by Mark Silva

In the lightning round that is the modern news cycle, it took just two days from the revelation that Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, has been a customer of an international prostitution ring for one of the formerly rising stars of the Democratic Party to step down.

It didn't help that the minority leader of the New York Assembly had set a 48-hour deadline for the start of impeachment proceedings if Spitzer didn't quit.

And it certainly didn't help that Spitzer had built his career on a reputation for the dogged pursuit of criminals -- targeting organized crime as a hard-nosed federal prosecutor in New York City and targeting corporate white-collar crime and Wall Street fraud as the state's attorney general.

The celebration among Wall Street traders this week lent a sort of Roman circus atmosphere to the governor's downfall. And yet, with Spitzer's planned resignation on Monday, handing the reins to a lieutenant governor who is legally blind and will step up as the first African-American governor in New York and only the fourth nationally, the story is not over.

"Client No. 9,'' as he is allegedly identified in the federal complaint about the Emperors Club VIP prostiutiton ring, stepped out today with not only his wife by his side, but also with a high-powered attorney, Ted Wells, the same lawyer who represented Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to the vice president who was convicted of obstruction of justice.

by Frank James

11:43: Spitzer is at the podium, preceded by his staff and lawyers and accompanied by Silda Wall Spitzer, his wife.

Says he has begun to atone with his family. "The remorse I feel will always be with me" he said. "I am deeply sorry I have not lived up to what was expected of me..."

Spitzer apologized and said he would resign effective Monday because Lt. Gov. David Paterson asked him to for a smooth transition.

He said he will try to to serve the public good again after he leaves public office. Shortly after, he left, without taking questions.

11:38 am: We're watching the coverage of the dramatic events surrounding Gov. Eliot Spitzer's expected resignation today as a result of his being linked to a high-priced prostitution ring.

It started with what is now a visual news cliche--the helicopter shot of the vehicle, in this case, the motorcade, carrying the famous person in hot water.

Spitzer has made his way from his upper East Side apartment and has reached lower Manhattan where his office is. We should be hearing from him shortly. We heard 11:30 am. It's now 13 minutes later.

by James T. Madore

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer will resign today in Manhattan in the wake of a sex scandal that has engulfed him and much of state government, sources said this morning.

Spitzer will make a statement from his office at 11:30 am EDT, sources say.

His decision follows agonizing deliberations with his wife, Silda, and top aides.

Once Spitzer makes his move, Lt. Gov. David Paterson will be sworn in as the 55th governor.

It is unclear what that deal would involve -- or if one had been reached today. The Associated Press reported the resignation would take effect Monday, quoting a state official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement has not been made.

Members of the state legislature had threatened to begin impeachment procedures against Spitzer if he does not resign.

See the rest of the breaking story coming from Newsday:

by Jeff Coen

Antoin "Tony" Rezko is set to go on trial today, but the defense is expected at every opportunity to try to put his chief accuser on trial as well.

Prosecutors allege that Rezko misused the power he gained from his prowess as a fundraiser for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, scheming to extort kickbacks from firms seeking state business or regulatory approval. But Rezko's lawyers will attack the credibility of Stuart Levine, the government's key witness, questioning his memory of events because of his alleged heavy use of cocaine, crystal meth and other illegal drugs.

"That clearly is the battle line they want to draw," said Zachary Fardon, a former assistant U.S. attorney who was part of the prosecution team that convicted former Gov. George Ryan in 2006. "The defense wants it to be all about Stuart Levine."

Levine, who sat on two influential state boards, pleaded guilty to scheming with Rezko to extort almost $6 million from firms seeking to invest state pension funds and a hospital seeking approval of expansion plans.

With all the pretrial posturing at an end, the lawyers on both sides will soon put on display their competing strategies. Even in such a complex case, Rezko's fate could come down to what the jury thinks of Levine, the defense hopes.

The defense is expected to make much of the fact that Rezko appears on the fringe of the alleged fixes, dealing mostly with only Levine. And while federal investigators secretly tape-recorded hundreds of Levine's telephone conversations, only a few involved Rezko, and those were innocuous, the defense will argue.

