How ironic....I just picked up a book that a friend of my husband's bought for him, years ago. A book from the 1950's called Washington Confidential written by old newspapermen named Lee Mortimer and Jack Lait. Once I got through the shock of reading words such as, "the Negro problem." (Does my computer not know how to even spell the word "Negro? Is it even in spell check?) the authors stunned my naive 21st Century sensitivities by writing about how lonely and desperate are Washington professional women that one wonders why men would buy sex from whores! But, they did write that, and then went on to talk about the white ones and as they put it, "their black sisters." So, big woop! Madams and their prostitutes inhabit the Capitol.
So, today's shocking news (reporters were gasping, we're told) that Eliot Spitzer cavorted with a New York prostitute, whom he imported down to DC to have a dalliance at the stodgy Mayflower Hotel doesn't surprise me. Why, if you believe the two Washington Confidential newspapermen that's been going on ever since the first hay sucking legislator rode the first carriage in from the foothills, and into the District of Columbia. It's just too bad that a former Attorney General, the self-proclaimed Sheriff of Wall Street, thought with the little brain in his pants, instead of the one encased in his skull.
I don't know much about Eliot Spitzer, other than what I've read in the papers and from what I've heard from some knowledgeable Dems inside the Beltway. I hope he didn't use government funds for his dalliances. If he didn't, it's between his wife, and three daughters and him. If he did, New Yorkers will have to face the fact that once again, a politician they voted for, fooled them and isn't worthy of their votes.
I met the lieutenant gov of New York, David Paterson, at a progressive Democrat function two years ago, and found him to be very open to speaking to former New Yorkers, such as myself, and anybody else, who would strike up a conversation with him. He's visually disabled and sometimes the disabled don't have many people who are willing to talk to them. But, I'm a former New Yorker. And, he was open to hearing my ideas and thoughts about things, and was interested in learning where I was born, where I grew up and what I'm currently doing. Want to make friends with me? Ask me to talk about myself! He didn't act as if he expected me to know all about him, or his history, like some important people do. I didn't feel like he felt I was out of place by asking him lots of questions about himself like where in Brooklyn he was born, went to school, and what his Dad did for a living. He very openly explained without any of that big shot-attitude that I've come to expect from some public officials, about how he was currently serving in the same State Senate seat that his Dad served in, and how his father, when he was a kid temporarily, if I remember the story correctly, moved the family to Queens, when David as a kid so that David could get a good education--one that would work with him and take into account his disability. I remember that Paterson told me that his Dad made it clear that when the time was right the family would be moving back to Harlem because that was their community.
Well, that's as close as I'm going to come to the Spitzer scandal.
I wish Spitzer, Paterson and all the personal relations these two men have, luck with it all. I guess the ultimate lesson that should be learned is that the more power you assume in public life, the more exposed to scrutiny you are. You better live a cloistered perfect life because mistakes are too easy to make any other way.
I hope that Spitzer doesn't have to step down. But, if he does, I can say that I met Governor Paterson before he was even Lt. Gov and I liked him. New York will be in very good hands.
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