Governor Eliot Spitzer is coming across as a most unreasonable man, a character trait most recently on display in what columnist Fred LeBrun of the Albany Times Union calls "Drivergate".

Well, the governor is in good company.

Those who knew the late and extraordinarily effective Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller well use that very word -- unreasonable -- to describe his personality and his approach to pursuing an agenda he deemed in the public interest. His enduring record of achievement speaks for itself and what it says is not an apology. While he never styled himself a "steamroller", Rocky is memorably the only Vice President in the history of the United States who was photographed "flipping the bird" at his critics.

With the "Drivergate” controversy, Governor Spitzer is learning something about Albany that I learned back in the Cuomo administration.

Dealing with the crowd of politicians and bureaucrats in this town -- the people who who have earned Albany its infamous reputation as the most dysfuntional state government in the nation -- is like going up to Saratoga for a day at the races with a group of acquaintances.

We all go out to the stables to look over the horses. I point one out and say: “That’s a winner. Let’s bet on it.“ My companions all disagree and en masse put their money on another horse.

The race is run. My horse comes in first. Theirs comes in second or third or wherever. But it does, at lleast, reach the finish line.

Over the course of the afternoon, we repeat this process several times. Each time, I pick a winner and they all bet on a loser.

Finally, in exasperation, I say, while displaying my fistfull of dollars: “As you can see, I consistently pick winners. Why won’t you bet on my picks and win some money?”

“Because you’re not a team player. And you’re a threat.”

The anti-Spitzer vitriol that is spewing and gushing so copiously here in Albany certainly indicates that our governor is a threat. A threat to that infamously dysfunctional status quo in state government with which all the other bettors are quite comfortable.

Drivergate? Well, the fact is that New York has a huge population of illegal immigrants that raises significant public security issues ranging from traffic safety to organized crime and terrorism. The governor is responsible for these problems. He is taking a very minor but sensible administrative step to address at least one of them. If nothing else, he has brought huge attention -- even that of Michael Chertoff -- to this problem. There may be those — even a majority — who think he’s on the wrong track, but he’s riding a winning horse. And what would those critics say if something terrible happened and the governor had not taken at least the action he has proposed?

Personally, as a long-time student of public security policy, I’m more concerned about the percentage of our illegal immigrant population that is involved in organized crime, trafficking in drugs and other contraband, including human beings, and violent gang activity. And let’s not forget all of the law-abiding among the people in that shadowy world of illegal status who are victimized and exploited by those who are also here illegally and up to no good.

Permit me to toss out this idea: Let's consider, while we are awaiting federal action on immigration policy and for the bugs to be worked out of DMV’s document authentication technology, that when these people come in to apply for a driver’s license, we take their fingerprints and add them to the database at the Division of Criminal Justice Services for the standard fee, of course. At least then, we can track them down if they commit a crime.

Now that’s my pick for a winning horse.