Spitzer Fire

By now, everybody knows that reform-minded/law-and-order-spouting New York governor Eliot Spitzer has been implicated in a major call-girl ring bust. (Pun-lovers, don't go there.)

This is sad for his voters, supporters, and family, of course, but given things that are really wrong in the world, we'd rank this particular non-event substantially below, say, African genocide and (only because Spitzer is an elected official) a half-step above Britney's shopping list.

Reaction from the high-end press (never mind that the New York Times broke the story) has been restrained. The mouths watered at the tabloids, on the other hand, and we got headlines like "PAY FOR LUV GUV" from the Daily News,  and the minimalist "HO NO!" from the New York Post. Thanks to the Internet, anybody can play the tasteless headline game. You can take your turn at the Write Your Own Post Headline blog. (Ignore the morons who didn't get the gag and merely contributed stupid comments.)

On the official side of things, there seem to be two slightly divergent state-run New York governor sites. The one linked from the current New York State site (click "Governor Spitzer," under "Executive") takes you to a place where the "Governor's Photo Gallery" features a string of inconsequential podium shots, which no doubt flattered certain constituents when they were posted.

But there's a parallel "Governor's Photo Gallery," reachable via a presumably decommissioned official Spitzer bio page. This one features lots of happy Spitzer family pictures — including a few very sad ones of the grinning gubernatorial cad posing with his teenage daughters. There's a good chance these are not the photos that the state of New York wants to show up under the next Luv Guv headline. Thank you for the irony, Google.

The blog people are out in full force, of course, with the predictable wide range of opinion — from the dismissive "Dog Bites Man Story" to an especially repulsive one titled "Burn in Hell, Eliot Spitzer."

But the prize (so far) goes to the Slice site — a forum apparently devoted to pizza. Here we learn that the wayward state executive doomed himself to ignominy by once endorsing an upstate pizza chain over genuine New York–style pies.

We think we have this one covered from every possible angle.