Steamroller of Ethics

12 March 2008



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NY’s Governor Caught in Prostitution Scandal

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer made his mark as a prosecutor who nailed those with moral and ethical weaknesses on Wall Street. Now, it appears the man who referred to himself as a “steamroller of ethics” has been caught up in a prostitution scandal. When one first heard the news, the initial response was disbelief. After all, with a salary of $179,000 per year, free housing and a family fortune of millions, surely Mr. Spitzer didn’t need the money, and besides, who would pay to sleep with him?

As state attorney general, Mr. Spitzer once prosecuted 16 people on Staten Island (the forgotten borough of New York City) involved in a “dial-a-hooker” operation. “This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multi-tiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer had said at the time. “It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring, and now its owners and operators will be held accountable.” The expression “hoist on one’s own petard” has never been so apt.

Wall Street, though, seemed most eager to dance on his political grave. To say that Mr. Spitzer was loathed among money managers is probably not far off the mark. He came after everyone he thought might have done something illegal – he didn’t’ seem to care if the target of his investigations was deliberately engaged in fraud or if it was just a technicality. He was rather Old Testament in his approach.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial yesterday summed up how the financial world sees the man, “One might call it Shakespearian if there were a shred of nobleness in the story of Eliot Spitzer's fall. There is none. Governor Spitzer, who made his career by specializing in not just the prosecution, but the ruin, of other men, is himself almost certainly ruined.”

What is missing in all of this, though, is an acknowledgement that Mr. Spitzer’s actions in the financial sphere were overdue as well as overzealous. The temptation to fiddle a few million here and there is often overwhelming. Wall Street does need a sheriff, just not that one. In the same way, New York needs a governor, and one hopes Lieutenant Governor David Paterson is worthy of the public’s trust. Initial reports suggest he's a far better man than Mr. Spitzer.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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