Henry Stern Sticks a Fork in Spitzer

Former city parks commissioner and longtime political agitator Henry Stern is giving up hope on Eliot Spitzer. In his recent column, emailed to, um, everybody, Stern wrote:

"Through a succession of miscues, Governor Spitzer has forfeited his position of leadership, He has made intemperate statements, used foul language at inappropriate occasions, acted and spoken autocratically, denounced colleagues personally, caved where he should have stood firm, engaged recently in Nixonian behavior, and pretended not to know what most rational people think he must have known, for if he did not he was more foolish than they believe him to be. Compare his public persona with that of a Bloomberg, a Giuliani, or a Koch and observe the difference.

"There is not one public official in the state, Democrat or Republican, who defends the way he has conducted himself. This is not an ideological issue, he is neither a radical or a reactionary, his ideology, his views are mainstream liberal . Senator Craig did him a great favor by taking people's minds off the governor's travails,and hopefully this will continue for a while."