Attorney General Spitzer’s recent speeches suggest the lanky lawman seems to think he’s running for governor not against George Pataki or Rudy Giuliani or Randy Daniels but against the Wall Street Journal. The thin-skinned prosecutor has taken to making snide remarks about the Journal at nearly every speech he gives, including one the other day at the National Press Club, where he called a Journal editorial “Ridiculous, flat out ridiculous.” No doubt this is triggered by the fact that Mr. Spitzer has come under trenchant criticism on the editorial page of the Journal, which lately been referring him as the Lord High New York Executioner.

It’s a reference to Mr. Spitzer’s regulating businesses and nonprofits almost by whim. The New York Stock Exchange is targeted by His Lordship for supposedly overpaying Richard Grasso, but Lord Spitzer lets off the hook the head of the NYSE’s compensation committee, his fellow Democratic politician H. Carl McCall. Settlement proceeds are dispersed to His Lordship’s pet charities. The remarks at the National Press Club illuminated Lord Spitzer’s position on tort reform – he’s to the left of Sir Charles Schumer on the issue, opposing the Class Action Fairness Act that Sir Charles supported. “I have always said there are problems with litigation that need to be confronted. This is not the way, just as caps on recovery are not the way,” Lord Spitzer said, without offering any ideas as to what is the way.

Don’t look for the High New York Executioner to break much new ground on the tort reform issue while he is still raising money for his campaign for governor. Yesterday, he was the keynote speaker at a conference at the Plaza Hotel headlined “Mass Torts Made Perfect,” where plaintiff’s lawyers paid $1,295 apiece to attend sessions with titles such as “Corporate Power in American Democracy” and “Expand Your Practice Through Commercial Litigation and Avoid Tort Reform – Effective Strategies and Tactics. “Other sessions at the meeting included “VIOXX Trial Package Learn How To Try A VIOXX Case” and “Fen-Phen Trial Package” and “Accutane Trial Package.” The attorney general who touts himself as the avatar of “transparency and integrity” and insists he isn’t a foe of honest business wouldn’t allow a reporter from The New York Sun in to cover his talk to the trial lawyers at the Plaza. It’s not exactly Governor Cosby tangling with Zenger, but the principle’s there.

In any event, it seems to us that the Lord High New York Executioner Spitzer’s obsession with the Wall Street Journal has the makings of a terrific debate that shouldn’t happen furtively. Let’s get it out in the open. Why not have the Wall Street Journal run its celebrated editorial page editor, Paul Gigot, for governor? Mr. Gigot might be a mere commoner, but, unlike Lord Spitzer, he would have an understanding of the role of the press and of the need for genuine reform of the litigation that is making health care more expensive and capital raising more difficult. He would understand the concept that law enforcement involves quaint proceedings like, say, trials. We understand it’s a long shot, but Mr. Gigot would get our endorsement.