Spitzenfreude
Enjoy watching the high and mighty taking a tumble?
Generally, my response to that question would be "No, not particularly, but thanks for asking". I do, however, make exceptions, and NY Governor Eliot Spitzer would be one of those. From a WSJ email alert of a bit ago:
March 10, 2008
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer apologized to his family and the public but didn't elaborate on press reports linking him to a prostitution ring. "I violated my obligation to my family and my own sense of right and wrong," he said in a brief statement with his wife by his side. Last week, federal prosecutors in Manhattan filed conspiracy charges against four people, accusing them of running a prostitution ring that charged wealthy clients in Europe and the U.S. thousands of dollars for prostitutes.
The one time attorney general for New York built his political legacy on rooting out corruption, including several headline-making battles with Wall Street while serving as attorney general.
Why does he rate my interest in (and hope for) his potential comeuppance? He's a haughty bully, a guy who made his name by being a 14K prick to every company from which he could mulct blackmail payments. As NY AG, he was like a pallid and uptight version of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
He virtually never took a case to court, and in those he did, he virtually always lost. His successes, if you can call them that, were largely obtained by bullying people into plea deals. Sometimes, people plead because they're guilty. Spitzer, a publicity hound of the worst sort, prosecuted his cases in the press, and bludgeoned people into plea deals, so I (perhaps incorrectly) give the victims the benefit of significant doubt in this case.
Spitzer has also been accused, quite credibly, of destoying companies, and thus harming the shareholders in those companies, for no legitimate cause. Other than the fact that he's a nasty, pasty, little holier-than-thou prick, that is.
As governor, he's continued this "I know what's best" motif, siccing his insurance commissioner, Eric Dinallo, on the bond insurers with instructions that time was short, and if they didn't hurry up and do Spitzer's bidding, he'd..., well, he'd do something. Spitzer and DiNallo have a history of Spitzerian overreach, as seen in the WTC reconstruction funding marathon recently forced to an end. Blackmail's almost too nice a word for the games these bastards have played.
Who knows what's really behind the WSJ story? Surely not I. But it doesn't sound good at all for El-i-ot, and I'm OK with that.
[wik] Also see, from Long or Short Capital: "Spitzer in a Ring of Pictures"
[alsø wik] It would seem that this fucking guy is toast. So much for the happy ending.
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This reminds me of an ancient fortune cookie reading -- "What come round go round" or was that an 80's big hair metal band one hit wonder song title? Regardless, the short and skinny of the situation is that Spitzer knew he was wrong, got busted spinning the EP version of "me love you long time", and now the media has to portray to the public some semblance that this guy is going to have to pay for this unfathomable mistake.
Pay by public humiliation you say? Surely you jest. This guy and the likes of him have absolutely no inkling of honor, or shame for that matter. Without either of these qualities -- how do you propose a half-arsed attempt at a public apology (if you can even call it that) counts for anything to these guys? It doesn't. And the media's dog and pony show that will follow is nothing more than just than -- a show.
The real show here is Spitzer's wife standing next to him while he sounds off disingenuously to the masses of sheepeople. The pair on this lady -- ouch. Talk about watching your back Eliot. Eeegadz.
Mom used to say -- Everything comes full circle and no doubt it has for Mr. Spitzer.
What will be his final payment to the Pied Piper? Who knows? What I do know is that at minimum, this Eliot has most likely seen his last one finger wonder since days of Spielberg and ET.
Funny, my take on Silda…
Funny, my take on Silda standing by his side was that he was a complete piece of shit for putting her through that. But your view may well be the better one.
As for public shaming, versus, say, jail time, my view on that has evolved a bit since the event. Alan Dershowitz makes a compelling argument that Spitzer shouldn't be treated any differently than Clients 1-8, and Clients 10-and-up.
The fact that Spitzer would never provide such a logical accomodation to a target of one of his witch hunts makes it easy to argue against, but there's a cogent argument to be made that all justice that can be served in this case has already been so served. Jailing the rat bastard won't make up for the careers he ruined during his publicity-fueled mock-prosecutions over the years.
He's so arrogant, as it turns out, that he'll probably make another mistake, one more worthy of actual prosecution (or more likely, private lawsuit), and then he can get his due.
Seldom has an uppance been more deservedly come by. I would think Spitzer is guilty of sufficient Federal crimes in shipping a whore from New York to Washington (in itself a redundant pastime, you may think) to merit a short sharp shock behind bars. Or even a long protracted one.