Spitzer's Fall: A Story That 'Never Gets Old'

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Nachrichten, Switzerland

Eliot Spitzer and wife: Why Americans have punished Spitzer but

rewarded the prostitute he broke his legal vows with, is just as

puzzling to Europeans as Monica Lewinski was during the 1990s.

Nachrichten, Switzerland

Spitzer's Fall: A Tale

That 'Never Gets Old'

"American politics without sex scandals is almost unthinkable. The fallen sinners are almost equally divided between the two major parties. ... Elmer Gantry, the amoral preacher of morality depicted by Sinclair Lewis, is the pattern of a story that never really gets old."

EDITORIAL

Translated By James Jacobson

March 11, 2008

Switzerland - Nachrichten - Home Page (German)

A place in history: Ashley Alexandra Dupre - the woman with whom Spitzer let loose his inner wants.

The rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer is an American success story of a very particular kind. The Democratic governor of New York State was a fierce dog, who as a public prosecutor walked on the dead to expose all kinds of corruption, organized crime and prostitution. He destroyed the reputations of many well-known and lesser-known business and political opponents in a way that left behind many enemies.

The fact that he now had to admit to being involved in a prostitution ring is not in itself unusual for an American politician. American politics without sex scandals is almost unthinkable. The fallen sinners are almost equally divided between the two major parties.

Older students recall the case Wilbur Mills , the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who in 1974 was brought down due to his involvement with a stripper named Fanne Foxe. When a policeman stopped the politician's car, this beautiful woman in the dead of night jumped into the freezing water of the Washington Tidal Basin, next to the Jefferson Memorial, thereby setting his fall in motion. Before that, these things only went on under the table, the escapades of President John F. Kennedy being the most well-known example.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

Wilbur Mills with the woman who helped bring him down, the stripper Fanne Foxe.

Now those attracted by the Mills story have something even bigger. Since then a lot has happened, and many politicians have fallen from their pedestals. But the way Spitzer of all people has fallen into the clutches of law enforcement authorities has almost a literary quality. Elmer Gantry , the amoral preacher of morality depicted by Sinclair Lewis, is the pattern of a story that never really gets old.

As Manhattan District Attorney and then Attorney General of New York, he used his power with a view to a future political career and without respecting the limits laid down by the legal system - particularly for public prosecutors. He used rude threats rather than official indictments and he used the media as a propaganda tool to prematurely disarm the victims of his attacks.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

Since the nineties, this kind of legal and political campaign is not entirely unknown in Switzerland. As soon as he was elected governor, Spitzer mustered the New York State Police to undo one of his political opponents. He didn’t succeed and his popularity went into a steep decline. Now the circle has closed. The hunter has become the hunted.

CLICK HERE FOR GERMAN VERSION

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