'Bout Freakin' Time

Good riddance to a thieving bum.

State Comptroller Alan Hevesi will agree this week to resign to avoid an indictment stemming from an ethics scandal in which he used public employees to chauffeur his wife, according to sources familiar with his decision.

Hevesi, one of the state’s highest-ranking elected officials, will consent to stepping down from the $151,500-a-year post he has held since January 2003 by Friday morning at the latest as part of a plea deal with Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

The comptroller, a 66-year-old Queens Democrat, will also plead guilty to a criminal charge. It will not be higher than a Class E felony nor require him to spend any time in jail, according to the sources.
...
Hevesi’s resignation will bring an end to a scandal that has consumed New York’s political class for more than three months and continued even though he reimbursed the state $206,294 and was re-elected with 57 percent of the vote in November.

Alan's kindly saving us from ourselves here, New York.  Why did we just re-elect this man?

Scott Sala at Urban Elephants notes that in no way can this be accurately notched up as a win for Eliot Spitzer nor any sign of him endeavoring to clean up Albany.  Spitzer was ultimately forced to withdraw his endorsement for Hevesi's re-election bid once the flagrancy and extent of his crimes became so abundantly clear, but he was quite clearly not committed to forcibly removing him from office (either directly or by sending him to the State Legislature for impeachment), which, if Hevesi weren't to resign, would be the only conceivably justifiable course of action for any Governor, not to mention one who fancies himself a crusading reformer.