CSBJ Daily

The Associated Press

Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace this morning after getting caught in a call-girl scandal that shattered his corruption-fighting, straight-arrow image, saying: “I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people’s work.”

Spitzer made the announcement without having finalized a plea deal with federal prosecutors, though a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said he is believed to still be negotiating one. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

“I go forward with the belief as others have said that as human beings our greatest glory consists not in never falling but in rising every time we fall,” Spitzer said at a Manhattan news conference with his wife, Silda, at his side. He left without answering questions.

Spitzer will be replaced, effective Monday, by Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who becomes New York’s first black governor. He will be the state’s first legally blind governor and its first disabled governor since Franklin D. Roosevelt.