Gov. Elliot Spitzer, who was considered an example of moral correctitude in the political world, apologized yesterday after a report exposed his link to a prostitution ring. At a televised news conference, before around 100 reporters, Spitzer did not deny the accusations, but refused to give further details on the matter.

"Today, I want to briefly address a private matter," he said. "I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and that violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong. I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public whom I promised better," Spitzer said.

"I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself," he added, referring to his well-known determination in eradicating all types of corruption.

He said nothing about his political future and did not answer reporters’ questions about whether he would resign. Despite rapidly mounting pressure, Spitzer appears to resist resigning immediately. "He has not made up his mind," a senior adviser to Gov. Spitzer, Lloyd Constantine, told NY Sun. "It is more correct to say that he is not resigning."

Meanwhile, a source for the NY Daily News claims that "He is still in the place where he is trying to figure out the end run of this." But the source doesn't "mean to suggest he thinks he is going to weather this."

The New York Times was the first to link Spitzer to the prostitution ring on Friday, one day after four people were arrested, as charged of helping run the ring. The Democrat was caught on a federal wiretap while arranging a meeting between himself and a prostitute in the call-girl business at a Washington Hotel.

The governor was not charged, and he said he would retreat to his Upper East Side home, to spend some time trying to regain the trust of his family. The 48-year-old Democrat is married and the father of three teenage girls.

If Spitzer resigns, the one who will take his place is Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who will then become New York’s first black governor. Other politicians who were involved in sex scandals are Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, Connecticut Gov. John Rowland and Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho.

As an attorney general, Spitzer investigated several cases that involved prostitution rings. In 2004, he took part in an investigation of an escort service in New York City, which ended with the arrest of 18 people charged of promoting prostitution.