Opinion

ELIOT DIGS DEEPER . . .

Gov. Spitzer remains a bewilderment.

Certainly if he thought the three- tiered “compromise” he offered over the weekend would dampen the driver’s-license furor that has enveloped his administration, he was wrong.

* His critics aren’t mollified – and why should they be? Their national-security concerns remain.

* His supporters are furious that he didn’t give them any advance notice.

* The very folks Spitzer says he wants to help now say he’s a traitor.

* And the timetable he laid out for implementing the new plan – up to a year – is guaranteed to keep the issue alive until well into next year’s election cycle, when he hoped (planned?) to see Democrats take control of the state Senate.

Fat chance.

Here’s what U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had to say:

“I don’t endorse giving driver’s licenses to people who are not here legally” – though, he added, “federal law does allow states to make that choice.”

Which is why Chertoff has given a qualified OK to the rest of the plan – which makes New York the largest state to comply with the new federal Real ID Act, which was intended to make it more difficult for terrorists to obtain valid driver’s licenses.

Under the plan, New York will offer three different driver’s licenses:

* A difficult-to-forge document available only to legal residents – either citizens, permanent residents or those holding a valid visa.

* An enhanced license, available only to U.S. citizens, that would be valid ID for travel to Western Hemisphere countries not requiring a passport.

* The current license, which would not be valid ID when traveling on an airplane or entering a federal building. Illegal aliens would be eligible for these licenses – which would be distinctly marked.

The advocates understandably are steamed at Spitzer over this; only weeks ago he said specially marked licenses “would be like a scarlet letter.”

Sunday, he said that his plan has “enormous support” – and is opposed only by “fringe [elements] . . . who simply don’t want to give the immigrant community any rights.”

But, just yesterday, the New York State Sheriff’s Association – hardly a fringe actor – said it does “not feel that providing a driver’s license to illegal immigrants is appropriate and, as an association, we do not support that program.”

And the nost recent polls show that 72 percent of New Yorkers – some “fringe” – oppose giving driver’s license to illegal aliens under any circumstances.

Now, the governor’s plan has accomplished something noteworthy: It’s managed to make everyone unhappy.

And Eliot Spitzer keeps on digging.