Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Eliot Spitzer Should Resign--

For a lot of reasons. Any attempt to tough it out against his Republican enemies in the state legislature will only provide grist for conservative candidates desperate to distract the electorate from the walking disaster now occupying the Pennsylvania Avenue bunker. The Governor of New York made his political reputation fighting corruption and criminality in high places as state Attorney General. It turns out he is one of the rackets' big clients. AP reports he may have spent as much as $80,000 patronizing a VIP prostitution ring. It is a sad, twisted fact of American politics that personal immorality has greater negative impact that professional incompetence or ideological belligerence. If the Democratic Party wants to convince voters in November that it is less corrupt than the Republican Party, it cannot afford to have one of its leading office holders held up to public ridicule during a drawn out impeachment process that would resemble death by a thousand cuts; even if impeachment ultimately fails because of party loyalty. Democrats hold a majority in the lower house which must approve articles of impeachment. The people of New York state would not be well served either by a Spitzer hang out. Public business would undoubtedly come to a standstill. I seriously doubt even the worldly people of New York would be "fine with it". Spitzer, a no compromise prosecutor in his day, apparently committed a federal criminal offense by violating the Mann Act(the same statute that took down heavyweight champion Jack Johnson). He has no professional credibility remaining with his opposition colleagues or a large segment of the public, making it impossible for him to do business with powerful state Republican leaders he once attempted to hoist on their own petards. And there is another constituency that has been betrayed in all of this: his family. You don't have to read crystal balls to know his wife and three children could use some undivided attention right now and in the immediate future. The word president and Eliot Spitzer were often mentioned in the same sentence. But the only operative word now is, finished.
Update: Client 9 resigned today citing "personal failings".[photo:"Kristen", the lady in question]