Spitzer resigns over prostitution links

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat who swept into office one year ago pledging to usher in an era of clean government, resigned this week, two days after he was identified as a client of a high-end prostitution ring. “I look at my time as governor with a sense of what might have been,” said Spitzer, 48, his wife standing grimly at his side. “I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people’s work.” The stunning development came after authorities and court documents indicated that Spitzer, the father of three teenage girls, may have spent as much as $80,000 on prostitutes, who charged $1,000 to $5,000 an hour.

Spitzer’s resignation ends a meteoric political career that at one point sparked talk of presidential ambitions. As a crusading attorney general prior to his landslide election as governor, Spitzer aggressively prosecuted Wall Street bigwigs, insurance brokers, and prostitution services. Now he may face criminal charges, most likely centered on his alleged attempts to conceal payments to the prostitutes.

“One might call it Shakespearean,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, “if there were a shred of nobleness” in Spitzer’s fall. But “there is none.” As a prosecutor, Spitzer bullied or threatened anyone who questioned his motives or tactics. He often seemed less interested in pursuing justice than in enhancing his own “tough” reputation. His “stupendously deluded belief” that he could patronize prostitutes with impunity was entirely in character for “a man unable to admit either the existence of, or the need for, limits.”

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“That gleeful sound” you hear from Wall Street is a “direct measure” of just how much Spitzer accomplished, said Jay Hancock in the Baltimore Sun. With federal regulators looking the other way, it was Spitzer who uncovered the corruption and conflicts that enriched firms and brokers at the expense of investors. But then he turned prosecutions into vendettas, said Charles Gasparino in the New York Post, and in a holier-than-thou fashion, too. That’s why his public humiliation is “poetic justice.”

“Greek tragedy” is more like it, said Ruth Marcus in The Washington Post. As somebody who went to law school with Spitzer, I find it impossible to witness his downfall “without being overwhelmed by sadness.” Yes, it’s a familiar story: “another politician confounded by an outsize sense of his own vulnerability.” At the same time, “if anyone was smart enough to avoid this, it is Spitzer”—who knew more than most about paper trails and wire transfers. “At some level, he must have wanted to be caught.”