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The Current Crisis
White Collar Hero
WASHINGTON -- If you happen to be in Manhattan on Monday do not miss the Columbus Day Parade gliding up Fifth Avenue. It will be a gaudy joyful affair as always, but it will feature something especially timely. Its grand marshal is a brassy gent who took on Eliot Spitzer when the former New York governor as attorney general was at the height of his reckless powers, publicly slandering private citizens in the hopes of intimidating them into a plea bargain while privately employing ladies of delight for what the FBI reported was "unsafe sex," perhaps undertaken at breakneck speed and without a seat belt. Let us pass on -- "unsafe sex" does not invite prolonged contemplation in a serious column, and in this column I am particularly serious. The Columbus Day grand marshal did something uniquely honorable and courageous.
He is Kenneth Langone, a self-made investment banker, venture capitalist, and philanthropist. He is co-founder of The Home Depot. Of even greater importance, he is a proud American who did not flinch when Spitzer went after him. He and an associate, Richard Grasso, spent some $70 million defending their good names after Spitzer trashed them. Then, several months after the former attorney general had trashed his own good name, they won. It took four years, but they won.
Those must have been harrowing years, for, though Langone is clearly a spirited and amusing adversary, he was under heavy fire. Back in 2004 Spitzer publicly called Langone, then head of the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) compensation committee, "unsavory," "deceptive," and "tainted." To his receptive stenographers in the media Spitzer then went on to vow that he would "put a stake through" Langone's heart -- so when Spitzer is accused of "unsafe sex," it might not be such a laughing matter. Actually, Langone laughed. In the Wall Street Journal he characterized this threat as a "metaphorical threat to my cardiovascular system," as well as "brash talk." Denying he had broken the law, as the grandstanding attorney general alleged, Langone went on to demonstrate that there was no case against him.
He was being accused of duping NYSE directors into approving the compensation package of the outgoing chairman, Grasso. Yet the directors denied that Langone had duped them by concealment or faked data -- those being Spitzer's charges. In fact, Langone demonstrated that it was Spitzer who was practicing concealment. The attorney general did not want what was called the Webb Report, the compilation of evidence and charges against Langone, made public. When its contents were revealed, Langone was shown to be innocent.
In threatening executives such as Langone with scurrilous threats broadcast by a willing media Spitzer's intent was always to intimidate them into an out-of-court settlement. He tried this with others, for instance Hank Greenberg, the man who made AIG an insurance giant and who was driven out of the company by a cowardly board. The consequence of that prosecutorial excess cost the federal government a fortune in bailouts. The consensus among financial experts is that had Greenberg remained atop AIG it would never have come to the grief it did.
Spitzer's barbarous use of his office "has never been adequately addressed in the media," remarks Lawrence Auriana, chairman of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, which is honoring Langone in Monday's parade. Auriana makes another worthwhile point. Had Langone not defended himself, "it would have been impossible to honor him Monday." His name would have been irretrievably defamed, says Auriana, "despite the hundreds of millions of dollars he has contributed to charities, the hundreds of thousands of jobs he has created and hundreds of millions of dollars in savings he has given the customers of Home Depot." A great exemplar of civic responsibility would be denied us.
Aside from an ambitious attorney general abusing his power to attain higher office (remember Spitzer rose to become the "reform governor" of New York), Spitzer was part of a wider movement to criminalize commerce. The movement began in the late 1940s when sociologist Edwin Sutherland coined the term "white-collar crime," and set about to revise criminal law so that the prosecution of theretofore perfectly legal transactions could be possible. Sutherland wanted to eliminate the presumption of innocence, among other revisions. He was a leading theorist of the kind of class warfare that we see being practiced by certain members of the Obama Administration today. With heroes like Kenneth Langone, the demagogues can be thwarted. If they are not, our economic woes will last a long time.
Bob Tyrrell is founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. His books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn't Work: Social Democracy's Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; and The Clinton Crack-Up.
He makes frequent appearance on national television and is a nationally syndicated columnist, whose articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Washington Times, National Review, Harper's, Commentary, The (London) Spectator, Le Figaro (Paris), and elsewhere.
Bob is also an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute and a contributing editor to the New York Sun.
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Anthony| 10.8.09 @ 9:38AM
We can only hope that "Client # 9" does not have 9 political lives as well. This hypocritical piece of bullying crap needs the stake driven though his political heart.
We have more than enough leftist politician asses like Spitzer, he needs to remain buried in his rat hole where he belongs.
Steve| 10.8.09 @ 10:12AM
Spitzer is a contemptible punk, a Kennedy-esque ne'er-do-well trading on the wealth of his daddy. That he ends up writing for Salon.com therefore must come as no surprise.
