Longtime readers know I don't like making predictions. Unpredictability is one of the great things about politics. However, I've told my New York friends that Gov. Elliot Spitzer's downfall was inevitable ever since his landslide gubernatorial victory in 2006. While the details were surprising, the warning signs of scandal were just too clear.
Rule #1: If you ride into elective office as a crusader on your white horse, people will try to knock you off. If you're arrogant, they'll try harder. In Spitzer's case, he came into office on a streamroller but the lesson is the same. The forces of bureaucracy and the status quo are incredibly powerful. Show any sign of vulnerability or hypocrisy and they'll stop you right in your tracks.
Rule #2: You need friends and allies in politics. Even politicians with the best intentions get pushed off course. But without people on your side, you'll spend most of your time trying to get out of a ditch. Your adversaries will work tirelessly to keep you there. Since his inauguration, Spitzer has even had people in his own party cheering for his demise.
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Comments
Your two points may be a valid explanation of the political difficulties Spitzer had in his first year, but that he would get in trouble with prostitutes has nothing to do with politics, nor was his getting caught a function of having earned enemies. There was nothing politically inevitable about it, and it would be presumtuous to say this was psychologically inevitable. This is hardly Greek tragedy.
Posted by: rsl
| March 11, 2008 11:42 AM
All Spitzer had to do to avoid this particular fall was keep his pants zipped...or more accurately, pay by check.
Posted by: sinkerswimmer
| March 11, 2008 1:21 PM
It was inevitable that Gov. Spitzer would resign after being caught with a prostitute? As obvious as your two points are they have little to do with Spitzer's downfall.
Posted by: AntonX2
| March 11, 2008 1:51 PM
No, his analysis is spot on. That it was a prostitute is irrelevant, the issue is that some scandal other politicians could survive would crop up.
Knights in shining armor who get tarnished fall quickly. David Vitter can meet with prostitutes, apologize to his wife, and move on. Eliot Spitzer can't, because he's built his whole career on being Mr. Clean. The perception is Vitter is a man who made a mistake, Spitzer is a phony.
It certainly doesn't help that he has lots of enemies who are willing to hammer him into the ground.
Compare the latter point to Trent Lott - he looked like he'd survive early after he praised Thurmond's Presidential run. Even Tom Daschle was saying something to the effect of "look, he was being nice to a guy on his 100th birthday, he didn't mean it that way." It wasn't until his own caucus - angry about how much he was working with Democrats - turned on him that he had to step down as ML.
Posted by: ezzie
| March 11, 2008 4:53 PM
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