Thankfully, it didn't take very long to find out that the self-proclaimed reformer of the Empire State was an emperor without clothes as he pranced his high white horse across New York's landscape. "Day One, Everything Changes" was a campaign motto.

The former attorney general's 80+ per cent approval rating as incoming governor took its first serious hit when it was learned that he had covertly used the state's Bureau of Criminal Investigation to tail Senator Joseph Bruno, the opposing party's senate majority leader and chief anti-Spitzer spokesman.  This at considerable taxpayers' expense despite campaign promises that political corruption and dirty tricks would end with his administration.

We can only surmise, after the recent un-denied disclosure about Eliot Spitzer's extra-curricular activities, that the governor believed "having something on Bruno" would provide a thick enough smoke screen to keep his own peccadilloes hidden from the public eye.  Unfortunately for Spitzer, he and/or his underlings continue to face indictment for their parts in this malfeasance while Senator Bruno passed his secret test and remains free to police the opposition legally in the legislature and media.

The Troopergate scandal was soon followed by an internationally infamous controversy that was created when Spitzer spearheaded a movement to allow the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens.  At first and until her poll numbers began tanking as a result of her agreement with Spitzer's plan during an early primary debate, Hillary Clinton was among the Democrat presidential hopefuls who was scammed into supporting the governor's two-faced cause.

In reality, Spitzer's failed plan was not a philosophically altruistic attempt at de-marginalizing a fairly large (estimated at 400,000 undocumented NY residents) segment of the state's population.  Rather, unable to break his no-new-taxes campaign promise so early in his term, the governor chose to raise revenue by dramatically increasing every license, title and registration fee charged by the DMV as well as those of other state agencies.

Think of the revenue windfall that would have resulted from undocumented drivers suddenly being allowed to acquire legal ID's at $100 each, followed by additional revenue from registrations and other assorted DMV fees.  Auto insurance companies and their agents would also experience a boom and a portion of their windfall would make its way into the state's coffers in the form of corporate and personal income taxes.

Since "Day One" nothing was ever what it appeared to be with Eliot Spitzer.  Taxpayer/voter confidence in their arrogant, sanctimonious governor had shrunk by 50 percentage points by the first anniversary of his inauguration.  Talk of the governor being a one-termer had already begun on both sides of the aisle.

Just how arrogant was the governor on the high white horse?  Of all the escort services he could have chosen, he went with the one called The Emperor's Club. 

"Day One" of his next term could include making Empire State license plates.

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