Opinion

SOME NON-ELIOT SLEAZE

Eliot Spitzer’s humiliation has domi nated headlines lately, but the resig nation of Client 9 isn’t the only Albany-based corruption story in the news.

Last Thursday, jurors at the opening of Brooklyn Assemblywoman Diane Gordon’s bribery trial saw a videotape in which she cut a deal with a developer: She would get him a $2 million parcel of vacant city-owned land in exchange for a custom-built $500,000 home.

And not just any home: Gordon was heard specifying how she wanted granite countertops, cherry cabinets, a “nice-sized living room” and Jacuzzis in both bathrooms – all for just one dollar.

“One hand washes another hand,” Gordon was heard telling the developer. “You can make it happen.”

Think of it as Albany’s mantra.

And Diane Gordon – who still sits in the Assembly while facing 5-to-15 years in prison – isn’t the legislator to utter it.

There was Clarence Norman, the onetime Brooklyn Democratic boss and assemblyman, who’s suffered three felony larceny convictions.

Or Bronx Democrat Gloria Davis, who pled guilty to bribery.

Or Roger Green, another Brooklyn Democrat, who copped to misdemeanor larceny in falsifying travel expenses.

And then there’s Brian McLaughlin.

The seven-term ex-assemblyman and former municipal labor-union leader last week pled to perjury and racketeering – ripping off both the taxpayers and his own union members.

The list of his crimes is staggering.

Overall, he stole $2.2 million, including:

* Some $400,000 in cash kickbacks plus three cars (one of which went to his wife, another to his girlfriend) from street-lighting contractors.

* Cash for his son’s tuition, his mortgage and his Albany apartment rent.

* And $95,000 ripped off from the Electchester Athletic Association, a program McLaughlin set up with so-called “member-item” legislative money to run sports programs union members’ kids.

McLaughlin has yet to express any remorse for his greed – excessive even by Albany’s piggish standards. Maybe he’ll start feeling some once he starts serving his expected 8-to-10 years behind bars.

Meanwhile, here’s a suggestion: The Committee to Elect Brian M. McLaughlin enjoys a cash balance of $786,058.80.

How about using that money to reimburse McLaughlin’s victims – starting with that sports program?