Eliot Spitzer has found a new woman.
Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker is the “leading candidate” to share a new 8 p.m. show on CNN with the former governor, according to sources close to the talks.
Parker, 58, is probably best known for a column she wrote in September, 2008 calling Sarah Palin “out of her league” and urging her to get off the Republican ticket.
The show — which will air opposite Bill O’Reilly’s ratings juggernaut show on Fox News Channel — will be an updated version of CNN’s old “Crossfire” program.
It reportedly will feature a liberal — that would be Spitzer — and a conservative — Parker — butting heads on political issues.
CNN declined to comment yesterday.
“I’ve been talking to [CNN], but there’s nothing to report,” Parker told The Post.
The columnist says she’s met Spitzer, but refused to give any details.
“Not at the Mayflower Hotel, I can tell you that much,” she said. “I’m a reporter, but I’m a discreet one.”
The new show, which does not have a name or a debut date yet, will replace Campbell Brown, who stepped down last month saying her ratings were “not where I would like them to be.”
CNN’s primetime line-up is in the midst of a major overhaul, after sinking to No. 3 behind Fox News and MSNBC in recent years.
The all-news channel is said to be pushing Larry King to part-time status this fall and bringing in “America’s Got Talent” judge Piers Morgan, a former British tabloid editor, to replace him.
Parker is the new face in the shake-up and something of a surprise choice.
She is the most widely syndicated female columnist in the country — appearing twice weekly in more than 400 newspapers — but is not well known in media-elite circles.
“When I came to Washington,” she told one reporter, “I was already in 350 papers. Washington people had never heard of me.
“But you’d have to stand in line to get a ticket to see me in Oklahoma City,” she says. “I give a speech out there, and it’s standing room only — 1,300 people.”
Born in Florida, the daughter of a former military pilot has lived most of her life in the South — though now she splits her time between Washington (where she has a studio apartment) and Camden, SC, where her husband’s law practice is located.
Tale of the tape
ELIOT SPITZER
Age: 51 (just last week)
Family: Married (more or less), two daughters
Political Orientation: Favored issuing drivers licenses to illegal aliens
Big break: Dad bankrolled campaign for $5M
Worst enemy: AIG ex-head, Alan “Ace” Greenburg
KATHLEEN PARKER
Age: 58 (but doesn’t talk about it)
Family: Married to a lawyer, three sons
Political Orientation: “Not long ago, ‘men’s jewelry’ were words not used together.”
Big break: 11,000 hate emails after writing Sarah Palin should quit
Worst enemy: Um, Sarah Palin?