Eliot Spitzer on 'Today' Show | 04/06/2009 2:00 pm
Eliot Spitzer on 'Today' Show: 'I Am a Fortunate Guy, I Have a Spectacular Wife' (Video)
The former ‘Sheriff of Wall Street’ begins to re-emerge in the press.
Spitzer on Today Show
For 7:18 minutes on "The Today Show" today, the former New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, made his most high-profile press appearance since he was dramatically forced out of office just more than one year ago because of his alleged trysts with a high-priced prostitute. Spitzer made a name for himself before becoming governor; he was dubbed the "Sherriff of Wall Street" because of his prosecutions of players in the financial world as New York Attorney General. He has been largely silent about the current financial crisis.
Well, he’s back today, and in the video below, Matt Lauer asks him, "Here is a guy who had almost an Eliot Ness-type of reputation … How could he have allowed himself to be involved in a prostitution scandal?"
While Spitzer goes on to attest to the forgiveness of his wife, Silda, and his daughters, he does make interesting points about the current crisis, including calling for the breakup of the biggest banks, something not currently on the Obama administration agenda, saying, "We should break them up so there’s genuine competition and the next time around, they’re not too big to fail."
Worth watching:
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20 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
I deplore his morals but I’m not one to judge anyone, I’m sure his life stinks now. I do wish he was still my Governor, because Patterson has no clue what to do about New York.
After reading several stories of men who are excellent at their jobs but have sexual altercations that jeopardize their marriages and their careers, I wonder if these sexual needs also fuel their abilities. I don’t know much about how the correlation of sex and abiility/ambition but maybe there is someone out there that knows of a study about this.
Not to say these men should be exempt from either the law or, at least the law of common sense, but I find it an interesting topic.
I agree that sometimes the hubris that makes a politician successful publically might cause an over inflated sense of prowess in other aspectes of the their lives. It just took real ‘brass (something)’ to show up on The Today Show and speak of ‘gremlins’ outing him.
Go to a think tank; become an anonymous policy wonk; but, just stay away from the live interviews discussing his ‘troubles’ and his ‘spectacular’ wife.
It seems that Sptizer was excellent and I hate he got caught. I say that because he is not the only powerful person who indulgence in this type of behavior seems to be typical. Unlike some others who are not good at their jobs - he was. IT is such a waste of talent and New York needs him.
Very Simple, Mr. Spitzer. Here’s the run down.
1) You were an elected official of the State of New York. As such, you swore an oath of office to uphold the laws of the State of New York.
2) The State of New York does not have legalized prostitution.
3) You engaged not only in procurring a prostitute, but in transporting her (them?) across state lines. That is a Federal offense as well as a state offense.
4) You therefore broke your oath to the State of New York and your consituents. You are now out of office because of this.
So, Mr. Spitzer. Let me make this very clear. I don’t care if you are a Democrat, a Republican, an Independant, a Libertarian: I don’t care if you prefer sex with men, sex with women: I don’t care if you love your wife (although that’s admirable that you acknowledged her) or not: I don’t care if you feel you were set up or not.
What I care about is you broke the law. And in your case it’s almost worse than for a regular citizen: you built your career on prosecuting criminals, knew the law inside and out, and STILL went out there and broke it. And don’t give me that crap that it’s a victimless crime or that everybody does it. I don’t CARE! You STILL broke the law.
And you wanting to give advice to those other crooks, the bankers, can we say the pot calling the kettle black?