And Democrats offered little comfort for a beleaguered governor.

The scandal unfolded in an innocuous fashion.

Just one fact piqued interest for some in the room: The lead prosecutor on the case was
Boyd M. Johnson III, the chief of the public corruption unit of the Manhattan United
States attorney’s office.

Mr. Spitzer rarely shrinks from a camera, and those who saw him that night say he was
ebullient, talking politics with one person after another.

lively and enthusiastic: full of cheerful excitement or enthusiasm

The Times had requested records for the date of an alleged tryst with a prostitute in
Washington.

The atmosphere was alternately charged and funereal.

of or like funeral: relating to or suitable for a funeral

The governor returned to his apartment after his abbreviated statement Monday,
where he played host to his sister Emily, Mr. Baum, Mr. Constantine, Michele
Hirshman, who was his lawyer and a top aide when he was state attorney general, and
his friends, George and Pam Fox. So close was Mr. Spitzer with Mr. Fox that he had used
his name as his alias when checking into the Mayflower Hotel in February for his
liaison with the prostitute.

The governor’s public image, his power as a politician, was built upon a foundation of
moral rectitude; this felt like betrayal.

The man who had promised to awaken Albany from a long slumber left behind a
government shattered. Top aides are left wondering about their next jobs, and the state
faces a mountainous budget deficit.