For Eliot Spitzer, Ashley Alexandra Dupre was the nail in his political coffin. For Girls Gone Wild founder and CEO Joe Francis, she is a “lottery ticket.”

It’s not only talk-show hosts who feed off of politicians’ sex scandals

Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his wife Silda
Photo credit: Office of the Governor

His persona was Dudley Do-Right, the squeaky-clean politician who championed ethics reform, and who was unrelenting as New York Attorney General in going after Wall Street executives - and a prostitution ring or two.

But today, that reputation was in tatters and calls for his resignation mounted after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer made a brief public statement in his Manhattan office, with his wife, Silda, by his side, apologizing for having “acted in a way that violated the obligations to my family and that violates my - or any -sense of right and wrong.”