Metro

Scandal-scarred ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer lays down his rules for life in new e-book

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Eliot Spitzer is dispensing advice on how to live a virtuous life.

No kidding!

The former governor — who resigned in disgrace five years ago after getting caught soliciting hookers — has penned a book, “Protecting Capitalism Case by Case,” to coincide with his comeback campaign for city comptroller.

While much of the $9.99 e-book focuses on his time probing Wall Street power brokers as state attorney general, there’s an entire section devoted to Spitzer’s top 10 “Rules of Life” — “a set of rules to aspire to live by.”

The rules come from a man who has been accused of hypocrisy for not practicing what he preaches and are sure to raise eyebrows.

The wisdom includes:

* Spitzer Rule No. 1: “Loyalty and fiduciary duty matter. Our failures — political and personal — over the past years have followed from a simple inability to be loyal to duties we know we have yet still fail to respect.”

The book glosses over the prostitution scandal. His wife, Silda, is not mentioned even once.

* In Rule No. 4, Spitzer discusses how “hubris is terminal . . . Our sense of self-importance is not only grossly overrated but can generate a dangerous arrogance in decision-making that often ends poorly.”

* Spitzer also discusses the need for some “steamroller” tenacity in Rules 6 through 8. Nuggets include, “It is better to go down fighting than not fight at all,” and, “Don’t bring a pencil to a knife fight.”

Additional rules advise that innovation is a good thing, that forward thinking is a great way to spot trends, and that incentives can motivate those around you.

SPITZER OPENS UP TO LENO

Spitzer also uses the book to settle old scores.

He accuses Gov. Cuomo, Spitzer’s successor as attorney general, of mishandling the Dick Grasso/New York Stock Exchange compensation case that Spitzer initiated and ultimately lost in the courts.

Spitzer sued the NYSE to recover Grasso’s $160 million compensation package, but Cuomo didn’t press on after the state lost on appeal, a decision Spitzer called “horrendous.” Cuomo declined to comment.

Spitzer also blasted Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for pushing the Legislature to appoint Tom DiNapoli, a former Long Island assemblyman, as state comptroller. Spitzer, who was governor at the time, said legislators put cronyism over their “fiduciary duty” because, he claimed, DiNapoli was not qualified.

“I asked Shelly if he would want Tom to handle and oversee Shelly’s pension. He responded immediately and forthrightly: ‘Of course not,’ ” he said.

“Eliot Spitzer has a history of hearing what he wants to hear,” Silver responded to The Post.