Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Thank You Sir, May I Have Another One Sir

Almost as disturbing as Eliot Spitzer's episode of You, Me and Dupre is the weird and perverse glee in Rightworld over his comeuppance because now Wall Street is getting some kind of payback.

Oddly Tweedy over at Hardball made reference. Also oddly -- which is not unusual when you think of it -- so does Charlie Sykes. As usual, busy man that he is, Charlie lets the quotes do the talking for him:
Trading desks across the United States stopped on Wednesday to watch the resignation speech of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, fascinated by the downfall of the man who built a career on investigating Wall Street crimes.
You know Charlie approves because he cleverly refers to this as Spitzenfreud.

Of course we all feel for Spitzer's wife and family and the humiliation and shame they have to bear. Of all people Spitzer should have known what ensues during the investigation of prostitution rings because he led them. Unfortunately he got hung on his own arrogance. He in the end carried a major flaw.

But what sadly gets lost in all of this -- and sure will be if Charlie has anything to do about it -- is that with all the abuses tied in with people's life savings on Wall Street, it seemed that Eliot Spitzer was the one man who made the perpetrators realize and experience the consequences. You know, those outcomes that Charlie seems to feel only minorities and the poor should enjoy.

Spitzer was by no means Mr. Congeniality, but what endeared him to voters in New York and people beyond is he and his investigations gave us all some hope that there was at least one person who made sure the rules were enforced fairly. Rules that impacted mom and pop and you and me. And with so many of us depending upon our investments to retire on, Sptizer rendered a very important service.

Rules in fact that made sure people could trade with trust on Wall Street and the those who tried to get an unfair advantage and game the system would have to face the music. This was something certainly the Bush administration failed and refused to do.

When is Charlie's audience going to wake up to the realization that in his realm there are two sets of consequences. Once you reach a certain level -- and certainly have enough to contribute to the GOP -- then you have broken your bonds to the responsibilities borne by earthly mortals.

2 comments:

  1. So Charlie's kind of saying that Spitzer is a Democratic Paul Bucher that actually won an election for AG and Governor and then statrted to believe his own press clippings?

    Despite his shortcomings, the man went after the CEOs and other execs that were trashing thousands of people's retirement plans.

    And our local super star prosecutor went after what, a politician that voted in Illinois and Wisconsin, a football star he thought would propel him to the AG's office and was the architect of Paul Bucher's Catch and Release Program.

    Maybe that's why Gleisner threw him under the bus.

    I'd trade two Bucher's and a Sykes for one Spitzer any day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't be so tough on Paul. He had a pretty fair political future until he picked up McBride as his campaign manager.

    ReplyDelete