The New York Times reports:

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.

I know it's annoying when writers can get all high and haughty over other writers producing copy that's fatally imprecise, but you'll have to indulge me just this once. What, pray tell, does "involved" mean? Was he a customer? An investor? Could he have been (say it isn’t so) a worker? Or perhaps he was in management.

I guess the smart money is on Spitzer's "involvement" having been limited to being a customer. Nevertheless, a press conference is forthcoming that will presumably clear up my confusion. In the meantime, let's take a stroll down Spitzer’s hypocrisy of yesteryear. The Times also reports:

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

”This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. ”It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”

UPDATE: In the Daily Kos comment thread on this scandal, one Kossack offers a theory as to who's really to blame for this sorry situation--George W. Bush!

"My theory is that the Bush administration caught this through their wiretaps of Democratic politicians."