Thursday, March 13, 2008

ELLIOT’S MESS

(March 13, 2008, NYC) Another high profile politico falls victim to their own foibles. This is hardly a story. The hypocrisy of a former New York State Attorney General whose career was made by destroying others is mind-numbing and laughable. Ironies hang all over this sordid tale like seaweed on a buoy. Perhaps there is some sort of cosmic justice, some unseen celestial force moving matter and circumstance so that what does go ‘round will indeed come ‘round. This is one way to look at the public disgrace of the recently resigned governor of New York State, Elliot Spitzer.

Certainly there are a variety of perspectives from which to view this particular scandal. The last few days have seen every angle covered and speculated on from the secret needs of powerful men, to their unconscious desire for risk threw the entire gamut of New Age pseudo-science that provides endless theories for every and any physical, mental, emotional, psychological, societal or behavioral malady. Who really cares? Who really wants to know?

Aside from the collective voyeuristic glee of witnessing the fall from power of a
wealthy, privileged man whose entire life was lived well above the hardscrabble realities of most, there is in this case a distinct element of retribution: somehow Spitzer deserves this. He certainly made his share of enemies throughout his career and was never shy in staging their public humiliation.

Every cliché’ related to glass houses and being careful about who you step over on your way up because they will be waiting for you on your way down is appropriately true. Elliot Spitzer was the quintessential scumbag with ‘small man syndrome’. Whatever drove him will most likely never be known to anyone but him. That’s fine. The best thing is that this one little, bitter, angry, egotistical man is removed from the position of power he held and would have continued to misuse and abuse.

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