Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's rise and fall is the very definition of meteoric. One minute he was the crusading New York Attorney General, next he was N.Y. governor, being whispered as a potential presidential candidate, and then after a sex scandal, he was gone.
Spitzer, who had developed a reputation for being a crusading attorney who had the guts to take on Wall Street, was obviously taken out. He was getting close to launching a lawsuit against the firms, who had almost bankrupted the economy, by getting working-class Americans to sign up for loans they couldn't afford, and then betting on people defaulting on those same loans. Writing in the Washington Post, Spitzer said, "Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye."
Spitzer's problem is that he was a hypocrite, he was using the services of a sex worker, while prosecuting other people for the same crime. Spitzer is not the first politician to use a prostitute, and he won't be the last. By the way, did you know that there was a governor whose name was on the escort services books, and Spitzer was never charged with anything?
The charges seemed to be a laser-guided smear campaign designed to derail Spitzer's career. Apparently he was making some very powerful people nervous. But, his sins do not stop him from being right. Spitzer has begun to rebuild his career with media appearances and writing gigs. I hope for the sake of the American public that he still stays vocal in his fight against corporate corruption. Just because he cheated on his wife, it doesn't mean his political career should be over.
In a forthcoming book by Fortune editor Peter Elkind titled "Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer," he says he hasn't totally given up on politics. If Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, who was busted for whoring while allegedly wearing a diaper, can have a political career, why can't Spitzer? Unfortunately, the juvenile American public loves to focus on sensationalism like blow jobs and hookers, instead of focusing on real issues, like corruption and torture.
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