No Stranger to Scandal, Spitzer Says Weiner ‘Can Come Back’

As he considers a potential mayoral run in the wake of an online sex scandal, the former congressman Anthony D. Weiner has won a vote of confidence from a politician who can identify with his predicament: Eliot Spitzer.

Mr. Spitzer, who resigned in 2008 as governor of New York amid revelations that he had solicited prostitutes, said in a radio interview that Mr. Weiner “will make it as a serious candidate if he plunges in, as I think he will.”

The former governor predicted that after a period of public contrition Mr. Weiner would “very soon go from being the candidate who had to fight to get in to being a candidate.”

Mr. Spitzer made the remarks during an interview with Mark Green â€" himself a former candidate for New York City mayor â€" on the radio show “Both Sides Now,” to be broadcast at 9 p.m. tonight on WOR 710.

Mr. Spitzer seemed to encourage Mr. Weiner to run for mayor. “I think he can come back,” he said.

“He will have to persuade the public,” he said at another point. “He can do it.”

In an article that was published online this week, Mr. Weiner told the New York Times Magazine that he was weighing a bid for mayor and believed it was “now or maybe never for me, in terms of running for something.”

Mr. Spitzer made clear that Mr. Weiner would face a tough campaign, given the crowded field of Democratic rivals already in the race. Four years ago, when Mr. Weiner considered running for mayor, he “was the outer-borough, tough voice against Michael Bloomberg,” Mr. Spitzer said. “Now, he doesn’t have Michael Bloomberg as a foil.”

He added: “All the other Democratic candidates are trying to take the same space in one way, shape or form. So I think the harder part for him will be to explain why, in a field with Chris Quinn, Bill de Blasio, Billy Thompson, John Liu, how does he stand out and can he actually rise to the top of that field.”

Mr. Sptizer was joined during the interview by Mary Matalin, the conservative commentator, who was less generous in her assessment of Mr. Weiner. “He can’t help himself,” she said. “He’s an obnoxious guy.”

She added, “He is not charming. He is not Ed Koch charming.”

Even as Mr. Spitzer seemed to agree with Ms. Matlin, he pointed out that Mr. Koch was not considered charming when he won the mayoralty in 1977.

“Anthony Weiner,” he said, with a mix of admiration and disapproval, “made his name on the floor of the house acting out in a way that would have gotten most second graders sent to the principal.”