Eliot Spitzer -- Mr. Rectitude himself, who was going to clean up Albany – unmasked as a clandestine patron of a high-priced prostitution ring!
The governor of New York, married and the father of three daughters, forking over $4,300 for an assignation with “Kristen” in an unnamed Washington hotel. Dickering over the telephone with “Rachelle” over how much extra to give “Kristen” so he would have something on account and wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of being short the next time, as he was this time. All of this recorded by the FBI and now appearing in an affidavit concerning “Client 9,” who has been identified by The New York Times as Gov. Spitzer himself.
Oh, mercy me.
The governor didn’t flat out admit it, but he did solemnly apologize and say, “I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong.”
Which raises the question, how firm a sense of right and wrong does he have if he can violate it in such a calculated fashion, making cash withdrawals from a bank, arranging for “Kristen” to pick up his room key, negotiating the amount of credit he had left over from a previous date, and so forth.
Meaning, we are talking not about succumbing to temptation in a moment of weakness, like maybe catching the eye of a good-looking hooker while sitting alone in a cocktail lounge. We’re talking about very careful scheming over a period of time.
And knowing better than anyone else that he was dealing with a criminal enterprise, since he himself had busted a prostitution ring as attorney general of our great state.
What kind of man is this?
Well, his hubris has been widely noted, but this does beat all, and if I were to continue with the classical Greek reference I would say it even qualifies as a tragic flaw, in the Aristotelian sense.
It is not a tragedy, strictly speaking, when some random misfortune occurs, like a tree falling and killing a good person. It is a tragedy when a person’s own character causes his downfall, and I believe that’s what we have with Eliot Spitzer, played out right in front of us.