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

by James Oliphant

Need a quick break from political coverage? Here's an item from the Star-Tribune in Minnesota that qualifies as the bizarre story of the day.

Man punches woman thinking she's a man messin' with his woman

A man who mistook the gender of someone hugging his girlfriend punched the woman and threw her down, police in Blaine said.

According to police:

Last week, Amanda Christianson was being dropped off at her home in Blaine by her friend Alyssa Smith of Fridley. Christianson's boyfriend, Alexander Wald, came out from the residence in the 9500 block of NE. Able Street and saw the two women hugging.

Thinking that his girlfriend was being affectionate with another man, he started punching Smith several times and threw her to the floor.

Once Wald, 22, realized that Smith was a woman, he walked away.

Wald was cited by mail with fifth-degree assault, a misdemeanor.

There's a country song in here somewhere.

by James Oliphant

It's New Year's Eve, Amateur Night for much of America, but just another reason for revelry in New Orleans.

But the residents of the Crescent City can be forgiven if they want to move on to next year, as 2007 was among the bloodiest in the city's history given its shrunken post-Katrina population. More than 200 people were murdered, giving New Orleans a sky-high homicide rate that triples other cities.

Some blame a lack of economic opportunities, which was exacerbated by the hurricane. Others the overwhelmed and troubled criminal justice system. And those who remain bullish on the city's recovery say the murders are largely confined to certain neighborhoods, and are largely over the drug trade.

Here's the story in today's Chicago Tribune.

by James Oliphant

During its late-night session yesterday, the Senate passed a bill aimed at ensuring the safety of the nation’s judges.

The Senate’s version of the Court Security Improvement Act follows a similar bill passed earlier this year by the House. The legislation now goes back to the House today to be reconciled with the Senate bill. Once that happens, it will go to the White House for the president’s signature.

The bill is a direct response to the murders of the family of Chicago federal judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow in 2005 and comes on the heels of a government report released earlier this year that said the U.S. Marshals Service wasn’t doing enough to assess threats against judges and courthouse personnel.

The bill authorizes the appropriation of $200 million over four years to provide additional staff to the Marshals Service and to provide grants to state and local governments to improve court security and protect victims and witnesses. The legislation also authorizes the appropriation of $100 million over that period to states to assess domestic terrorism (which, for some reason, has been lumped into a court security bill).

by Gabrielle Russon

It's a crime that Marisa Garcia said she's being punished for twice.

Seven years ago, police found a pipe with marijuana residue in her car. "I went to the court, pled guilty and figured I'd pay my fine and that would be done," said Garcia, who was then a freshman at California State University at Fullerton.

Instead her financial aid form was returned, and Garcia, hailing from a single parent household, was stripped of her federal funding because of the drug conviction. To keep Garcia in school, her mother refinanced their family home and charged her textbooks on a credit card.

On Wednesday, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) announced an amendment for the reauthorization of Higher Education Act that would allow college students with drug convictions to keep their financial aid. It was later withdrawn.

Arthur H. Bremer being restrained after shooting Ala. Gov. George C. Wallace, May 15, 1972, following a campaign speech in Laurel, Md. (AP Photo/File)

by Matthew Hay Brown

The release today of the man who shot and paralyzed presidential candidate George Wallace during a campaign stop in Maryland 35 years ago is drawing criticism from the Wallace family.

“He hurt a lot of people,” Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of the former Alabama governor, told The Baltimore Sun this week. “My father suffered for 25 years after that and his children suffered right along with him. His physical pain was our emotional pain.”

Arthur H. Bremer – the aggrieved loner whose 1972 assassination attempt inspired the Robert De Niro character Taxi Driver, which inspired John Hinckley’s 1981 attack on President Ronald Reagan – was released from the Maryland Correctional Institution in Hagerstown this morning after serving two thirds of a 53-year sentence.

“It is an affront to justice, it is an affront to the Wallace family and it is an affront to the citizens of Alabama that this man could escape the small measure of justice that remained, by being released before serving every day of the sentence he earned and should be required to complete in full,” Alabama Attorney General Troy King said in a statement.

Corrections officials say Bremer’s clean prison record qualified him for the mandatory early release. The 57-year-old is to remain in Maryland, where he will be required to maintain contact with parole and probation agents until his sentence ends in 2025.

