Submitted by Thomas D. Clarke, Dec 1, 2007 14:30

On Day 1, everything changed. Instead of getting an increasingly inept Republican governor (Pataki), 70% of New Yorkers (I was not one of them), elected Spitzer into office. Somehow, they were conned into thinking Spitzer would be a reformer and a fiscal conservative. Never mind the fact that the greatest threats to reform and fiscal responsibility (i.e. the Democratic Assembly) were the biggest supporters of Spitzer to begin with. And of course no one knew or cared that in Spitzer's previous job (Attorney General), he did more to chase jobs out of New York than anyone not employed by Al Qaida. His actions against Marsh and McClellan alone (6000+ jobs destroyed in a lawsuit Spitzer filed and lost while prosecuting) should have disqualified him from being governor.

And now, his attempted (but so far unsuccessful) achievements as governor include:

Trying to force Catholic and other pro-life health care providers to perform abortions
Pay raises for the most dysfuctional legislature in the United States
Increased taxes in the most taxed state after campaigning against tax hikes in 2006
Allowing non-legal residents of New York to have official NY Drivers' Licenses (for some reason, this is the only Spitzer atrocity that has elicited outrage outside the Northeast)

At the very least, Spitzer and his cronies in the state legislature should be impeached or recalled. Ideally, the state Constitution should be amended or re-written to where reforms are enacted, the legislature is pared to one chamber (similar to Nebraska's unicameral legislature- this restructuring alone could save NY billions in taxpayer money), and a clear statewide recall statute which if enacted could prevent Spitzer, Shelly Silver, and other snake oil lawmakers from ruining the state further.

Also, I am of the strong opinion that Spitzer and the state legislature should be forced to take a 40-70 percent pay cut.

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