Spitzer and the Real ID Act

I don't understand how someone who was such a great attorney general can be so crappy as governor. New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer has made so many missteps during his first ten months in office that it really goes beyond the typical analysis being offered: that he is a great prosecutor but a bad politician.

In the latest example, his office misread the political landscape (again) and introduced a promised and very much needed plan to offer driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants who do not have a social security number. But he failed to roll out the plan in way to allow him to control the message.

He let the story get away from him and after weeks of being pummeled in the press (both local and national), he finally began to defend the plan in a coherent way. But by then, it was way too late. The public had turned against the plan even though they didn't know anything about it.

So now he has embraced most aspects of the Federal Real ID act and will create a separate category of driver's licenses for immigrants without social security numbers. Immigrant rights groups feel betrayed and Spitzer's supporters are left yet again wondering when he's going to learn how to govern as effectively as he prosecuted.