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Note to Governor Spitzer: “Nice” matters!
By Lauren | March 11, 2008
In my last post, I observed that disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer deserves credit for his crusade to curb corporate corruption when he served as the state’s Attorney General. By now, the seamy details of Spitzer’s alleged escapades with a high-priced call girl are all over the news, and pundits are lining up to offer their two cents on the public humiliation of the politician the news media once dubbed “Mr. Clean.”
One quote from The New York Times may explain why Spitzer’s critics are being quite so strident. The Times quotes Ben Clarke, who works for a technology company that provides professional services to Wall Street firms, as follows: “He’s pulled a lot of people through the mud, and look what he’s done. The hypocrisy is incredible.”
Spitzer himself once boasted about being a “steamroller,” and his hard-charging reputation as an aggressive, take-no-prisoners prosecutor won him a lot of powerful enemies. It would be far from surprising if people who felt unfairly attacked by Spitzer are enjoying his very public fall from grace.
Maybe then-Attorney General Spitzer thought he would be less effective if he pursued corruption and greed with more sorrow than anger. He might even have been right. What’s certain, though, is that now-Governor Spitzer is paying the price for his aggressive self-righteousness. A kinder approach might have given him a softer fall. He still deserves credit, but he’s certainly taking his share of the blame.
Topics: Apologies, Personal Ethics |