Transients®: stay tuned for the debacle. Spitzer's glorious career prospects: dimming rapidly.

If I were a gay marriage advocate, I'd be begging Spitzer to stay the hell off the issue.