We all remember the disgrace Spitzer put his family through a few months back. But despite that massive personal failing, Spitzer has kicked some Wall Street Ass in his career.
Spitzer has articulated better than anyone I know what happened with AIG, BoA, Citibank etc: Overextended insurance for overextended loans by these banks force us taxpayers to have to bail them both out.
Spitzer had fought AID before:
http://www.google.com/...
The former New York governor battered American International Group with charges of corruption long before his own dizzying downfall in a prostitution scandal. He has used this latest financial scandal to strike his old populist, Sheriff of Wall Street themes and, just maybe, mend his reputation — though critics contend that he bears a share of the blame for the insurance giant's historic near-collapse.
Spitzer says the AIG bonus issue is "penny ante" compared to the billions of the insurer's bailout money funneled to bad banks, and that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner owes America an explanation, quickly.
As for all those politicians piling on AIG this week? Been there. Done that.
"We pursued AIG and Wall Street's structural failures in a way that others shied away from because it was politically unpalatable for them to address those issues," Spitzer told host Brian Lehrer Wednesday on WNYC Radio in New York City. "Now it is the flavor of the month. Everybody is jumping up and down serving subpoenas, beating their chests trying to be tougher than the next person."
Spitzer pursued AIG for years when he was New York's attorney general. The company eventually announced in 2006 that it would pay $1.64 billion to resolve allegations that it used deceptive accounting practices to mislead investors and regulatory agencies. AIG's veteran chief executive officer, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, was forced to resign in 2005 after a long and contentious, sometimes ugly battle with Spitzer.
According to Wikipedia as AG he
used this authority in his civil actions against corporations and criminal prosecutions against their officers. It proved its usefulness in the wake of several U.S. corporate scandals that began with the collapse of Enron in 2001. Several of these corporations, as well as the brokerage houses that sold their stock, were accused of having inflated stock values by unethical means throughout the 1990s. When inquiries into these allegations by the SEC and Congress failed to gain traction, Spitzer's office used its subpoena power to obtain corporate documents, building cases against the firms both in courtrooms and in public opinion.
As governor Spitzer also proposed the legalization of same-sex marriage.
While his lack of intent to compromise limited what he did as governor Spitzer is the bulldog we need on our side through this mess.
"I am not naturally suited to this job," he told a reporter recently, and perhaps he knew more than he was letting on.
the NYT reported.
Who else would be better suited to go after white-collar crime?