Sanctimonious Bully Finally Gets His

As the stunning news linking Eliot Spitzer to a call girl ring was washing across every TV set in America, a Wall Street friend of mine said, “The market’s in the toilet, I’m making no money, the country’s a mess but I’m going home a happy man tonight.” He was not alone in that sentiment. Never has a public figures fall from grace been greeted with such near universal enthusiasm as that of now disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. As one commentator put it, “If you had to walk through the reservoir of public sympathy for Eliot Spitzer, you wouldn’t get your shoes wet.” In my opinion, it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving phony.
For many years now, I have been writing about “grandstanding” Eliot Spitzer and his shameless use of the Attorney General’s office to further his political ambitions. He handed down high profile indictments often forcing individuals and companies to settle rather than endure the negative PR. Many of those indicted by Spitzer were never actually charged. Somewhere Hank Greenberg is raising his glass.
Along the way Spitzer besmirched the reputations of many fine people and the companies they worked for. How many innocent people are out of work because Eliot Spitzer wanted to be Governor? When it appeared likely he would become Governor, I wrote he would be a colossal failure without the ability to indict and subpoena people at will.
I wrote that governing was all about the ability to compromise and work the other side of the aisle. Instead we got “I’m going to f___ing steamroll you” from the arrogant Spitzer. My prediction was born out on “Day One” in Albany when he ordered his henchman to get the dirt on Republican Minority Leader Joe Bruno. He went from 70% approval rating to 30% quicker than you can say “I’ll be working late again tonight, Silda.”
To me he was always a rich man’s son intent on achieving power at any cost. It appears his father Bernard, a wealthy real estate guy, thought he was the Jewish Joe Kennedy and would live to put little Eliot in the White House. Well, he’ll have to settle for the outhouse. But all of this didn’t happen in a vacuum. Democrats were only too happy to embrace the obnoxious Spitzer as long as he was “right” on the issues and brought lots of cash to bear. They looked the other way when he violated campaign law in 1994 by accepting millions in secret contributions from Daddy.
When he falsely accused people of chicanery or fathering a child out of wedlock, Democrats turned a blind eye because the targets were Republicans. Then there were his sycophants in the media who cheered him on in return for access or favor. Some columnists seemed to openly audition for a job in the Spitzer administration. How about all those poor folks who gave him money or stuffed envelopes? Talk about played and you wonder why people don’t vote. What’s next? Heather Mills has two legs?
Then there’s the ubiquitous use of the word “tragedy” by so many people in all this. There’s nothing tragic here. An arrogant jerk spent $80,000 on hookers while his wife was home with his three teenage daughters… revolting, disgusting but not tragic. A tragedy is not normally self-inflicted. Getting your pencil sharpened in a D.C. hotel room by a 22 year-old call girl is illegal, arrogant and stupid but certainly not tragic. BTW Eliot, your AARP card should be arriving shortly.