“The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services believes the public’s interest, safety and security is best served by allowing Arthur Bremer to become acclimated to today's world at his own pace and with as much anonymity as possible,” the agency said today in a statement.

by James Oliphant

Ever since the Supreme Court decided to rule on the legality of the method that most states used to execute prisoners, the question has been whether states would halt their scheduled executions to await the court’s decision.

An increasing number of federal and state judges appear to be doing just that, although it hasn’t been uniform. This week, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta stopped the execution of an Alabama man so the entire complement of judges on the court can take up the issue of whether to allow it to proceed.

In September, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a Kentucky action that argues the three-drug cocktail used in lethal injection is unconstitutional because it causes unnecessary pain and suffering before death, in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Since then, several judges have interpreted the move as imposing a de facto moratorium on executions, although the court never issued such an order. However, the court did block the scheduled execution of a Virginia man, Christopher Scott Emmett, Oct. 17, pending disposition of his lethal injection challenge in the federal appeals court in Richmond.

by Frank James

These are good days to be a white-collar criminal or a corrupt public official, apparently.

According to an analysis of Justice Department data, federal prosecutions of white collar criminals are down significantly since the period before President Bush took office, as are prosecutions of corrupt public officials.

A non-partisan research organization with an ungainly name, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse which is associated with Syracuse University, looked at the numbers and found that prosecutions of white-collar criminals have fallen 27 percent between fiscal year 2000 and 2007.

Meanwhile, public corruption prosecutions have fallen 14 percent in that same time period.

It’s possible that there’s less white-collar crime and public corruption in the nation which would explain the drop but that’s rather unlikely.

by Mark Silva

The Drug Enforcement Agency, the only American agency committed solely to fighting a war against drugs, may be viewed as a domestic operation, but its leader says it is deeply involved in a global fight against a drug trade estimated at $320 billion a year.

In Pakistan – now “nearly poppy-free’’ – the DEA administrator delivered an address today that touts gains the agency and allies are making in neighboring Afghanistan, where a flourishing poppy trade is financing the operations of terrorists.

“You live in the shadow of a monster – the Afghan opium trade,’’ Karen Tandy, the DEA administrator (pictured at right in a DEA photo) told the Pakistanis today. She flew in from Afghanistan this morning to deliver her message in Islamabad. She was touting successes in the Afghan arena:

 “Arresting two of the world’s most wanted drug lords— Haji Bashir Noorzai and Haji Baz Mohammad, both connected to the Taliban—resulting in the disruption of their large-scale drug enterprises and the first ever extradition from Afghanistan to the United States.

 “Last year’s Afghan convictions and sentencing of three long-time, significant traffickers (Misri Khan, Haji Bahram, and Noor Ullah) to lengthy prison terms under the new Afghan narcotics laws.

 “This spring’s arrest of Mohammad Essa, a known terrorist and large-scale drug trafficker.

 “The arrests in June of Babah and Salam Khan—significant opium and heroin traffickers.

by Mark Silva

The hemispheric summit of President Bush, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be coming up short on specifics, but leaders say they have found clear accord on their commitment to fighting drugs and enhancing security.

Calderon's own trip to Canada could be cut short by the onslaught of Hurricane Dean, but the Mexican leader will leave the log-cabin lodge of the Montebello resort where the three are meeting with a resolve to press a war against drug-smuggling, the White House says.

"The conversation really does go to how do we, the United States and Mexico, build a common strategy to address a common problem -- recognizing that we have -- we feel the effects of the illegal drug trade in certain ways; in fact, some of those ways are similar in terms of the drug violence that has occurred in both American and Mexican communities,'' said Dan Fisk, senior director for Western Hemispheric Affairs at the National Security Council.

"The two leaders did not get into the details or get into the widgets, as I put it, but clearly reaffirmed their commitment that we do have a shared responsibility,'' Fisk said last night. "We have to recognize that each country is going to have a unique contribution and role to play. We understand that the Mexicans are developing their own strategy. There are things we need to be doing on our side that are good for our country, but they also will be good for Mexico.

