Vanity Fair on Spitzer

Vanity Fair has a long article on Spitzer's first year. It talks about his fall from grace.

People like to compare him to Michael Bloomberg, but I wonder if he's actually functioning very much like Bloomberg did early in his first term. He spent a lot of political capital fighting for unpopular proposals, but has some time to try to endear himself to the electorate again before it's time for his next election race.

I think he made some critical miscalculations, sometimes even with his heart in the right place. First of all, ejecting Joseph Bruno from power would be about the best thing that could happen to Albany (and to not sound partisan, I feel the same way about Sheldon Silver). Of course, it looks like Spitzer may have put at risk any chances of the Democrats taking over the state Senate in the next election.

Spitzer's driver license proposal wasn't all that bad an idea; illegal immigrants aren't going away, and it would be safer if they had driver licenses, insurance, etc.—the alternative is not knowing how to drive properly, even when they drive commercially (which means not always understanding that some roads aren't big truck-friendly because of low bridges and the like).

On the other hand, some areas of concern are barely even touched upon: New York State still loses more people than any other state. Most of the state has seen little to no job growth. Energy expenses are too high. Manufacturing is still declining, with nothing on the horizon to replace it. And, as long as Joseph Bruno and Sheldon Silver have jobs, I don't think they're going to care.