I deeply admire Ken Langone for a host of reasons, including his (seemingly) lonely assessment of the incalculable harm done to American capital markets and the American economy in general by the odious Sarbane-Oxley bulls**t.
God bless Mr. Langone. It would make my day to see Spitzer staring at the parade from an upper floor window, and Mr. Langone offering a single digit salute as he passed triumphantly by.
Son Of Sam| 10.8.09 @ 10:59AM
I believe that lawyers who abuse the law are almost as bad as molesters who abuse children. When the people who are SPECIFICALLY charged with upholding the law are engaging in witch hunts, where does an innocent person turn for help? the more so when the so-called "journalists" of the dinosaur media are hell bent on conducting a trial by media?
America will never be truly free again until criminals like Eliot Spitzer end up behind bars, and not at some white collar resort prison either. If there is not already, then there ought to be laws against law officers -- including attorneys general -- who try to cover up exculpatory evidence in their zeal to crucify innocent men and women for political gain. Mr. Spitzer did not do all this by himself, so I cannot imagine how this doesn't qualify as a RICO case, a criminal conspiracy. His willing lackeys in the press should be indicted as willing co-conspirators
stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
http://www.samadamssos.bravehost.com
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Dating Black Girls - The Truth on How to Hook Up | Women's Health Wisdom links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
John OB| 10.8.09 @ 1:09PM
My grandaughter was a proud recipient of a Columbus Citizens Foundation scholarship. So it is no surprise here that, Lawrence Auriana, the chairman of this outstanding organization would wisely choose to honor such a great American of Italian descent as is Kenneth Langone. Mr. Langone spoke for all of us when he defended himself and Mr. Grasso against the scurrilous ogre of a cut-throat and over zealous politician that was Eliot Spitzer. Unfortunately we still have AG's out there who are emulating Mr. Spitzer's rise to power by stepping on the nape of free-market Capitalism. Mr. Aurianna is dead on about the media not paying attention to Mr. Langone's story as it does dove tail to Mr. Spitzer's fall. Maybe Mr. Langone's appearance as the Grand Marshall of this grand parade can inspire some other journalists out there to tell his story. We can only hope.
John OB| 10.8.09 @ 1:09PM
My grandaughter was a proud recipient of a Columbus Citizens Foundation scholarship. So it is no surprise here that, Lawrence Auriana, the chairman of this outstanding organization would wisely choose to honor such a great American of Italian descent as is Kenneth Langone. Mr. Langone spoke for all of us when he defended himself and Mr. Grasso against the scurrilous ogre of a cut-throat and over zealous politician that was Eliot Spitzer. Unfortunately we still have AG's out there who are emulating Mr. Spitzer's rise to power by stepping on the nape of free-market Capitalism. Mr. Aurianna is dead on about the media not paying attention to Mr. Langone's story as it does dove tail to Mr. Spitzer's fall. Maybe Mr. Langone's appearance as the Grand Marshall of this grand parade can inspire some other journalists out there to tell his story. We can only hope.
RGR| 10.8.09 @ 1:52PM
The real question is....why is Spitzer ever allowed to show his face on television today, and why does anyone care about what he says or thinks? That many should be washing bedpans in slum hospitals for the rest of his life as penance.
Old Joe| 10.8.09 @ 2:05PM
The leftist media will do everything possible to rehabilitate Client #9’s reputation just as they have with the reputation of that wise Democrat elder statesman, Slick Willie.
Richard Baker| 10.8.09 @ 7:52PM
And Mr. Langone will be gracious in victory and as the Grand Marshal and Spitzer will still be a piece of trash. To Hell with all these government tyrants.
Pingback| 10.9.09 @ 1:11AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : White Collar Hero [spectator.org] on links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Gerald Stephens| 10.10.09 @ 6:43PM
There were multiple occasions during the American Revolution when the struggle appeared threadbare and doomed. Citizens with empty bellies and frozen shoeless feet did not yield.
The citizen slaughter of fellow citizens accompanying our Civil War, and indeed its aftermath, again demonstrated that the 'idea' of an America is not easily extinguished.
The tribute to Mr. Langone gives further expression to his valor and proof that tyranny is but a feeble assault against the bulwark a free people.
The nation is once again engaged in a serious struggle wherein liberty is imperiled. At such a time one must look to the historical strength and courage of the shoeless Americans and that of Mr. Langone.
Never yield!
stmichrick| 10.11.09 @ 11:43AM
I believe Spitzer has already shown up as a 'contributor' on MSNBC. The shoe fits.
anna| 10.16.09 @ 2:01AM
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