Next trial, please

摘要

Even Eliot Spitzer's critics acknowledge he has a good nose for a ripe target. He made his name by digging his claws into such unloved people as the mutual-fund industry (after the stockmarket crash), the absurdly greedy head of the New York Stock Exchange and the perpetually unpopular insurance industry. Now he has found a target held in even lower esteem: New York state's government. On December 7th, to the surprise of no one, Mr Spitzer announced that he would run, as a Democrat, for governor. Even though the contest is not until 2006, polls immediately put him in front of the Republican incumbent, George Pataki (though one, by Quinnipiac University, puts both men behind Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, who has not scotched rumours that he may run).