Can Spitzer Make It All Go Away?

Finally, Eliot Spitzer has rescinded his bid to give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. I was personally in favor of it, just as Hillary was or wasn't in his camp as well. Despite the Governor's good idea, he presented it in spectacularly bad form, since he managed to piss everyone off and throw his poll ratings in the crapper. Now he says he didn't choose to abandon the program out of principle.

From The New York Times:

The governor, who is to announce the move formally on Wednesday, said in an interview Tuesday night that he did not reach the decision easily. “You have perhaps seen me struggle with it because I thought we had a principled decision, and it’s not necessarily easy to back away from trying to move a debate forward,” he said.

But he came to believe the proposal would ultimately be blocked, he said, either by legal challenges, a vote by the Legislature to deny funding for the Department of Motor Vehicles or a refusal by upstate county clerks to carry it out.

“I am not willing to fight to the bitter end on something that will not ultimately be implemented,” the governor said, “and we also have an enormous agenda on other issues of great importance to New York State that was being stymied by the constant and almost singular focus on this issue.”

For a while there it seemed like he was going to go to the 'bitter end' with this but apparently the negative publicity that reached national proportions has gotten to be too much for the first term Governor. Even though his fight is over, the effects could linger for weeks, months or conceivably his entire term. For a man swept into Albany with tremendous popularity, he is certainly going to have to try hard to win back public support in New York.