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Why Was Spitzer So Reckless?
by
findingDulcinea Staff
With his first-hand knowledge of law enforcement’s investigative techniques, why was Spitzer so reckless? Perhaps, he subconsciously wanted to get caught.
30-Second Summary
Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor of New York two days after it was revealed that he had patronized a prostitution ring known as the Emperors' Club.
The evidence linking Spitzer to the call-girl ring came from a Feb. 13 wiretap, which was put in place after a series of suspicious funds transfers prompted federal officials to launch an investigation into his activities.
However, catching the former New York state attorney general appeared shockingly simple, considering his knowledge of funds transfers and wiretaps and their extensive use by law-enforcement authorities.
Bill O’Reilly offers his own perspective, arguing, “This is either arrogance or it's self-destructive behavior and he wanted to get caught.” Peggy Noonan offered the same two possibilities; on the latter, she first notes that humans "are all complicated little pirates," and then suggests that perhaps "Sptizer was, deep inside him, utterly self-destructive. He wanted to bring himself down."
O’Reilly and Noonan may be on the mark. Given the scandals and numerous controversies of the governor’s first year in office, the fiscal emergency facing New York State, and an openly hostile relationship with Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno, could Spitzer have subconsciously wanted to be caught? This possibility is supported by reports that Spitzer has told close aides that he began to visit prostitutes 8 months ago - which coincides with the release of a report that lambasted Spitzer's administration for misusing the State Police to track Bruno.
The evidence linking Spitzer to the call-girl ring came from a Feb. 13 wiretap, which was put in place after a series of suspicious funds transfers prompted federal officials to launch an investigation into his activities.
However, catching the former New York state attorney general appeared shockingly simple, considering his knowledge of funds transfers and wiretaps and their extensive use by law-enforcement authorities.
Bill O’Reilly offers his own perspective, arguing, “This is either arrogance or it's self-destructive behavior and he wanted to get caught.” Peggy Noonan offered the same two possibilities; on the latter, she first notes that humans "are all complicated little pirates," and then suggests that perhaps "Sptizer was, deep inside him, utterly self-destructive. He wanted to bring himself down."
O’Reilly and Noonan may be on the mark. Given the scandals and numerous controversies of the governor’s first year in office, the fiscal emergency facing New York State, and an openly hostile relationship with Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno, could Spitzer have subconsciously wanted to be caught? This possibility is supported by reports that Spitzer has told close aides that he began to visit prostitutes 8 months ago - which coincides with the release of a report that lambasted Spitzer's administration for misusing the State Police to track Bruno.
Headline Links: Did Spitzer sabotage himself?
The Times-Picayune compares the methods used to catch Spitzer with the tactics he used as New York state attorney general to close in on a different prostitution ring. The similarities are so shockingly similar that Times-Picayune journalists report, “It could have been straight out of the Spitzer prosecution playbook.”
Source: The Times Picayune
News Web site FreeRepublic.com looks to the experts to analyze the motivations behind the illicit acts of people in power. Leon Hoffman, former chairman of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s public information committee, points to the “psychology of the exception.” Hoffman says that “people in power sometimes feel they can do things that us, mere mortals, are forbidden to do. There's a sense, as with adolescents, that 'I won't get caught.’”
Source: FreeRepublic.com
Dr. Mark Ghoulston, a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, proposes a neuroscientific theory. Men in power will take greater and greater risks because of the adrenaline rush it brings. The corpus callosum, the fibrous tissue connecting right and left halves of the brain, is much thinner in men (meaning there is less fibrous connectivity between centers of emotion and rationality). For men in power, both the left and right regions are “hypertrophied.” And yet, Ghoulston finds that “rather than both brains offering a ‘checks and balance’ to each other, they can cause a synergistic and sinergistic relationship between the two and when that happens, say goodbye to conscience and common sense.”
Source: Pajamas Media
In a July 1997 interview with Psychology Today, disgraced former Chief Judge of New York Sol Wachtler provides some insight into the mind of a powerful person who goes astray: “We're taught that judges sit at the right hand of God. After a while, some judges start believing this. People call you ‘Your Honor,’ and when you sit down, they sit down. No one interrupts a judge, but a judge interrupts anyone. People think you're the font of all wisdom. You can't live like that without being affected.”
Source: Psychology Today
James Houston, a professor of criminal justice in Grand Rapids, Mich., considers whether it is guilt, or the desire for the attention that comes with being arrested, that drives people to seek punishment. In the end, he agrees that some people want to get caught. Houston cites the case of John Tuggle, a murderer who was arrested after someone watched Tuggle walk directly past his own wanted poster. Houston claims, “For some criminals it’s not any fun if they get away with it.” But professor Jacqueline Helfgott blames careless criminal behavior on “superoptimism,” a term usually associated with psychopaths to refer to a gross error in judgment.
