I’m typically a few weeks behind on my magazine reading. This makes the political magazines often as not seem more like long-buried time capsules than recent news stories. Take, for instance, these excerpts from a New York magazine piece entitled, “How Eliot Spitzer Finally Got Joe Bruno On the Ropes.”

Bruno is the most powerful Republican in New York. He has been the majority leader of the State Senate for twelve years, one of the so-called “three men in a room” who decided what, if anything, got done in Albany. The other two are State Assembly Leader Shelly Silver, a Democrat, and the governor, who was get-along Republican George Pataki until Eliot Spitzer came in, determined to change the way business was done in the statehouse. For the zealous governor, Bruno represents everything sclerotic and unprincipled in Albany. Spitzer’s been determined to get rid of him. Now, it may not be long before that happens.

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The way Spitzer sees it, his survival rests with ousting Bruno. His destiny, even. “You’ve got a governor who came into office on the wings of angels,” says the Spitzer source. “He was the man. And his first year was defined by a scandal and an error. What he wants in years two, three, and four are results. He will not stand for this obstructionist Senate majority leader getting in the way of his results.”

This piece ran in the March 10-17 issue. Spitzer announced his resignation on March 12.