The Issue: Whether Eliot Spitzer is a suitable candidate for comptroller, in light of previous scandals.
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Scandal and impropriety are nothing new to politics. What is new, however, is that those who get caught no longer slither away into oblivion as they have in the past (“Socks Appeal,” Editorial, July 9).
It used to be that leaders who were found to be lacking in ethical conduct expressed, at least publicly, regret and shame, and then quietly stepped out of the public arena.
Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner are the latest examples of modern-day scalawags who apparently feel no remorse and expect the electorate either to forget about their transgressions or to overlook them.
I simply do not understand this mentality. It speaks volumes about the decay in our culture.
New Yorkers have a forgiving nature, but they are not stupid.
There are many upstanding and qualified candidates running for elective office who have not betrayed their families and constituencies.
Please cast your vote for one of those candidates. Let us not encourage the morally bankrupt to remain in the spotlight.
Frank Lawlor
Westfield, Mass.
Why must the media, after four or five years, dredge up a man’s past?
Though I was not happy to learn how Spitzer sabotaged his political life, by now he and his wife have probably resolved this and grown in their marriage.
It takes a great degree of courage to face the public again and, obviously, a renewed faith in oneself.
He’s had his “dark night of the soul.” He will now work doubly hard to do his very best to be a fine public servant.
I wish the press would return to their standards of the era of Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower.
Spitzer’s obviously a fighter. This man will be a superb comptroller.
For God’s sake, accentuate his positive qualities. They are excellent. Leave his past in the past.
Joyce Benedict
Hyde Park
Only in New York can folks who have money they were born with or married into claim that they are champions of the average folks, when everything they do costs the taxpayers tons of cash and there are no decent results.
Spitzer misused the office of state attorney general and the office of governor for his own ego, and this piece of work wants a second chance. Weiner did the same while serving as a congressman.
These folks sadly have no shame and these bums don’t deserve a second chance.
Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina got a second chance, but the difference is he did a dumb thing, showed real remorse and didn’t misuse his office as governor for personal gain and won’t try to run folks’ lives like Weiner and Spitzer have done.
Leonard P. Daniels
Manhattan
Spitzer’s return opens the way for a unique New York City tableau.
With him in the Democratic primary for comptroller, we have a “john” running, and all we need to complete the 2013 line-up is to add a prostitute and a pimp. Surely the City Council could readily provide such types.
One can only imagine all three of them on a flatbed truck, waving to the masses.
Anthony Spinelli
Chelsea
Here’s hoping both Weiner and Spitzer win their respective races.
It’s time to stop demonizing these two men for the mere fact that they adore women. Loving is not a crime.
David DiBello
Brooklyn
Spitzer is such a disgrace that it offends the good people of this state and city.
This “steamroller” is nothing more than a common john who has done nothing but break the law.
Patronizing a prostitute is a crime. On another note, has anyone asked how many times, if any, did these criminal encounters happen during work hours?
This stuff is just getting to be too much to take. Bill Clinton, Weiner, Spitzer — when does it all end? When can we get somebody upstanding to vote for?
Robert Hughes
Floral Park