FORWARD Column: There’s been something unsettling about all the public fascination with the political sex scandals parading through the headlines this summer. It seems as though the private misconduct of our public officials interests us more than their actual performance of the work we pay them to do…
And [Eliot] Spitzer? He was a nationally prominent prosecutor who challenged misconduct on Wall Street at a time when nobody else was doing it, and at a time when that misconduct was about to tank the global economy. In the process he incurred the passionate hatred of some of the world’s wealthiest men. He also had a bad habit, the world’s oldest and most widespread bad habit. It’s survived for millennia, usually well hidden in the darkest of private recesses. But his case got found out…
Here’s where the conspiracy theory comes in. It’s a theory that’s widely believed by New York political insiders and journalists: that Spitzer’s billionaire enemies hired investigators to find dirt on Spitzer, and when they did, they fed it to a willing Bush administration Justice Department. The U.S. attorney for Manhattan, who had tangled in the past with Spitzer — but never with Wall Street crime — then launched the lengthy, costly investigation that resulted in the indictment of the escort service… (more)
EDITOR: We should not require that our leaders in their private lives to act like saints.
