It’s hard to know which is the more egregious Eliot Spitzer: the sitting governor who was making all the arrangements for a rendezvous with a hooker during what was supposed to be a business visit to Washington, or the candidate for city comptroller now promoting himself by telling all and sundry how humble he’s become.
That’s the theme of the new and improved Eliot that voters are being offered in an ad set to run this week. The formula is simple, and has three parts: Start with admitting error, move on to achievements and then appeal for a second chance.
Here’s how the ad opens: “Look, I failed. Big time. I hurt a lot of people. When you dig yourself a hole, you can either lie in it the rest of your life, or do something positive. That’s why I’m running.”
That allows him to shift quickly to boast mode. Since he doesn’t have many actual victories that have in fact improved the lives of New Yorkers, what he means by achievements largely boils down to fighting the business community. Thus, he tells voters that when they hear “negative noise,” keep in mind that it must be coming from people even more repellent than he is.
As Spitzer puts it, “Maybe being hated by the Wall Street firms isn’t such a terrible thing.”
Which feeds right into his punchline: “Everyone, no matter who you are, deserves a fair shot. I’m asking voters to give the same for me.”
Say this for Eliot Spitzer: Not many other politicians would think to appeal to voters by offering an “apology” based on the idea that a governor who violated his oaths to his office and his wife in the same act is still somehow morally superior to New York’s business people.
And this is the man going around on talk shows to warn us about “hubris.”