"And so it's a matter of how to move that process forward,'' Fisk told reporters assembled in Canada. "And I think the important point out of today's conversation is the reaffirmation of that... So what comes out of today's meeting in a lot of ways, is that this is going to give more momentum to this process and these set of discussions.''

For more on the Canada talks, see the White House's briefing:

by William Neikirk

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he is "sickened" that President Bush and Congress went on vacation "while young Americans in our cities are massacred by people who should not be here."

In a newsletter released today, Gingrich cited the recent execution-style murders of three college-bound students in Newark as evidence that "there is a war here at home, and it is even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan." Another student survived a gunshot wound.

Two of four suspects in that case are illegal immigrants "or aliens," as Gingrich called them, who had been charged with other crimes in the U.S. but yet were not detained by authorities. One is from Peru, the other from Nicaragua.

The Georgia Republican, now with a conservative think tank in Washington who still has his eye on the presidency, called on Bush and Congress to come back to town in a special session for three days to deal with the problem by passing a bill to identify illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. He first mentioned this case in Ames, Iowa, where he spoke at a Republican gathering Saturday night.

by William Neikirk

Top members of the House Ways and Means Committee from both parties want to limit the use of your Social Security number by government and business in order to crack down on identity theft, a growing scourge in society.

A bill they introduced Monday falls short of an outright ban on using the number for governmental or business purposes, but its sponsors say it would help reduce the amount of identity theft. The question is whether the exceptions allowed under the bill would still give identity thieves enough room to operate. Time will tell, as they say.

But by permitting some exceptions, the sponsors do tacitly concede that your SSN is still a mighty handy universal identifier for many government and business purposes. It would still be possible to use it for credit purposes, for example. And I know a lot of people nervous about mentioning their SSN in public when applying for credit in a store.

by William Neikirk

The first president named George--Washington, that is--issued the first pardon. He did it for the non-indicted participants in the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. It helped quell passions over his government's decision to crush a protest over whiskey taxes.

Now the current president named George--Bush, that is--is holding the door open to pardoning a close aide (Scooter Libby) for lying to government investigators in a probe about leaking the name of a CIA operative whose husband had openly challenged the president's Iraqi war policy.

The prospect of a pardon for Libby, whose sentence has already been commuted by Bush, is not quelling passions. It is doing the opposite. Indeed, the president's constitutional power to pardon individuals has had a checkered past, and often has spurred more controversy than healing.

by William Neikirk

There is a lot of pain here in the nation's capital over Paris Hilton.

She's getting all the attention. And that puts the politicians in this city in a funk. On a day that the defense secretary named a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Louisiana congressman pleaded not guilty to corruption charges, no one cared. On a day that the president of the United States got sick at the Group of Eight conference in Germany, no one cared. On a day that Ted Kennedy talked about his plan for winning passage of the immigration bill, no one cared.

by William Neikirk

Among my friends at the swimming pool, there's a real debate raging. Who should serve the longer sentence: Scooter Libby or Paris Hilton?

Party-girl Hilton got out of jail today for medical reasons, but was confined to her home with an electronic ankle bracelet for the next 40 days. She reportedly has a rash on her body.

Libby, meantime, is still free while he awaits a decision by President Bush over whether to pardon him. He has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation involving Valerie Plame.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Wednesday, May 23, 2007 as collected by the Associated Press.

President Bush is delivering the commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut. 11:15 a.m.

The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the firing of U.S. attorneys with the key witness Monica Goodling, the former Justice Department liaison to the White House. 10:15 a.m.

Posted by David Lerman at 8:06 a.m. CDT

If his doctors have their way, presidential assailant John W. Hinckley Jr. will begin making regular two-week visits to his parents’ home near Williamsburg and look for volunteer work.

Twenty-six years after shooting President Reagan and three others outside a Washington hotel, Hinckley could become a part-time resident of the Williamsburg community—possibly even volunteering at the local public library.

The proposal by St. Elizabeth’s Hospital— Hinckley’s home for the past quarter-century—would mark the next phase of a treatment plan aimed at helping Hinckley transition to life outside the confines of a mental institution. He has already completed about a dozen multi-day trips to his parents’ home in James City County, which by all accounts were successful.