Our friend Ben Smith writes about an intriguing, if completely unlikely scenario: Eliot Spitzer as a replacement for Hillary in the Senate.

Now, Spitzer-stalgia isn't entirely unknown among New York Democrats; you hear the whispers with some frequency, especially among the more bloodthirsty, crush-your-enemies partisans.

Intriguingly, Eliot also seems to believe it's time to step back into the public eye. At least, that's what one could reasonably deduce from his long-form Op-Ed in today's Washington Post.

That said, let's not forget why Eliot left. It wasn't because of moral revulsion over his socks and the unusual use to which he put them; it was because he had zero political capital and backers left. That's not the best foundation to prevail in the unseemly horsetrading that would accompany securing that choice spot.

Second, who says Hillary wants to move to the cabinet, as Secretary of State or in any other capacity? Consider the history: The Secretaries of State of every administration since Reagan's have served only one term. Condoleeza Rice, one-termer; Colin Powell, the same; Madeline Albright and Warren Christopher; James Baker; George Schultz and Alexander Haig. From Hillary's perspective, which is arguably the only one that matters on this subject, taking that job - and serving at the pleasure of the President - is career suicide.

I don't think she'll do it, and she'd be right not to. Hillary's place is in the Senate as the foremost advocate for healthcare reform.

Eliot Spitzer

If someone had asserted a week ago at this writing - early AM Monday - that within a week, Eliot Spitzer's career and Bear Stearns would both spectacularly implode, the most likely response would have been derision.

And yet here we are, with Bear being essentially nationalized - the Fed is taking over that firm's assets as collateral for a thirty billion dollar loan guarantee - and Eliot Spitzer officially handing over the reins to his lieutenant governor at noon today.

The Sheriff of Wall Street went down at the same time as Wall Street itself. How ironic. Per the New York Times, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers may be next down the rabbit hole.

At the bottom of that hole sits the same culprit in both cases: the Bush administration. Any serious look at the investigation into Eliot Spitzer has to come to the conclusion that the Bush Department of Justice was aiming for a hit. And that's what they got, signed, sealed and delivered courtesy of Alberto Gonzales. Any why Spitzer? Because he was the lone politician to take on the business practices that first came to pass in the Bush era, when Wall Street knew its practices wouldn't be scrutinized too closely, Enron and Sarbanes-Oxley be damned.

Greg Palast takes a closer look:

The Spitzer scandal and resignation probably still has a few days to go - Sex! Money! Power! Fall from Grace! Read All About It! - and there are a few gems in the flood of dross.

The Nation profiles incoming Governor David Paterson.

Feministing spotlights the harrowing tale of Dr. Laura Schlesinger, who has found the root cause of the Spitzer scandal: Silda.

"When the wife does not focus in on the needs and the feelings, sexually, personally, to make him feel like a man, to make him feel like a success, to make him feel like her hero, he’s very susceptible to the charm of some other woman making him feel what he needs,”

Oh, fuck you, Dr. Laura.

Scott Horton in The New Republic asks "Was the investigation of Eliot Spitzer politically motivated?" Look for that story to not be picked up by the Times, Post, News, and so on.

Just wrong: The New York Times finds the young woman at the center of the affair, complete with links to her freaking MySpace page. In contrast to the Horton piece, look for this story to be picked up by every media outlet under the sun.

Here you go: it's officially over. Our new governor, David Paterson, takes over on Monday. The New York Times has an excellent compilation on Governor Paterson's life to date, here.

Eric Massa weighs in as follows: "I'm glad that Governor Spitzer has resigned rather than drawing out this painful chapter in New York history any further. His shameful actions have caused a huge distraction from the real issues facing New York's families and it is time to move on. I very much look forward to doing everything to support our next Governor, David Paterson."

I'm still shocked; most people are, one suspects.

Well, this is awesome. With Eliot Spitzer's resignation expected today and effective Monday, we have a new governor: David Paterson.

We also have a new lieutenant governor: Joe Bruno.

The lieutenant governor fulfills the duties of the office of the governor whenever the governor is incapacitated or outside the state, per Article IV, paragraph 5 of the state constitution.

In case the governor is impeached, is absent from the state or is otherwise unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office of governor, the lieutenant-governor shall act as governor until the inability shall cease or until the term of the governor shall expire.

Joe Bruno is now the lieutenant governor. And that means that a man currently under Federal investigation for corruption will be, at various points over the next few years, the acting governor of the state of New York, whenever David Paterson leaves the state, say, to give testimony to Congress.

We just wasted the biggest electoral victory in the history of the state of New York. It's totally okay to begin throwing up right about now.

Talking to Michael about Spitzer and to other people, I am struck by how different the public persona I had met was from the public Spitzer persona that others knew.

I was only in several social situations with Spitzer and spoke to him only a couple of times. Yet during those public "private" appearances (they were at closed events) I was able to observe the man.

What did I take away? Even though the man knew how to commandeer a room and appeared to have a hyper-social personality, Eliot Spitzer struck me as a very private, very shy man.

Yes, it's shocking to hear since so many describe him as powerful, intense and overwhelming. Which I don't disagree with. It's just that if you got physically a bit too close to him (as it happened to me a couple of times) he would get very quiet and, what struck me about him was that he couldn't look at me straight into my eyes.

And as I was telling my husband, I've packed on some serious poundage, so it's not that I am looking babealicious these days. Yet I noticed that Spitzer was actually shyish in a nerdy way. At least to me, he wasn't that overwhelming as other people have described him.

Make of that what you wish.

CNN has confirmed that Eliot Spitzer will announcing his resignation at 11:30am.

The New York Times: Spitzer Aides Say Governor Will Resign Today.

Associated Press (no link yet): Spitzer to resign effective next Monday, announcement expected this morning.

Wayne Barrett on WNYC makes the obvious remark that you're not going to hear elsewhere: that this case would not have been investigated by the Bush - Gonzales - Mukasey Department of Justice if Spitzer had not been a Democrat.

Congratulations, republicans. You finally got him.

[Update]: The Executive Chamber announces an 11:30 AM statement by the governor. WNYC reports that yes, it will be a resignation.

So basically, nobody knows what's happening inside Eliot Spitzer's Fifth Avenue apartment. The state's Democratic leadership has completely dropped off the radar; emails and phone calls aren't being returned, and Democrats trying to figure out whether they should fight to keep Spitzer in office or write him off have no direction whatsoever.

It's like nothing so much as a split screen, where we're seeing two movies playing that we've seen before.

The first movie is, as Daniel Millstone lays out below, the one about partisan prosecutions emanating from the Bush Department of Justice, which is furiously feeding leaks about the case to the press. We know now, for example, from investigators, that Spitzer had more than half a dozen assignations over the last eight months, in places including Washington and Dallas. The timeframe suggests, incidentally, that one Alberto Gonzales authorized the investigation in the first place - the same Gonzales that had to step down for politicizing the Department of Justice. The entire investigation into Spitzer looks increasingly just like that: an investigation into Spitzer, one that happened to find something. This was a political hit, completely conforming to a pattern established by the Bush Department of Justice. The fact that this fishing expedition came up with something shouldn't distract from that. Wayne Barrett on WNYC puts it well: this has the suddenness of an assassination.