Eliot Spitzer
Earl Capps asks what would you do with $4300?
I like that he characterizes breaking the law as a “private matter.” There seem to be two schools of thought when it comes to personal ethics in politics. The first says that what a politician does with his or her personal life has nothing to do their efficacy or worth as a politician, and therefore ought to be disregarded. This argument generally appears in defense of scummy behavior by the likes of Newt Gingrinch, Bill Clinton, David Vitter, etc. I place myself firmly in the second school of thought, which says that those who want to tell the rest of us what to do had better be prepared to set squeaky clean examples.
. . . I have to admit, I was a bit shocked to see my man Spitzer was caught with his pants down. Seriously, the guy is a white knight, a choir boy, someone who looked out for the little guy and did a lot to clean up the mess on Wall Street (i.e. former NYSE director Dick Grasso’s compensation, the inflation of stock prices by investment banks, investors being taken advantage of with late trading policies and mutual funds, etc).
Full disclosure: the Bushido donated money to Spitzer’s 2006 campaign for Governor and is still on his mailing list. Personally, I could care less about the Governor’s “private matters” as long as he is doing well by the people of New York.
An angle I haven’t heard anywhere else is the question of corruption. By definition this is corruption. As attorney General Spitzer prosecuted people for precisely what he has been caught doing. That is corruption. As well, Spitzer appears to have at least used government resources to arrange his little trysts. And from the information available today it appears that Spitzer has been engaging in this behavior for at least six years and perhaps as much as ten years. So this isn’t a problem that developed since he became Governor. Spitzer was doing this at the same time he was prosecuting others for it.
Heather @ March 12, 2008
COnservative Amazon, you are a BlowHard, a true no it all, holier than God. Why don’t you run for the Popes job since you are so squeaky clean.