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How Many "Spitzers" are there in Public Life?

Everyone says that (former) Governor Eliot Spitzer's flaw was his hypocrisy. I disagree. His most salient flaw was his self-righteous, Javert-like prosecutorial zeal, the ferocious delight he took in putting others in the wrong. And, beyond Victor Hugo's nasty policy inspector, he was a grandstanding publicity-seeker, to boot. These qualities almost should disqualify a prosecutor or attorney general. We should not want military generals who take pleasure in killing people and we should not want attorneys general who derive personal joy in jailing people, especially when they arrange the arrests so that they can be shown on the six o'clock news. It is all a bit disgusting, actually. And it may indicate the core of psychological projection that resides in the heart of the modern witch-hunters.

Roger Kimball (editor of The New Criterion) gets it right in this blog that I am happy to link to.http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/rogerkimball/2008/03/15/spitzer_and_the_army_of_bornag.php

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on March 15, 2008 5:29 PM.

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