Spitzer: Hey, sorry about that whole prostitution thing

From this morning’s Today show, America’s most famous john returns with mechanical intonations about his “egregious” betrayal and other boilerplate from the politician’s handbook of public remorse. Given his reputation as the scourge of Wall Street, imagine how high his political stock would have been post-financial meltdown if only he’d been able to keep his pants on. As it is, he’s primed for a comeback of some sort: Not only is his successor’s approval rating eye-poppingly disastrous, but after Blagojevich, Spitz’s scandal seems almost quaint. To what office can he reasonably aspire, though? He blew his chance at governor (no pun intended); Schumer will have his Senate seat for as long as he wants it and Gillibrand is already raising boatloads of cash to hold onto hers. Congress is an option, I guess, but my hunch is he’d be more vulnerable to personal attacks in a smaller election like that where the winner is seen as representing a close community rather than the entire state. His best bet is to rehabilitate his image to the point where it’s safe-ish for The One to appoint him to some financial oversight task force. A few more headlines about TARP money being spent without appropriate Treasury supervision and I suspect the public will become very forgiving indeed about Spitz. We’ve got an ex-Klansman, a guy who left a woman to drown, and, yes, another john already in the Senate. Why not Client Number Nine as bailout czar?

Note what he says about his little habit having been infrequent. Hmmmmm.