Bloomberg could be big winner in Spitzergate

by Glenn Thrush

Politics is a steamroller sport -- just ask Eliot Spitzer -- so it's time to start looking at the possible upsides of his presumptive downfall. At first blush, there seem to be a half dozen winners.

1. Michael Bloomberg. Sure, he's said he doesn't want to go north to Albany but he also claimed he didn't want to run for president ... Suddenly there's an open job that fits the New York mayor's ego, ambitions, (that's Bloomberg, pictured at the right) a decade of cozying up to Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and self-professed managerial genius. It also gives him the most valuable gift a lame-duck mayor can have: something to talk about other than snowstorms, the latest City Council scandal and water main breaks. He's out of office in January 2010. The gubernatorial campaign would begin a few months later -- leaving him weeks of quality time on the golf courses of Bermuda before writing himself the inevitable $200 million check.

2. Joe Bruno. So much for the purifying Democratic tidal wave that was going to sweep the dirty, corrupt GOP out of power in the State Senate.

3. David Paterson. Nice, upstanding guy who's being given the chance of a lifetime. Will the current Lt. Gov. turn into an unbeatable incumbent -- or Malcolm Wilson II? Wilson succeeded Nelson Rockefeller in late 1973, less than a year in office before he had to run against Hugh Carey. Should Spitzer resign, Paterson will have two-and-a-half years to make his own reputation.

4. Chuck Schumer. Felt dissed when party elders told him to put aside his gubernatorial ambitions to clear the path for Spitzer. People close to Schumer say he's moved on and is now quite happy to be the man behind the Democratic throne in the U.S. Senate. But who knows? At the very least he's got one of the all-time great I-told-you-so's.

5. Hillary Clinton. It won't do her a bit of good now, but Spitzer's blundering insistence on pushing ahead with his immigrant driver's license plan saddled her with an awkward, unpopular position she has since ditched. From a payback perspective, she must be having a discreet chuckle. (UPDATE: Peter Baker at the Washington Post thinks it will be a
major problem for Clinton, reminding voters of Bill Clinton's dalliances.)

6. Andrew Cuomo. Before the rise of Prince Eliot, New York's attorney general used to be the abrasive, hard-driving political son whom everybody detested. For the moment, he's earning high marks for humility and his pursuit of mortgage-disaster villains. It's clear he wouldn't mind taking back his dad’s old job. The downside: David Paterson's in the way.

Photo of New York Mayor Michael Blooberg by Chris Hondros / Getty Images)