It looks like we can talk about Elliot Spitzer's political career in the past tense, as he has been linked to a prostitution ring.

It's too bad his political fall wasn't linked to his performance as governor, not to mention his perfection of the shakedown artist act while he served as NY State's attorney general. But we'll take what we can get.

UPDATE: Speculation is that Spitzer will resign. Perhaps he can start a consulting firm with Jim McGreevey. Maybe Rudy will join as well.

FURTHER UPDATE: Assuming Spitzer resigns, this would make quite the trifecta for the tristate area, between him, McGreevey and Connecticut's John Rowland (albeit the latter went to jail for old-fashioned corruption rather than anything spicier). Is it something in the local water?

ONE MORE UPDATE: Slate's XX Factor blog is all over this one - just keep scrolling; too many good posts to link.

LAST UPDATE: This is the best headline of the whole story; almost believable. The pretend story is pretty good too:

Discovering that the exclusive international ring of prostitutes known as the "Emperor's Club" charged up to $5,500 an hour for their services, New York governor Eliot Spitzer vowed to put an end to this price gouging practice.

Four people alleged to have run the "Emperor's Club" were charged with conspiracy to violate federal prostitution statutes, while two of them were also charged with laundering more than $1 million in illegal proceeds.

"That kind of excessive compensation is simply outrageous. Prostitution is allegedly a victimless crime,” Spitzer said in a press conference that took place only in our imaginations. “But now we see that its customers can become its victims.”

Spitzer added it was especially shameful that one of the most trusted names in prostitution had engaged in this shocking betrayal and rank greed.

I REALLY MEAN IT THIS TIME: This ABC News story (via TPM) has more details on what Spitzer could be charged with. I hadn't thought that merely being a "client" would get Spitzer indicted, and that is in fact not the case: he may be charged with "structuring" transactions so s to avoid mandatory bank reporting laws.

According to a friend who knows more about this area than I do, if Spitzer gets charged under the money laundering statutes, the end of his political career will be the least of his problems:

The Sentencing Guidelines on money laundering were unbelievably draconian last I checked, and that was before the Patriot Act. Like, 20 year sentence bad.

The most important takeaway from the ABC News story is that this isn't merely a bad break for Spitzer: he wasn't merely a name in an escort service's "black book" that leaked after the service got busted, as often happens in Hollywood. Apparently, his suspicious money transfers were what instigated the entire investigation:

The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's suspicious money transfers, initially leading agents to believe Spitzer was hiding bribes, according to federal officials.

It was only months later that the IRS and the FBI determined that Spitzer wasn't hiding bribes but payments to a company called QAT, what prosecutors say is a prostitution operation operating under the name of the Emperors Club.

..."We had no interest at all in the prostitution ring until the thing with Spitzer led us to learn about it," said one Justice Department official.

Spitzer, who made his name by bringing high-profile cases against many of New York's financial giants, is likely to be prosecuted under a relatively obscure statute called "structuring," according to a Justice Department official.

It doesn't appear that this will end with Spitzer's resignation and disgrace. If this ever went to trial...the NY tabloids will have a field day.