Spitzer@stonewall.ny.gov

It appears New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is involved in a cover-up in the dirty tricks scandal.

What other conclusion can one make when he won't even provide the ISP's used by himself and his aides?

Gov. Spitzer is endangering the recovery of potentially crucial e-mail evidence relating to the Dirty Tricks Scandal by refusing to give investigators the names of Internet service providers used by himself and his aides, sources have told The Post.

The refusal has blocked the Senate Investigations Committee from issuing subpoenas to ISPs for personal BlackBerries and other e-mail-equipped devices known to be used by Spitzer and his senior aides.

"I sent [Spitzer counsel] David Nocenti a letter asking for the names of the ISPs in October, and he hasn't even answered me," Senate Investigations Committee Chairman George Winner (R-Elmira) told The Post.

"Then we sent out a subpoena for the information, and the governor is fighting that in court. I can't just send out a general subpoena to Yahoo! or Hotmail or AOL or Road Runner. I need to know what ISPs are being used by the governor and his aides."

Spitzer's refusal to identify the ISPs has led Senate and non-Senate probers to fear that crucial scandal-related evidence has been, or will soon be, destroyed.

A senior official involved in the investigation told The Post that "some of the ISPs only hold copies of e-mails for 30 days, some hold them for 60 days, and maybe some for six months.

"What you have here, I believe, is the governor running out the clock on the evidence," the official continued.

Spitzer's spokesman, Errol Cockfield, insisted that the governor and his aides had preserved all "relevant materials" and were resisting the Senate's requests for information only because "state law makes it clear that it is improper for the Senate - an equal branch of government - to investigate the executive branch."

As we noted the other day, can you just imagine the uproar and non-stop, front-page coverage of this scandal were he a Republican?

We'd have ominous New York Times stories and comparisons to Watergate around the clock.

Eventually, there will be a point of no return for Spitzer, especially if some other media outlets ever get around to reporting this.