ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)  -- From Mr. Clean to Client 9, allegations that Gov. Eliot Spitzer was involved in a prostitution ring mark a mortifying fall for a politician whose career was built on ethics.

``Crusader of the Year'' proclaimed Time magazine in 2002, when Spitzer was New York's wildly popular attorney general. Spitzer made his name taking on Wall Street barons and analysts who failed to play fair with everyday investors. Profiles of Spitzer then were rife with reverential references to his square jaw and his crime-busting predecessor, Eliot Ness.

None of that squares with explosive reports Monday that Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring was caught on a federal wiretap. Law enforcement officials said Spitzer is identified in court papers as Client 9.

``Here's a guy whose entire career has been based on being 'The Sheriff of Wall Street,' 'Mr. Morality,' the guy who is standing firm for ethics in government,'' said Maurice Carroll, director of Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute. ``For Eliot Spitzer, it's a double surprise because it's his whole public persona.''

Spitzer promised to tackle the notorious dysfunction of Albany with the same gusto he took on Wall Street. He won the New York governor's race in 2006 with a record-setting share of the vote and rumbled into office with his signature mix of aggression and cockiness. He signed five reform-related executive orders before he was officially sworn in on New Year's Day and was soon making trips to the home districts of lawmakers to denounce them if he felt were in the way of his reform agenda.

Spitzer allegedly described himself as a ``steamroller'' in a profanity-laced phone call to a Republican legislative leader. The nickname stuck. Some saw it as indication of a more arrogant side to Spitzer. In December 2005, John Whitehead, a former top Wall Street executive, wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Spitzer threatened him in a telephone conversation earlier that year, saying, ``I will be coming after you. You will pay the price,'' for publicly criticizing Spitzer's investigation of an ally, AIG insurance magnate Maurice Greenberg.

Spitzer denied threatening Whitehead.

Though Spitzer came into office like gangbusters, he lost steam last summer amid a scandal involving efforts by top aides to governor to embarrass Republican state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a chief political rival, over use of state aircraft.

Bruno, who was back on his heels for months in the face of Spitzer's whirlwind, snatched back the offensive.

Spitzer's popularity plummeted even further last year when he proposed making it easier for illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. Republicans opposing the unpopular plan were soon joined by Democrats and Spitzer eventually surrendered as polls showed most New Yorkers would be unwilling to re-elect him.

Only recently did Spitzer's poll numbers begin nudging back up. And this month, the Senate Democrats won a special election in a deep-red Republican district in northern New York with the help of Spitzer's political machine. It got them within one seat of capturing control of the Senate for the first time in 40 years, one of Spitzer's long-stated goals.

It looked like Spitzer was mounting a modest comeback.