Some encouragement for Eliot Spitzer

by James Oliphant

Buck up, Eliot Spitzer. There's hope.

You aren't the first politician to be caught (spectacularly, we might add) in a compromising position. Witness the very man that CNN trotted out this morning to serve as a legal expert on your plight.

That man, on CNN;s Newsroom Tuesday, was Kendall Coffey, a Miami criminal defense lawyer and former U.S attorney. Coffey opined that as much trouble as the New York governor is in at the moment, it will only grow worse if it's discovered that Client 9 used public money for any part of his D.C. venture, including shipping the now-notorious Kristen down from the Big Apple on the train.

Coffey should know. What was not mentioned on CNN was that a little over a decade ago, he lost his job as U.S. attorney in Miami after it was discovered he had attended a late-night Miami strip club called Lipstik. There, despondent over a not guilty veridict in a big drug prosecution, he got quite drunk and went off into the back "champagne room" with a stripper named Tiffany. There, he reportedly grew a bit frisky and, uh, bit her. On the arm.

As it turned out, Coffey had also bought a $900 bottle of Dom Perignon and $200 in "Lipstik money" on his federal government American Express card.

The story eventually spilled out in the media. Coffey denied it all at first but ultimately resigned after investigators from Washington got involved.

But from there, it's been all good news for Coffey. He salvaged his reputation (Miami is a very forgiving place, largely because it's difficult for anyone to keep the moral high ground for very long) to become one of the top lawyers in town. He was involved in the Elian Gonzales episode, went on to become a member of the Al Gore legal team in the Florida recount and has since fashioned a high-profile career both as a litigator and as a legal analyst for CNN, Fox, MSNBC and Telemundo.

So, keep the faith, governor. If you have to resign, there are always options. For instance, you could always pack up and move to South Florida.

(Photo above of Kendall Coffey, who represented Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in a suit against the Democratic National Committee over Florida's denied convention delegates -- shown here after a federal court threw it out. (AP Photo by the Tallahassee Democrat's Bill Cotterell)