The case of Eliot Spitzer – as is often the case when an American politician is charged with a lack of moral rectitude – leaves many Europeans scratching their collective heads. According to this editorial from Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, ‘From a Central European perspective, the Spitzer Affair has a rather outlandish aspect to it. New York’s once dreaded “Mister Clean” is facing ruin because in most U.S. states, prostitution and visiting a prostitute is not just a matter of moral misconduct – it’s an indictable offense.’
EDITORIAL
Translated Bu Ulf Behncke
March 12, 2009
Germany – Financial Times Deutschland – Original Article (German)
Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays virtue. But Eliot Spitzer made so many bitter enemies during the course of his career that now, some even refuse to call the Governor of New York State a hypocrite: To them, Spitzer never even pretended to respect virtue.
Spitzer, who in his previous post as Attorney General was the terror of Wall Street and many major American corporations, simply imagined himself above the law.
What Spitzer was actually thinking, nobody knows. What’s clear is that this classic drama of a smug Mister Goody-Two-Shoes whose meetings with high-class hookers proved to be his undoing, will provide ample material for psychologists and future scriptwriters alike.
Since Spitzer violated the very laws that as Governor and former Attorney General he was ultimately responsible for upholding, he is left no way out other than resignation.
From a Central European perspective, the Spitzer Affair has a rather outlandish aspect to it. New York’s once dreaded “Mister Clean” is facing ruin because in most U.S. states, prostitution and visiting a prostitute is not just a matter of moral misconduct – it’s an indictable offense.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing foreign press reaction to the the downfall of Eliot Spitzer.
