Eliot Spitzer never had the opportunity to just admit he spent $80,000 on hookers: It might have cost him his job! But the man who just took his place yesterday, Gov. David Paterson, is getting his semi-stained past out of the way first thing.

Yes, he slept with other women while he was married — but his wife Michelle slept with other men!

Beginning in 1999, he had a two- or three-year relationship with "a woman other than my wife," he disclosed in an interview, where he explained he and his wife went through a difficult time in their marriage before going to counseling and reconciling.

Smart guy, putting all his skeletons on the table straight out of the gate. (Though he didn't name the girlfriend, which means the gossip race is on to out her.)

But there is one sordid detail in all of this. The place Paterson would take his mistress was the Days Inn at Broadway and W. 94th St. Don't get us started on thread count or UV lights — but he also took his wife to that same hotel … and that's where they rekindled things.