Eliot Spitzer's Judgement Gap

Do I believe that Eliot Spitzer is the target of a political witch hunt by the Bush Justice Department? Up to a certain point yes, but when you have the arrogance to not follow your own advice you are royally screwed by your own lack of judgement.

And that's what makes it worse :

People can be very unforgiving of moral crusaders who are caught with their hands in the cookie jar. And money laundering is a far more serious crime for a government official than paying for sex. He might have been forgiven for an affair or even being caught with a prostitute after some time spent with family, a few stiff and tearful press conferences with his wife standing grimly at his side. It’s easy to cast that as a private matter. But when you make a career of fighting financial improprieties and then get caught in some of your own, it’s not easy to be forgiven for that.

The worse part of it is that the signs of Spitzer's growing judgement gap were there from the beginning. The video clip here is choppy but this is the most inocuous of all the little moments that seemed to be gearing up to yesterday's admission. It was taken during the New York State Democratic Party's winter meeting where he used a joke by the Albany press corps, "Springtime for Spitzer", to talk about the future of the state and party. If you don't get the joke, "Springtime for Hilter" was supposed to be the worse play ever made and it's the basis for the movie (and musical) The Producers. To twist the joke to be a sign of hope was, well, pushing it.

Yet there was also his attachment to his communications director, the same guy that cocked blocked the New York netroots and kept them at more than arms' length from the governor because not only were we "you people" but we were "you people who don't matter". Of course, this is the same demotard who was involved in the Brunogate scandal.

The list could go on with a multitude of big and small incidents that point to Spitzer's lack of judgement. Some like David say it was propelled by arrogance. I'd like to think of it more as a weakness of his entitlement : That a man has to go to hookers shows also that the man has nowhere else to go.

He lived in a social and political world where he lacked accountability. I am sure he thought he was not only untouchable but invincible. Yet it all comes down to a man living in a bubble and not the real world. A world where you can only go to prostitutes because that's all there is to do and nowhere else to go. A world where the highest priced hooker is a small price to pay for power.

No matter how you cut it, Spitzer's downfall is plain tragic.

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