via the New York Post

“There’s nothing like losing a skirmish that leads me to want to win the next round more,” Spitzer told a group of donors at a breakfast in Manhattan, according to a source at the event.

“The knockout blow is coming very soon,” he threatened - hinting at a possible coup against Silver.

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“I don’t think tactics that impugn our integrity work,” Canestrari said. “We need to deal with these things in a rational, unemotional manner.”

Another shocked Assembly Democrat said, “He’s f- - -ing nuts. He’s like a maniac. . . I first thought his aggressive thing was a posture, a strategy to make us the enemy, but I no longer think that. Now I think he’s got a very serious temper management issue.”

(more)

Forget steamrollers. We're on to a new metaphor.

A source who attended this morning's breakfast with Eliot Spitzer at the Grand Hyatt -- a thank you event for some donors -- reports that Spitzer briefly touched on his confrontation with the legislature.

"You win some, you lose some," my source reports Spitzer said. "But those you lost to should know that a knockout punch is coming."

There's a lot riding on how Eliot Spitzer responds to his first real defeat in a while.

Writes a reader:

"If he's gracious, he gets it. If not, could be an ugly four years."