“I’m a fucking steamroller and I’ll roll over you and anybody else.”–Gov. Eliot Spitzer, January 2007

Winner of the biggest electoral landslide in state history, Eliot Spitzer came to Albany with the reputation for reform rightly earned after serving as one of the most successful Attorney Generals in recent times. His star was among the brightest in the Democratic Party, behind maybe only Barack Obama (whom my friends and I envisioned as a dream ticket as early as four years ago).His first year in office was tumultuous at best, disastrous at worst. He picked a public feud with the Republican Senate President (see above quote), employed bullying tactics to demean his critics, and alienated much of his once overwhelming support. With three years left in the governor’s mansion, however, there was still time to make things right. That is, until today, when it all came tumbling down.In a story that will leave Spitzer-foe the New York Post salivating for weeks (my headline suggestion: “Trust-busted”), the Governor has been implicated in a prostitution ring and will resign. Rarely in American politics has a rise and fall been so pronounced.