John Heilemann makes the point that Spitzer couldn't survive his political scandal because there were no enemies he could use to rally the troops. No Linda Tripp, no Ken Starr, no Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. In politics, picking your enemies is a helluva skill. Find odious enough assailants, and your supporters will want so badly to foil them that they'll accept just about anything from you. What happened to Spitzer is that, without enemies to beat, he became the party's enemy. His presence would've dragged down their efforts to take back the Senate in the 2008 elections and given the Republicans a potent counterissue. So he had to go.
