Eliot Spitzer, back in the news

Disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer is back in the headlines, though this time he's the one writing them.

Spitzer debuted Wednesday as a columnist for the online magazine Slate. But don't expect anything steamy from his column -- unless your idea of a good time includes analysis of the battered financial industry.

Reuters has more on Slate's deal with Spitzer, who resigned in March after a federal sting exposed him as a client of a prostitution ring:

"He was the de facto national regulator of the financial industry," [Slate editor-in-chief Jacob] Weisberg said. "I think he just has a keen understanding and a shrewd perspective on those issues."

 

Spitzer should be able to draw additional perspective for his columns from his current day job with his father's New York real estate company, Spitzer Enterprises.

There's a twist to this tale. Spitzer joins Henry Blodget, another columnist to land a Slate gig after a high-profile fall from grace. Formerly an analyst for Merrill Lynch, Blodget was named in the 2001 conflict-of-interest investigation into Merrill Lynch in the wake of the dot com bust. He was fined $4 million and banned from working in the securities industry.

The guy who took Blodget down? None other than Spitzer, who was New York attorney general at the time.

Blodget, who now runs the Internet industry analysis Web site Silicon Alley Insider (and, full disclosure, is a frequent contributor to Yahoo's Tech Ticker program), can't wait to meet his former nemesis:

"I can imagine Jacob Weisberg's huge grin as he signed up his newest reputationally-challenged charge, and I can imagine Eliot's appreciation in return. And now that several bizarrely connected twists of fate have placed all three of us on the same team, I can't wait to shake both of their hands."

 

The big question in all this, of course, is whether Spitzer will dish any details of the scandal that brought him down. Reuters asked Slate about that too:

"David Plotz, who edits Slate.com, said Spitzer has not said whether he will write about the events leading to his resignation, but, 'if he chooses to write about that in Slate, we'd be happy to publish it.'"