A year ago today, The New York Times caused jaws to drop across the country with the news that Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, was 'involved' in a prostitution ring.

The news was met with howls of approval on Wall Street. The shouts in the stock exchange were described as deafening. It was little short of a victory dance by the gilded class triumphant.

Now, a year later, you can feel a tinge of remorse. If Spitzer was a harsh opponent of the money class, many feel he wasn't harsh enough, given that many of the bank princelings are still employed and not in a courtroom or worse. This despite the fact that they managed to wipe out trillions in wealth through greed and outright graft. Does anybody really care now that Eliot hired a hooker?

Meanwhile, over on the government side, Eliot's successor is crashing and burning before our eyes. You just don't trash John F. Kennedy's daughter, I guess. Or dither while the budget is on fire - oh, I know, let's tax haircuts. Problem solved, eh?

Paterson has one chance to redeem himself: right the state's budget mess with a tax hike on the people who make more than $250,000. If he doesn't do that - and word in Albany is that he'd like to but can't, because his donors would desert him - we'll have a new governor in 2011.