NPR: Spitzer Scandal Just Feels Rotten, You Know?

Spitzer Scandal Just Feels Rotten, You Know?

Filed under: News

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer speaks to the media with his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, while delivering an apology following reported links to a prostitution ring

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Spitzer speaks, reporters ask, "Are you going to resign?":

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been linked by a federal wiretap to a prostitution ring, reports the New York Times:

An affidavit in the federal investigation into a prostitution ring said that a wiretap recording captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a hotel room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.

Promising to report back shortly, Spitzer made a public statement today. "I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family and violates my or any sense of right or wrong," he said.

What I can't shake is the sickening sense that here, again, is a leader in trouble of his own making. It gets to be predictable after a while, and that's no fun for anybody. As Twitter person Sam Felder put it, "Eliot Spitzer, you idiot, why throw it all away like this."

Laura Conaway

3:34 PM ET | 03-10-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Gosh, I agree entirely. I just don't understand how the risk is ever worth the reward for someone so ambitious and in the public eye.

Sent by Kate | 4:14 PM ET | 03-10-2008

my eyeballs are in the rolled back and locked position.

Sent by Mary | 4:28 PM ET | 03-10-2008

Yeah, I agree as well. Part of what is so disheartening about it, beyond the obvious breach of ethics and integrity is the sexism inherent in: 1) the kind of male privilege and entitlement his involvement signals 2) the way prostitution is prosecuted (always the sex workers and never the johns) and 3) the reporting around prostitution (which is along the lines of Capt. Renault's shock at gambling in Casa Blanca).

Sent by Jessie | 4:30 PM ET | 03-10-2008

Jessie's comments are excellent.

I would add that the media coverage of this is, well, typical. First, you have the SHOCKED! SHOCKED I SAY! faux outrage.

I'm sorry, but...a politician caught in a sex scandal? Is that at all shocking?

Even better, a politician who's caught in a web of hypocrisy? Who's staked his entire career upholding an exteriority of ethics while maintaining some kind of secret life participating in the very same thing that in his public life he told us we shouldn't be doing?

Again, is that at all shocking?

Sadly, the only thing that's shocking here is that the prostitute was a woman. Then again, Spitzer wasn't a Republican who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act...

And yet I must have heard Wolf Blitzer say the word "shocking" 10 times in the last hour. Go figure.

At the same time, there's this salacious need for the news media (certainly the cable news media) to "cover the story" by pouring all over the escort service's web site, posting photos of the "models" on teevee, etc, etc, etc.

Tabloid journalism at its finest. And we're going to here it for the next two days.

So, what feels rotten to me isn't so much Spitzer's behavior, but just how much this feeds and re-feeds the kind of ratings-based journalism to which we're all way too accustomed.

OK. I'm done.

Sent by carlo | 6:00 PM ET | 03-10-2008

He had it all: a huge mandate from the public and the opportunity to make true change in a system that badly needed it.

And he blew it; almost from day one.

Depressing. I truly believed he was different and could -- would! -- make a difference.

Eliot, we hardly knew ye ...

Sent by Hollis | 8:49 PM ET | 03-10-2008

politicians...ya gotta love 'em...not........why oh why would someone with 2 good feet want to take aim and shoot one of 'em....perhaps they need to watch "in treatment" on hbo! oy-vey! hello out there in the universe...yes, you aliens...come and save us or...put us out of our misery!!!

Sent by jayn | 6:47 AM ET | 03-11-2008

I'm sorry, but it has to be said: when Spitzer makes that face, it's painfully obvious that in 20 years, he will be the next "bitter beer face" guy.

Sent by Greg | 9:42 AM ET | 03-11-2008

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