Eliot Spitzer: Bringing ‘Intellectual Heat’ to Cable News

Fortune editor-at-large Peter Elkind looks at the burgeoning TV pundit career of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. The story discusses Spitzer’s contributions to MSNBC, as well as the rumors that he could land at CNN, filling the soon to be vacated 8 p.m. slot.

The fireworks for The Eliot Spitzer Show wouldn’t come from shouting. They’d result from intellectual heat: the brisk, sharply argued clash of ideas — as well as the presence of a man struggling to emerge from the cauldron of a sex scandal. Whether that’s enough to produce a ratings spark for CNN is another question.

Elkind, who wrote the book Rough justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, argues that a regular TV show would be the best way for Spitzer to make a comeback in politics.

Such a role would simultaneously maintain his public profile and launder his image, as other presumptive candidates-in-waiting (Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee) have also recognized.

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