Well, now we'll see: Eliot Spitzer has promised reform, but it looks like business as usual with other Democrats in Albany.

The Democrats will choose a replacement for Comptroller Alan Hevesi, and Assembly Leader Shelly Silver wants that person to be a member of Assembly. Spitzer had persuaded Silver to let an independent panel select up to five finalists for the job, though. And when the panel announced its choices yesterday, there were only three. None were politicians.

Silver isn't happy. And according to today's New York Times, he says he doesn't have to pay any attention to the panel.

The panel was composed of three former state comptrollers --- who, one assumes, know what's required for the job. And all three of their picks have a financial background: Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman, New York City Finance Commissioner Martha Stark, and William Mulrow, an investment banker.

Former State Comptroller Edward Regan, one of the three independent-panel members, told the Times that the governor had asked for "up to five, high-quality, non-partisan" nominees. "There were only three that had the qualifications that had been set out," he told the Times.

Scandal forced Hevesi --- a Democrat --- out of the comptroller's position, so you'd think that Silver and his pals would be on their best behavior right now.

Apparently not.

Spitzer has no power to force the Assembly to choose one of the panelists' finalists. About all he can do is persuade.

That's going to be true, of course, for a lot of the reform efforts Spitzer has promised. He's just been handed his first test.