RIP Spitzer?
I'm a part-time Blogger, at best, but as New Yorker I'd be remiss if I didn't post something about Eliot Spitzer this week...
If you want my gut-level judgement on the thing: he should stay and fight for his job, fight for his career. Because if this knocks him out of office, its lights-out for his political career, forever. If somehow he manages to pull out of this and continue as governor, he can serve out his term and see what happens at the polls...but at least he won't have been toppled by a such a foolish and (in the grand scheme of things) trivial act as this. I think he's got a lot of life left in him as a public servant, and though I don't agree with everything he's done, I think he deserves to continue in office.
What do I actually think is going to happen? That's another story... Right now he is probably brokering some kind of deal with the prosecutors in charge of the case, or otherwise assessing his legal situation. If he indeed broke the law, by using public funds to pay the prostitute or for funding her to travel across state lines, then he is indeed finished and the least of his worries will be the loss of his office. If, on the other hand, he is not found to have broken the law, he will stick around and try to fight for his position. The calls for his resignation are already numerous, and vicious, and they are getting louder, and he may even get The Call. I'm not sure who would make The Call; probably some high ranking Democrat, or whomever Spitzer owes his allegiance, but it might as well be the Grim Reaper. The Call will be short, and simple. It will go something like this...
ES: "Hello?"
Voice: "Eliot...you know who this is."
ES: "Yes I do, and--"
Voice: "You know why I'm calling."
ES: "Wait! I can fight this thing...I f*cked up but I've got these bastards on the run, dammit! We've got more to do...we've got more to do!!"
Voice: "Eliot...it's time."
The next day we will be treated to a press conference in which we are informed that Eliot Spitzer thinks it is in the best interests of the State of New York, and yada, yada, yada...
At least, that's how it all goes down in my twisted imagination.
The Bottom Line: With as much trouble as he had in his first term, with Troopergate and with all the toes he's stepped on in Albany, all the enemies he's made, I don't think he will walk away from this with the Governorship. I think he'll resign by the end of next week, at the latest. In this day and age, there is no room for these kinds of shenanigans. Never mind that the relationship between politics and sex is as old as old as politics itself, I just don't see this storm "blowing over," so to speak. Not for a guy who built his reputation on rooting out evil and corruption, and who is now guilty of association with one of the very "industries" he went after at Attorney General of NY. It's all just too ironic, too stark, for him not to fall.
If you want my gut-level judgement on the thing: he should stay and fight for his job, fight for his career. Because if this knocks him out of office, its lights-out for his political career, forever. If somehow he manages to pull out of this and continue as governor, he can serve out his term and see what happens at the polls...but at least he won't have been toppled by a such a foolish and (in the grand scheme of things) trivial act as this. I think he's got a lot of life left in him as a public servant, and though I don't agree with everything he's done, I think he deserves to continue in office.
What do I actually think is going to happen? That's another story... Right now he is probably brokering some kind of deal with the prosecutors in charge of the case, or otherwise assessing his legal situation. If he indeed broke the law, by using public funds to pay the prostitute or for funding her to travel across state lines, then he is indeed finished and the least of his worries will be the loss of his office. If, on the other hand, he is not found to have broken the law, he will stick around and try to fight for his position. The calls for his resignation are already numerous, and vicious, and they are getting louder, and he may even get The Call. I'm not sure who would make The Call; probably some high ranking Democrat, or whomever Spitzer owes his allegiance, but it might as well be the Grim Reaper. The Call will be short, and simple. It will go something like this...
ES: "Hello?"
Voice: "Eliot...you know who this is."
ES: "Yes I do, and--"
Voice: "You know why I'm calling."
ES: "Wait! I can fight this thing...I f*cked up but I've got these bastards on the run, dammit! We've got more to do...we've got more to do!!"
Voice: "Eliot...it's time."
The next day we will be treated to a press conference in which we are informed that Eliot Spitzer thinks it is in the best interests of the State of New York, and yada, yada, yada...
At least, that's how it all goes down in my twisted imagination.
The Bottom Line: With as much trouble as he had in his first term, with Troopergate and with all the toes he's stepped on in Albany, all the enemies he's made, I don't think he will walk away from this with the Governorship. I think he'll resign by the end of next week, at the latest. In this day and age, there is no room for these kinds of shenanigans. Never mind that the relationship between politics and sex is as old as old as politics itself, I just don't see this storm "blowing over," so to speak. Not for a guy who built his reputation on rooting out evil and corruption, and who is now guilty of association with one of the very "industries" he went after at Attorney General of NY. It's all just too ironic, too stark, for him not to fall.
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