Ex-Madam Kristin Davis Protests Eliot Spitzer's TV Show, Runs for Governor

Former "Manhattan Madam" Kristin Davis, who helped accommodate Eliot Spitzer's appetite for high-priced prostitutes, has launched a protest against the ex-governor's new prime-time CNN show and is simultaneously mounting an independent campaign for the New York statehouse.

Davis is behind the website No To Spitzer, which urges readers to sign a petition vowing to boycott CNN for giving him an 8 p.m. talk show this fall. "Eliot Spitzer betrayed the public trust and violated the very laws he was entrusted to enforce," the site says. "CNN should not condone this hypocrisy."

Spitzer resigned as governor of New York in 2008 after he admitted to consorting with a call girl provided by Davis at a Washington hotel.

In an interview with Politics Daily, Davis said she doesn't believe Spitzer should be "in any position where his voice can be heard to influence the lives of others. He has no moral or ethical ground to stand on."

The protest is not about Spitzer's past dalliances with escorts, Davis insists. She obviously has no problem with prostitution. Rather, it's about the "gross hypocrisy of the fact that I was a nobody and got in trouble and Spitzer, the most powerful man in New York, has not served a day in jail or even taken any responsibility for his crimes."

Davis spent four months in a New York City jail on prostitution charges and is currently serving five years probation.

"All he cares about is rebuilding his public image," Davis said of Spitzer, a former state attorney general. "Why not spend a year doing some good for the world? Why is he going on TV without making any attempts at redemption?"

As for her campaign for New York governor, Davis said she recognized that the odds of winning were "slim." Still she said she was a committed libertarian who wants to push for the permanent status of a viable third party.

"We want to have some impact on changing the complete dysfunction that is the government of New York state," Davis said. "Even the current independent parties are a mess and part of the problem. We want to try and effect real change."

Her platform is simple: Legalize, regulate and tax prostitution and marijuana (her campaign website features a big green pot leaf). The revenue the taxes would raise could go a long way toward filling New York's enormous budget gap, she said.

"Prostitution in New York is estimated to be a $5 billion-a-year business," Davis wrote on her site. "Legalization and a reasonable tax rate could bring $1 billion in new revenues to New York state each year. Legalizing marijuana would reap another $2 billion a year. Then New York could balance the budget and still cut property and income taxes."

Davis said she was serious about her run for office and will campaign hard, stumping at political events and on media outlets.

But would she appear on Spitzer's CNN show?

"Sure," she said. "As long as I could ask him one question: 'How would Eliot Spitzer, the attorney general, have prosecuted Eliot Spitzer the john?'"