There are reports that Spitzer is on the verge of resigning, reports that he's thinking of hanging on, reports that he's deeply immersed in plea negotiations, trying to avoid jail and/or indictment. There are reports his family left their apartment, and reports he and wife Silda have spent the day in separate rooms.
It does not seem this will be resolved today, and it seems as if no one knows what is going on because Spitzer doesn't yet.
The Daily Princetonian (Spitzer went to Princeton) reached him early in the day and asked if he was resigning. “I just can’t answer the question,” he answered.
The New York Sun spoke to top aide Lloyd Constantine later, and he said Spitzer was leaning toward a fight: "He has not made up his mind. It is more correct to say that he is not resigning."
Of course, that is also what you'd say if you were using resignation as a bargaining chip with prosecutors, even if you knew it was inevitable. If that's what's happening, it could take a while to sort out a plea deal, and this limbo could continue.
We just got his advisory for tomorrow: "Governor Eliot Spitzer is in New York City and has no public schedule."
We have also read that those closest to him are advising Spitzer to step down. And LG David Paterson is said to be ready for a transition, but is not making any overt moves out of respect.
If Spitzer was seriously hoping to survive as opposed to fantasizing, he would be trying to shape the story. We would hear arguments from someone -- friends, consultants, lawyers, advisors -- that it was just a personal matter, sex isn't a crime, and questions about the motives of prosecutors. That's what we heard from Jeanine Pirro when she popped up on a wiretap in the middle of her AG campaign in 2006.
But that kind of suasion would get prosecutors mad. And we haven't heard those things from anyone close to Spitzer. So, it seems like some kind of negotiation is going on.