After sailing along smoothly for six months, first-term Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer has hit some serious political turbulence. Last week he was captured on video being grilled by Fred Dicker of the New York Post over allegations his aides inappropriately used the state police to collect travel records about Frank Bruno and leak them to the press. Spitzer denies any knowledge of the activity, but nonetheless offered a public apology for the actions of his aides in Sunday's New York Times.

Today, Dicker goes to town again on Spitzer's "dirty tricks" scandal (as does the Post's editorial board), while in an interview with the New York Sun Spitzer rejects as "pointless" a call by NY Senate Republicans to appoint Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as a special prosecutor to further investigate the allegations.

The flap continues to have legs, and is closing in on a week in the headlines with no sign of abating. Matt Cooper, formally of Time Magazine, writes that Spitzer's handling of the matter has been like a "long slow bleed" and speculates that "Chances are, if you think about it, Spitzer probably knew of his aides's actions."

The public agrees with Cooper, as a new Quinnipiac poll out this morning shows that 53% of respondents in New York believe Governor Spitzer "knew what his aides were doing when they arranged for State Police records of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's travels to be leaked to the media." Spitzer's approval rating has dropped 12 points in six weeks, dipping to 48%. (Meanwhile, Andrew Cuomo's job approval has shot up nine points over the same period to 68%).

On the positive side, 56% believe Spitzer has the ability to clean up New York state government, and 58% still consider the governor "honest and trustworthy."

But that last number may suffer, since more than a third of voters (36%) say further investigation is needed and another third (35%) believe that further probing would "prove that Gov. Spitzer did something wrong."

If Spitzer did know about his aides' actions, he should get out in front of the news and admit it before it does even more damage. "What's remarkable," Cooper concludes, "is how many times politicians need to keep learning the lesson of getting the bad news out quickly."