“Oedipus is funny — that’s the structure of funny,”
Alan Alda’s character declares in the film Crimes and
Misdemeanors. “‘Who did this terrible thing to our city?’ ‘Oh
my god, it was me.’ See? That’s funny.”
Judging by such a standard, the staggering news that ethics-crusader New York
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has shattered his political career because he
couldn’t resist the allure of a high-priced hooker, is high comedy
indeed.
No doubt, there is an element of tragedy in this tale. Spitzer’s
wife Silda, who was forced to stand by his side in a hasty press
briefing yesterday afternoon, as well as his three daughters, who
are old enough to follow the news, should have our compassion.
But Spitzer himself does not deserve an ounce of sympathy for
the public humiliation he is set to endure, because he built his
career on the public humiliation of others.
Back in 2002, as a wave of corporate scandals rocked Wall Street
and the Securities and Exchange Commission was seen by some as too
slow to respond, Spitzer cleverly seized on an opportunity to make
his name. By broadly defining his role as New York’s Attorney
General and using any angle he could, Spitzer aggressively
prosecuted corporate malfeasance, whether it was real or
perceived.
HIS TARGETS WERE always unsympathetic — insurance companies,
mutual funds, Wall Street investment banks, and greedy CEOs — and
the victims were always average investors who lost money as a
result of corporate skulduggery.
The media, which was clamoring for action and in no mood to
empathize with big business, ate it up. They affectionately dubbed
Spitzer the “Sheriff of Wall Street” and compared him to legendary
mob-fighter Eliot Ness.
It never mattered whether companies or individuals actually did
anything illegal, because his cases rarely made it to court. Wall
Street investors abhor uncertainty more than anything else, and
when publicly traded companies watched their stock prices crater
amid a barrage of Spitzer-generated negative headlines, it was
always in their best interests to reach a settlement to put the
scandal behind them. On the few occasions when his targets did
fight back, Spitzer’s success rate was far less impressive.
Spitzer’s arbitrary choice of targets highlighted his political
opportunism. When Richard Grasso was forced to resign from his
position as head of the New York Stock Exchange because Spitzer
filed a lawsuit charging him with receiving excessive compensation,
Spitzer also went after NYSE board member Ken Langone, a prominent
Republican.
But he didn’t lay a finger on Carl McCall, an influential New
York Democrat, even though McCall served on the NYSE board as chief
of the compensation committee that had approved the $140 million
pay package that Spitzer deemed not only outrageous, but
illegal.
THOSE WHO ARE TEMPTED to see Spitzer’s “appointment” with a $5,000
prostitute as a private matter should remember Jack Grubman. The
former star analyst at Salomon Smith Barney was forced to accept a
lifetime ban from the securities industry as part of a as a larger
$1.4 billion settlement Spitzer reached to combat the problem of
research analysts publicly touting the stocks of companies that
they were seeking investment banking business from.
While there was plenty to criticize in Grubman’s behavior, over
the course of the probe, he was publicly humiliated by the exposure
of sexually-explicit emails he exchanged with a female client that
were unearthed by Spitzer’s office.
Spitzer’s career as prosecutor was not only characterized by
overzealousness, but by a sanctimonious attitude toward his enemies
that helped mask his own shady dealings, including the fact that
his wealthy father bankrolled his political career by questionable
means.
He was elected governor in 2006 on a promise to restore ethics
in New York State, but from the get-go he displayed the same
arrogance he possessed as prosecutor. Shortly after taking office,
he shouted to a Republican critic, “I’m a f - - -
ing steamroller, and I’ll roll over you and anybody else.”
A few months later, Spitzer was reprimanded by Andrew Cuomo, his
successor in the Attorney General’s office, for using state police
to dig up dirt on his political opponent, Republican Senate
Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. After a Clintonesque public apology,
Spitzer was able to emerge from the scandal, but as it turned out,
the postman would ring twice.
THIS TIME THE SCANDAL involves one Kristen, “an American, petite,
very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, and 105 pounds” who,
according to a complaint and news reports,
serviced him during a February trip to Washington, D.C.
Details in the complaint, including references to his account
balance, suggest that Spitzer was a regular client of the illegal
prostitution ring for which Kristen worked.
Even if Spitzer avoids criminal indictment, it is hard to see
how he could survive politically given the distraction of daily
news stories in New York tabloids. Much like the publicly traded
companies he forced to settle to avoid negative news, or the big
name CEO’s he made quit, Spitzer will most likely have to resign to
limit further embarrassment.
Some of the ironies are simply delicious. As this press release from the archives of the New York State
AG’s office reminds us, on April 7, 2004, then-AG Spitzer announced
the indictment of 18 people linked to a ritzy escort service.
“This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a
multi-tiered management structure,” Spitzer said. “It was, however,
nothing more than a prostitution ring, and now its owners and
operators will be held accountable.”
It’s funny because it’s true. If only Sophocles were around to
make a show of it.
