Elliot Spitzer Did Not “Choose Wisely”
The writing is on the wall. Governor Spitzer’s political career is over, at least for the time being. While it’s not yet certain if this will rise to the level of national importance that Britney Spear’s or Lindsey Lohan’s slow-motion implosions did, it is well on its way to being an ink and blog magnet of the first order.
People will find meaning from all directions in this. It’s a morality tale. No, it’s about the pitfalls of power. No, it’s just another example of the evils men do. Ahh, it’s a story of comeuppance, the prince of ethics and the Sheriff of Wall Street reaping the whirlwind
Some snips . . .
“I think biologists could tell you this has something to do with natural selection — the person who acquires power becomes the alpha male,” said Tom Fiedler, who teaches a course in press and politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He was involved in reporting Gary Hart’s notorious fling with Donna Rice in 1987 that terminated the senator’s presidential bid.
Politics and sex is an old story, and as Mr. Fiedler and others point out, it simply reinforces the lessons of the aphrodisiac of power taught in Shakespeare. Its prime characters constitute a crowded society.
The news stunned traders on Wall Street, where Mr. Spitzer long has been viewed with fear and contempt. Some view the revelations as a huge hypocrisy for a man, who as New York’s attorney general, had aggressively pushed for ethics and fair play on Wall Street earlier this decade. People who clashed hardest with Mr. Spitzer are among those crowing the loudest.
“He actually believes he’s above the law,” said Ken Langone, a former New York Stock Exchange director who now heads a small investment-banking firm. In his role as prosecutor, Mr. Spitzer sued Mr. Langone for his role in doling out the large pay package of former New York Stock Exchange CEO Dick Grasso. “I have never had any doubt about his lack of character and integrity — and he’s proven me correct.”
His political rivals, too, jumped into the fray.
“This is not a victimless crime,” said U.S. Rep. Peter King, Republican of Long Island. “I’ve never known anyone who was more self-righteous and unforgiving than Eliot Spitzer.”
Mr. Spitzer’s fall from grace could mark the end of the public career of a man who has had a profound impact on corporate America. Amid the rash of corporate scandals that plagued Wall Street early this decade, he was the single most visible force trying to weed out abuses and bring down wayward chief executives.
Why do otherwise smart, successful people do such risky things? For psychologists and political analysts who found themselves dissecting the Spitzer story, it was a question of the chicken or the egg: In such situations, does the risky behavior precede the powerful job? Or does something about being in power cause the behavior?
Many speculated that it was a combination of the two. “We’re all human,” said Leon Hoffman, a psychoanalyst in New York.
And yet, Hoffman said, there may be something about the aura of power surrounding a prominent politician that makes him feel potentially immune from consequences.
“There’s the psychology of the exception,” said Hoffman, former chairman of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s public information committee. “People in power sometimes feel they can do things that us, mere mortals, are forbidden to do. There’s a sense, as with adolescents, that ‘I won’t get caught.’ “
Political analyst Steven Cohen was wary of trying to draw any conclusions about the corrupting influence of power.
“The problem is we don’t know when this behavior started for this person,” said Cohen, a professor of public administration at Columbia University. “Politicians are like the rest of us. The fact that they’re flawed and do stupid things shouldn’t surprise us.”
Half a dozen stories from literature and antiquity come to mind as well–Icarus and Narcissus are two that come to mind–warning of the follies of ambition and hubris.
In the end, Governor Spitzer will or won’t come to grip with the shadows and dark energies he’s carrying with him. Maybe he goes into the cave and sees Darth Vader and maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he learns something important about himself, and maybe he doesn’t . . . this time around.
If there is a lesson here, it’s that. Nobody can carry that much anger, than much self-righteousness, and that much ego around and not fall down. It’s just a matter of when and how.The rest is just prurient interest and politics.
Tags: ElliotSpitzer, Icarus, Narcissus, Ethics, Morals, Morality, Decision Making, Decision Quality, What Was He Thinking?