As Spitzer Steps Down, GOP Steps Up Attacks on His Campaign Donations

Eliot L. Spitzer announces that he will resign as governor of New York after being ensnared in a prostitution scandal. (By Andrew Harrer -- Bloomberg News)

As our colleague Jonathan Weisman confirmed Monday, Spitzer's Feb. 14 testimony before the House Financial Services Committee's subcommittee on capital markets came not at the request of the top lawmakers on the panel. Reps. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa.) and Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) were happy to have the state's superintendent for insurance, Eric R. Dinallo.

But, no, Spi tzer really wanted to come testify. He called to insist on coming down, and the committee pushed back the New York insurance superintendent to make room for the governor's last-minute appearance.

Spitzer may have been "Client-9" the previous night at the Mayflower Hotel but was completely technical in his testimony. It was all about mortgage markets and whether the federal government should take a greater role in overseeing insurance markets.

Pretty dull stuff, overall. In conclusion, he said: "We cannot afford to let this valuable discussion degenerate into the kind of blame and finger-pointing that damages our ability to focus on the essential immediate task. I welcome your questions."

Well, we have a few questions we'd like you to answer, Mr. Governor.

Where Are They Now?

Gary Hart's name has been cited all week in news stories recalling past political sex scandals. And, lo and behold, he was spotted in the flesh yesterday on Capitol Hill.

The former Democratic senator from Colorado and two-time presidential candidate was at Cups, the Senate-side coffee shop, about 30 minutes before all eyes turned to the television to watch Spitzer announce his resignation with his wife by his side.

The "standing-by-her-man" element has been a big part of why Hart's name has been dredged up in recent days.

Hart's wife, Lee, stood by her husband when he withdrew from the 1988 Democratic presidential race after his affair with model Donna Rice was exposed. (Who can forget the famous photo of Rice sitting on Hart's lap near the yacht "Monkey Business" on which they took an overnight cruise?) So what was the former sex-scandal-plagued senator doing in town on a sex-scandal-plagued Wednesday? Nothing scandalous, we're told.

He was meeting with members of Congress to discuss nuclear issues in his capacity as chairman of the anti-nuke, antiwar Council for a Livable World, according to his assistant at the University of Colorado at Denver, where Hart is a scholar in residence.

Further proving that there is life for politicians ruined by sex scandals, the former senator has written a number of books and essays since disappearing from public office in 1988, including his most recent book, "Under the Eagle's Wing: A National Security Strategy of the United States for 2009."

According to his bio on the university's Web site, "Since retiring from the United States Senate, Gary Hart has been extensively involved in international law and business, as a strategic advisor to major U.S. corporations, and as a teacher, author and lecturer."

As well as watching Spitzer with a knowing eye.

Senate Deadbeats?

Membership has its privileges in the Senate. Here's an example: Senators and ex-senators can go months without paying their bills to the exclusive Senate Dining Room or other cafeterias and sundry shops around the chamber.

Our friends at the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported on a Government Accounting Office audit of the Senate Restaurants, the internal division of Congress that runs those food shops. It showed that more than $50,000 in 2007 was billed to senators, former senators and top chamber officials.

Most of those elite customers were very prompt about paying their bills -- almost 95 percent of the debt was paid within 30 days. But it took some members of the world's greatest deliberative body at least 60 days to pay up, with $2,286 coming in during that time.

The rest -- $288 -- took as long as 90 days to come in. The restaurant service, which faced a $1.3 million deficit in fiscal year 2007, is being privatized, and a contract is likely to be hatched with Restaurant Services, the go-green company that is running House-side food services.

Sadly, a GAO aide told us that the identities of the lawmakers who delayed paying up for the longest time would not be revealed.