Letters to the Editor
FredrickBernanke
Published Letters: 170 Editor's Choice: 8
-
Spitzer Spits in His Constituents Faces
[Read the article: Who cares if Eliot Spitzer hires prostitutes?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Interesting how Shapiro in another Salon article, writes his article from the perspective of how "tragic" an event this is to Spitzer. One comes away with the impression after reading it that the article had be written by someone working for a Crisis Management firm hired by the Governor, not by a journalist whose constituency is supposedly the People.
That is not the case with Greenwald's article. His focuses primarily on the "consentual adult" angle, with which I agree, but is essentially a footnote to the whole episode.
For this writer, there are at least three more important issues that are raised by Spitzer's fall. Two of them are rather obvious with fairly limited ramifications. The third is not so obvious in its connection, and might be classified as a political philosophy point, applicable generally, not merely to Spitzergate.
1. Hypocrisy is the most difficult of vices for the public to tolerate.
2. Why did Spitzer's bank apparently contact the IRS of its own volition, in secret? What law is lurking out there that gives banks this kind of authority to rat-out its own depositors, with no notice to the depositor required? If Jane Doe writes some checks that some bank clerk thinks present a "suspicious pattern," can Jane find herself the target of a Justice Department investigation, of wiretaps and other surveillance? The Bank Secrecy Act in conjunction with the IRS Code provides the grounds for and indeed requires banks to report "suspicious" transactions, but only if they are $10,000 or more. (One would think the Harvard Law grad and former AGNY would have counted more carefully.) But even with this authority, judgment by indivduals at the financial institution still must be made.
3. Finally, the episode is a brilliant real-world illustration of why true conservatives always argue for the most limited of power for those who govern: Irrespective of any and all other criteria, those with power are human beings, some subject more, some subject less, to human frailties.
In the culture of the still puritanical USA, it is frequently that most powerful of human urges--sexual desire--that winds up as the proximate cause of the downfalls of the mighty, as is the case here. But it's the thought of this guy--with power--having the gall to be concurrently prosecuting prostitution rings and being a client of prostitutes himself that disqualifies any sense of the "tragic" be used as the adjective to describe Spitzer.
Governors, Senators, Mayors, City Council-people and, especially, Presidents should have only the absolute minimum of power to harm and harass others as is required to keep governments functioning.
Spitzer not only abused his power as AG and Governor, but both those offices came equipped with too much power long before Elliot Spitzer arrived on the scene.
-
A Man Without a Conscience Defiles New York State's Executive Branch
[Read the article: The tragic fall of Eliot Spitzer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If only there were methods for those whose lives he's ruined--especially during his crusade against prostitutes--to seek civil redress against this man with no conscience, who prosecuted them with the vigor of a crusading saint while simultaneously personally engaging the the very behavior he so condemned in the courtroom....
The lack of integrity and the cold, calculating cruelty of this guy are absolutely breathtaking. Otherwise, his patronizing prostitutes isn't even noteworthy.
Another feather in Harvard Law School's cap.
-
@Voice of Reason
[Read the article: The tragic fall of Eliot Spitzer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Agree.
The vileness of this guy is almost beyond comprehension.
The question is, other than losing his job and being convicted of a minor federal offense, will there be any other avenues of redress available for those he crushed as the Attorney General of the State of New York?
-
@may2002
[Read the article: The tragic fall of Eliot Spitzer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've got some beach property in Arizona you might find attractive as an investment.
-
What Made This Article Worthy of Publication? No Insight, Nothing New, Devoid of Creativity
[Read the article: John McCain runs for George Bush's third term]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have been a regular reader of Salon for only 2 months or so.
Probably by osmosis, I had come to think that Salon was a site/mag where original thinking, insight and good writing were present in abundance.
Shapiro's "Tragic" piece on Elliot Spitzer in yesterday's issue was not only devoid of insight and creativity, but read as if written by some PR flack hired by Spitzer to manage the crisis.
Now today, we are presented with this article which is nothing more than a recapitulation of facts of which I assume most Salon readers were already well aware. It was a list in prose. Nothing more. No insight. No creativity in content or form. Nothing new reported....
Thus far, the only regular contributor who does show some non-mainstreaming thinking is Greenwald, and that does not mean I always agree with his interpretation of events. Paglia produces some stylish writing at times as well.
But Cole's article could have been written by a high school student with merely a passing interest in politics...or maybe that's what Cole actually is?