Across the pond

I have been wading through thousands of words on the web sites of the New York Times and the Washington Post to try and find out why these two newspapers, and most of the rest of the American press are so convinced that Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic Governor of New York, will resign within days in not hours. And why they think the story is of major political importance.

The Post managed to find an academic to sum up the situation even more succinctly than a news agency journalist. Here is the quote.

“This is not even a nail in the coffin — this is a spike,” said Douglas Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College. “It would be difficult for him to govern. His moral authority is nonexistent.”

Cheating on his wife and paying for sex with a prostitute but, were it only that, not a few Americans might retain some sympathy for him and for his claim that this was just a part of his private life. For the clincher, you have to go to the New York Times, which discloses that the hotel register was signed in the name of George Fox, not the British polician from the history books but a professional associate and friend of Spitzer’s. Not a few American men think cheating on a buddy is worse than cheating on your wife!

Then there is the legal position. It is not against the law in America to pay for sex. But the American press think Spitzer is trying to negotiate a plea bargain. According to the Post the 1909 Mann Act makes it a federal offence for state lines to be crossed to engage in prostitution. And the prostitute in the news was allegedly summoned by Spitzer to travel from New York to Washington for this particular roll in the hay.

The New York Times says he has another legal worry which is more complex. It hinges on another law which makes it a federal offence, carrying a prison sentence of up to five years, to pay for a service, but to put it down in your books, or on your tax return as payment for another kind of service.

Both papers report that if Spitzer resigns he will be imediately replaced by his number two, David A. Paterson, who will then be the first black Governor in the history of New York state. He is not only the leading senior African American, he is the son of a popular political leader in New York City’s Harlem district. He will have a chance to show that America is ready for blacks in top jobs.

However, although Paterson looks almost tailor made to be an Obama supporter, he is in fact a Clinton supporter, and already, as deputy governor is a super delegate. If he succeeds he will still have only one vote.

He will have a tough job, because for reasons a long way from sex between the sheets, he has made himself a very unpopular Governor. He has bullied supporters and opponents alike, so much so that Democrats fear the next New York Governor is likely to be a Republican. Paterson will have to restore the morale of the New York Democrats. And he will find it difficult to do that if he joins those Clinton supporters who are trashing Barack Obama. On the other hand, he will be in a splendid position to urge both Clinton and Obama to start thinking about the situation after one of them wins.

The choice is his. He can either use his new role to be a partisan, hurling the occasional hand grenade against Obama in the many public speeches he will have to make. Or, he can play the statesman, joining with those other senior Democrats who are already working to stop the dirty tricks and stop the Party handing the Presidency to McCain.

Paterson is also blind. So he must be an amazing chap who has learnt to deal with a very serious disability. Despite the advances in voice recognition it takes so much longer to listen to a complex brief, compared to the time it takes to read it in print or on screen. I shall look forward to hearing his first interview with Gary O’Donaghue, who is one of the very few blind journalists doing top level political reporting. He pays frequent visits to America, mainly for the BBC Radio Today Programme.