Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic governor of New York since 2006, has been accused of being tangled in a prostitution ring scandal that will undoubtedly lead to his demise.
A federal wiretap had the governor, a man who goes by the name of Client 9, talking with a very high priced prostitute with a going rate of about $5,500 per hour, and arranging to meet her in a Washington hotel.
Governor Spitzer has a long and solid foundation of service in New York, starting with the dismantling of the Gambino’s family control over New York City’s trucking and garment industry when he was in the district attorney’s office. He then became a New York State Attorney General in 1999 and fought against price fixing on computer chips and stock price inflation.
A man who has done so much good over a long period of time will now have to restructure his whole life because of one wrongdoing.
When you are a man or woman of great power and social status you sometimes feel like you can get away with anything, and even if you get caught you can probably have connections in very high places that can get you out of even the messiest of messes. Unfortunately for Eliot Spitzer he was ‘caught red handed’ and the information was made public before he could have any say, and now he has to go down for it in order for the political office to keep its credibility.
As a person of high status you can live outside the law, but the consequences will be severe if you get caught and that is a big responsibility that people who work in politics have to accept.
We as a people might sometimes forget that as much power that Eliot Spitzer might have, he is still human being and has the same emotions and desires that any human has.
A Stony Brook student, who went by the alias Ramirez Rantova, eloquently put it in his own words, “I think it is very indicative of our society in the sense that everything is historiographic.
There is an expectation that because he is of high power he should act a certain way, but we forget that that power is not inherent but rather given by the people. Therefore, we tend to romanticize about how he should act at all times, and anything but is unacceptable. We feign ignorance to the self-imposed trappings of life and then we are surprised when we fall into them.”
With Eliot Spitzer’s resignation taking effect on Mar. 17, the soon to be ex-governor’s future in politics seems to be dim at best.
Now, the biggest thing he will be fighting for is to try and keep his wife and family intact, and it seems like there is a long dark tunnel that he has to overcome.
It is a sad day when a man that had so much, can end up losing everything he holds dear in such a short time.
