"There is such a thing in politics," said Martin Van Buren (D., N.Y.), "as killing a man too dead.".

"There is such a thing in politics," said Martin Van Buren (D., N.Y.), "as killing a man too dead." Eliot Spitzer (D., N.Y.) is learning that lesson. Spitzer, a headline-grabbing liberal attorney general, won the governorship last November with 69 percent of the vote. Lone obstacle to his political dominance was Joe Bruno, Republican state senate majority leader. Bruno is an old pork-barrel pol who last met a principle in the disco era. Not content to play on such themes, three Spitzer aides, including his communications director, asked the state police to compile records on Bruno's use of state aircraft, which they then fed, in distorted form, to an Albany newspaper (Spitzer's chief of staff was also in the loop). The new attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, reported their shenanigans, and now the Albany district attorney is investigating (Cuomo and the DA are both Democrats). Spitzer says he didn't know what was going on, which no pol watcher believes, but which better be true, if Spitzer should be asked to testify under oath.