Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Spitzenfreunde   [John Derbyshire]

That's what it's called, Spitzenfreude — the widespread gloating over Eliot Spitzer's woes. The Wall Street trading floors are bedecked with photoshopped pictures of the Love Gov in various configurations with scantily- or un-clad females. The late-night comics are milking the Spitzer affair for all it's worth, of course. Jay Leno: "You know what the highest paid government position in the country is? … Working under New York Gov. Spitzer. It pays like $5,000 an hour." (Spitzer's name doesn't help, seems to lend itself to mockery. XM radio host Michael Graham calls him "Spincter.")

At this point people would normally be saying: "You have to be a little bit sorry for the guy." Yet so far I have not heard this, nor seen any sign that anybody does feel sorry for him. It's not just that nobody likes him now; nobody has ever liked him, that I can recall. Those who supported him for the governorship were motivated by either (a) party loyalty, or (b) the s.o.b. principle — i.e. that New York State's government was so thoroughly verpfuscht that letting loose a snarling mad dog into the mess could only improve it. Skillful reporters attempting "balanced" portraits of Spitzer, like Nick Paumgarten in The New Yorker last year, just left you disliking the guy as much as ever.

A guy who's been married twenty years to an obviously very nice lady must have a good side somewhere, but Spinc… sorry, Spitzer has kept it well concealed from public view. Right now he seems not to have a friend in the world. You have to be a little bit sorry for the guy. I mean, you do.

Footnote from Mrs. D. "If that [i.e. Mrs. Spitzer] was me, I'd rather he was seeing hookers than having an affair. I mean, there are no feelings involved." This strikes me as a very female point of view.

03/12 07:45 AMShare