As a New York State Democrat who donated to the Spitzer campaign and volunteered my time to get him elected, I am writing this diary to say:
Stop making excuses for Eliot Spitzer, people. Spitzer brought this disgrace on himself, and he should have known better.
Spitzer set himself up as Mr. Clean and as a crusader against corruption. He promised us that he'd fight for higher standards and expectations from public officials in Albany.
He knew the law. He prosecuted prostitution rings. And he knew that having taking this hard line, his every move would be scrutinized. He was reckless in the extreme.
He not only committed a crime, he may have exposed his wife to potentially life-threatening illnesses with his requests for "unsafe" acts from prostitutes. He committed what many consider a crime against women in general, and may have scarred his daughters for life.
He betrayed all of us who believed in and supported his campaign.
I made the largest donations of my political life to Eliot Spitzer because I believed in him. (For a time I was even at the top of his website list of supporters, I contacted so many people asking them to join his campaign.) I never asked for anything in return -- I just believed in his message and his integrity.
No longer.
I also am amazed by and resent his actions for a more personal reason. As an environmental activist working at the grassroots level, I have at times felt deeply responsible for the thousands of people who supported the causes I tried to champion. This is small potatoes compared to a governor of a major state. But during one long-running fight against a major corporation, I knew that if I committed any transgression -- a DUI, or even a bounced check -- our adversary and the local press would make hay of it, and the entire cause would be harmed by my indiscretion. I was shadowed by a private investigator, and calls were made to my neighbors trying to dig dirt on me and to my parents to intimidate my family.
So for years I lived like a virtual monk. And so I wonder: Why wasn't the reward of wielding huge amounts of power incentive enough for Spitzer to hold his impulses in check.
Now, one can rail against the Bush administration's wiretapping programs and invasions of our privacy. I'm with people on that. One can even argue that maybe in a different world prostitution should be legal. (I'm not with anyone on that.)
But let's stop feeling sorry for the guy who completely shattered New Yorkers' hopes of reform in Albany and completely squandered a colossal mandate for change in the past year -- and who has created a new generation of cynics in New York State who will not believe in the possibility of reform again for a very long time.
Finally, I have to ask: If you make excuses for Spitzer's behavior in this case, what would he have to have done to offend you enough to condemn him? How far is too far?