Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s blindingly fast fall from grace was portrayed by many of his media sympathizers as a temporary slip in judgment, an unfortunate exception to the high ethical standards he exemplified himself and demanded of others.

In fact, nobody who closely watched Spitzer’s monumental displays of arrogance, recurring abuses of office and flagrant hypocrisy during his near-meteoric rise to power beginning in 1994 could have been surprised when Spitzer confessed to his February tryst with a high-priced whore in Washington’s stately old Mayflower Hotel.