BETWEEN GROWING UP IN Rhode Island and later moving to New York, I’ve witnessed a lifetime of political corruption. It’s part of the landscape, like barren trees in the winter and obese tourists in the summer. When an elected official vows to “clean up the capitol,” I calmly wait for the headline that features his or her name followed by the words “under investigation.”
And so it is with New York Governor Elliot Spitzer. As Attorney General, Spitzer was known as the Sheriff of Wall Street, bringing down the wing tipped bad guys with a loaded subpoena and a grimace that would make Richard Widmark shudder. To me, he always seemed like the kind of guy who’d go after a self-employed accountant for not cleaning out the coffee filter. It wasn’t until he successfully sued several record companies in a payola scandal that I grudgingly gave him his due. Anyone who forces an industry to pay the price for putting Jennifer Lopez on the public airwaves is okay by me. Not okay enough for me to actually vote for him, but enough to give him a 100-day pass upon election.