Source: The Spokesman-Review
Stanton Samenow, author of “Inside the Criminal Mind,” and forensic psychologist N. G. Berrill, don’t believe criminals want to be caught. Commenting on the Beltway sniper case in 2002, Berrill explains, “To think that, gee, maybe at the core they know they are bad and evil and so they want to be punished—that's criminal folklore. Samenow calls it the “please stop me theory.” According to these experts, the idea is a complete fabrication built on the public’s “wishful projection.” Since citizens want the criminal to get caught, Samenow explains, they “project the desire that he be caught.”
Source: NewsMine.org, reprinted from The Washington Post
Peggy Noonan, writing on the new Web site Women of the Web, prefaces her commentary by writing "Spitzer committed this series of sins because he is human and, by definition, damaged. We are all complicated little pirates. The best are a mess. Great Popes go to regular confession, and the best of them have a lot to say." She then, like Bill O'Reilly, ascribes Spitzer's actions either to arrogance of self-destructiveness. On the latter score, she considers the possibility that "Spitzer was, deep inside him, utterly self-destructive. He wanted to bring himself down. He had a hungry animal inside him whose great desire was to kill Eliot. Maybe he knew this and maybe not; maybe he couldn’t control it. But he wanted to do something terrible to make himself suffer."
Source: Women of the Web
Background: ‘Eliot Spitzer Resigns’
With his wife Silda beside him, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced his resignation at a New York City news conference just before noon Wednesday. Spitzer said, "I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work."
Source: findingDulcinea
Spitzer told close associates that he began visiting prostitutes eight months ago. That would be around the time that, according to the New York Times’ sources, investigators looking into his case believe they unearthed evidence suggesting that Spitzer may have used campaign money to arrange his meetings with prostitutes.
Source: The New York Times (subscription may be required)
Spitzer has told his aides, according to the New York Times, that he started to visit prostitutes eight months ago. As can be seen from the Times' timeline for Spitzer's career, that first indiscretion would approximately coincide with the release of a scathing report in which New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo stated that the Spitzer administration had misused the State Police in an attempt to discredit State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. The report was the culmination of several months' antagonism between Spitzer and the state legislature, and must have been very disheartening for a governor who believed he enjoyed a strong mandate from the electorate to fix Albany's problems. Indeed, Spitzer's signature slogan was "Day One, Everything Changes."
Source: The New York Times (subscription may be required)
A November 2007 Finding Dulcinea article chronicled Spitzer's plummeting popularity.
Source: findingDulcinea
Reactions: The media mulls Spitzer’s blunder
Bill O’Reilly said that although Spitzer’s demise shouldn’t be celebrated, “elected officials cannot lead double lives. Spitzer was elected to enforce the law; he can't be violating it at the same time … This is either arrogance or it's self-destructive behavior and he wanted to get caught. He's done, he can't be governor any more.”
Source: O’Reilly Factor Flash
On the blog Seeking Alpha, Fred Wilson, a veteran New York City venture capitalist, offers the perspective he has gained from 20 years of working with corporate executives. "Most of the people that I've seen self destruct over the years have a drive that is almost overwhelming. They have a desire to succeed that takes them far. But they also have huge blind spots. They usually have someone or a group of people that protect them from the blind spots. But as they start to achieve their goals and rise beyond the people that helped them get where they are, they distance themselves. And then they are at the top—but all by themselves, and they get caught up in their greatness and then the downfall comes." He then adds, "There are no messiahs. Nobody is perfect and when we put people on pedestals, they mostly fall and let us down."
Source: Seeking Alpha
USA Today’s On Deadline blog offers reactions from all the major New York newspapers. The Wall Street Journal is especially critical, stating, “One might call it Shakespearian if there were a shred of nobleness in the story of Eliot Spitzer's fall.”
Source: USA Today
Historical Context: ‘Politicians and Sex: How They’re Outed’
Time magazine offers several abstracts of different scandals in an interactive feature titled “Politicians and Sex: How They’re Outed.” The feature includes Jerry Springer, Mark Foley and, of course, Bill Clinton. In each case the evidence, such as personal e-mails, personal checks and text messages, seems remarkably simple.
Source: Time
Reference: ‘Excerpts from the Spitzer Wiretaps’
The National Post offers transcribed excerpts from the Spitzer wiretaps: “Spitzer, who is alleged to be 'client-9,' reportedly made a number of calls to women allegedly involved in a prostitution ring dubbed The Emperor's Club.”
Source: National Post
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