Ex-governor of New York Eliot Spitzer bows out as CNN anchor

Mr Spitzer left his governorship amid a scandal in 2008 involving sex workers

Eliot Spitzer, the Wall Street-baiting former governor of New York, whose political ambitions ended in a prostitute scandal, has had his new career as a television anchor cut short after less than a year.

The news channel CNN hired Mr Spitzer to bring a dash of controversy to its prime time line-up, which was being squeezed by Fox News from the right and MSNBC from the left, but repeated relaunches of his show failed to stem the decline. Mr Spitzer bowed out on Wednesday night with a defiant quote from President Theodore Roosevelt: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles... The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena."

After winning billions of dollars-worth of lawsuits from banks after the dot.com era scandals, when he was New York's Attorney General, his election as governor seemed destined to launch him on the national stage. However, in 2008, it was revealed that Mr Spitzer was "client 9" of a high-class prostitution ring, and he was forced to resign.