Brodsky: 'The Mood Is, What the Fuck!?'

On the face of it, there's very little reason for the Democrats in the State Assembly to go out on a limb for Eliot Spitzer. Hence the response of Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester when I asked him what their position was on whether the governor should stay or go: “There is no position of the Assembly majority on Eliot Spitzer,” he said.

I asked him what the general mood is in Albany.

“The mood?" he said. "The mood is, ‘What the fuck.’

"I mean, what? What? Could you have seen this coming?”

Eliot Spitzer has had an uneven relationship with the Democratic majority in the Assembly. He fought with them at times, and at other times tried to weaken them, but most recently he adopted what was, for him, a more conciliatory posture.

Brodsky, normally one of the more outspoken officials in Albany, said it’s tough for lawmakers to comment on Spitzer just yet.

“How can you responsibly defend or attack the guy, with what you know now,” he said. “You've got to wait, and once things are known with more certainty, once a law enforcement official speaks, the governor speaks, or he resigns or announces he is not going to resign, then call me up.”