Upright, uptight Saint Eliot comes crashing to earth
by Bob Hoig, Publisher
Midlands Business Journal
It seems to be the general feeling that the sudden implosion this week of Eliot Spitzer, the abrasive now ex-governor of New York and moral-ethical crusader par excellent, couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Saint Eliot built his reputation, in part, as the terrible swift sword avenger of Wall Street, ruining the guilty and the innocent alike.
Spitzer ensnared himself in a web of prostitution and possible money fraud much like others whom he has sent to prison.
The general word heard in reaction to Spitzer’s fall is “Schadenfreude” – German for finding joy in the woes of others. “Hypocrisy” is a close runner-up.
It isn’t that Spitzer didn’t put away some big time bad guys. He did. But he also used the very potent tools of the New York Attorney General’s office, when he held the post, for fishing expeditions and to intimidate and coerce innocent people.
And he did it all with such glee.
Spitzer’s M.O. was to threaten to indict entire companies if their executives up and down the line didn’t confess to whatever he was demanding. Since indictment of a company usually means ruin, targeted firms would rather yield than fight.
Sometimes he would add the insult of forcing remaining CEOs to advance those in the corporation favored by Spitzer – some snitches, suck-ups or both.
Those who did fight were often vindicated and the charges dropped, but only after a long and expensive court fight. When the vindications came, they were seldom given the same page one play accorded Spitzer’s grandstanding indictments.
It took judges to right Spitzer’s wrongs. To their shame, many in the media – the Wall Street Journal notably excepted – went along with their man, making him a rock star, even a likely presidential contender.
Spitzer’s resignation came after some indications he might follow Bill Clinton’s formula of toughing out sexual indiscretions.
But Spitzer’s problems could go deeper, especially if a money trail of the $80,000 he is said to have spent on hookers turns toward his use of state funds or political campaign donations for procuring the women or transporting them across state lines.
Clinton skated past his womanizing on two levels. He won reelection even after his affairs were old news. And he was generally regarded as an amiable rogue anyway. Besides, didn’t Hillary join in denouncing Bill’s accusers as liars and sluts?
The upright and uptight Spitzer had no such cushion.
No one can leave the Spitzer episode without expressing condolences for his wife and family.
Forcing the normally lovely Mrs. Spitzer to stand ashen-faced and gaunt at his side during a groveling, mea culpa news conference and the later resignation were crimes answerable to a higher court than any her husband ever served.
March 2008
