What is it about Eliot Spitzer’s downfall that has attracted the attention of people around the world? Is it the power, the sex, the hypocrisy? According to the editorial board of Switzerland’s Nachrichten newspaper, the tale of Eliot Spitzer follows a pattern that never really goes out of style. According to Nachrichten, ‘American politics without sex scandals is almost unthinkable. The fallen sinners are almost equally divided between the two major parties. … Elmer Gantry, the amoral preacher of morality depicted by Sinclair Lewis, is the pattern of a story that never really gets old.’
EDITORIAL
Translated By James Jacobson
March 11, 2008
Switzerland – Nachrichten – Home Page (German)
The rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer is an American success story of a very particular kind. The Democratic governor of New York State was a fierce dog, who as a public prosecutor walked on the dead to expose all kinds of corruption, organized crime and prostitution. He destroyed the reputations of many well-known and lesser-known business and political opponents in a way that left behind many enemies.
The fact that he now had to admit to being involved in a prostitution ring is not in itself unusual for an American politician. American politics without sex scandals is almost unthinkable. The fallen sinners are almost equally divided between the two major parties.
Older students recall the case Wilbur Mills, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who in 1974 was brought down due to his involvement with a stripper named Fanne Foxe. When a policeman stopped the politician’s car, this beautiful woman in the dead of night jumped into the freezing water of the Washington Tidal Basin, next to the Jefferson Memorial, thereby setting his fall in motion. Before that, these things only went on under the table, the escapades of President John F. Kennedy being the most well-known example.
Now those attracted by the Mills story have something even bigger. Since then a lot has happened, and many politicians have fallen from their pedestals. But the way Spitzer of all people has fallen into the clutches of law enforcement authorities has almost a literary quality. Elmer Gantry , the amoral preacher of morality depicted by Sinclair Lewis, is the pattern of a story that never really gets old.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated global reaction to the Eliot Spitzer story.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US