NYC Democrats In A Forgiving Mood ?

A few months ago it looked like the political careers of Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer were over. Both were caught in some extra-marital sexual misconduct -- Weiner for sending sexually-explicit photos of himself to several women, and Spitzer for using the services of some high-dollar prostitutes. Both resigned their elected positions. Now it looks like they may be on the comeback trail.

Weiner is running for mayor of New York City, and Spitzer has tossed his name in the ring to be that city's comptroller. And it looks like New York City Democrats may be ready to forgive them for their sexual peccadillos. A new poll shows both with a strong chance to win the Democratic primary to be held on September 10th.

The poll is the recent Quinnipiac University Poll (taken of 738 registered NYC Democrats between July 8th and 14th -- with a 3.6 point margin of error), and it shows both Weiner and Spitzer leading in their respective races. Weiner's lead over Christine Quinn is within the poll's margin of error, so the outcome of that race could go either way, but Weiner has been going up in the poll's since he annouced his candidacy. Spitzer, on the other hand, is a solid favorite to win his race.

I don't really care much who wins the mayoralty contest, since I live a long way from that wonderful city. But I am happy to see Eliot Spitzer starting to revive his political career. That's because he has shown in the past that he is not afraid to take on the monied interests of Wall Street and hold their feet to the fire -- and that is something I wish more politicians were brave enough to do.

How have these two men been able to come back from political oblivion? The poll tries to answer that question. It seems that most people, while they don't approve of sexual misconduct, don't consider it to be the unforgivable sin that financial corruption is considered to be. When the poll asked whether financial impropriety or sexual misconduct was worse, the results weren't even close. Here are the numbers:

WHICH IS WORSE?
Sexual misconduct...............22%
Financial impropriety...............69%
Unsure...............9%

It is still about 8 weeks until the city's Democratic primary, and anything could still happen. But right now it looks like both men may be well on their way to resurrecting their political careers.

Hypocrisy - Thy Name Is Spitzer

I'm mad as hell. How could Eliot Spitzer do this to his family, his supporters and the Democratic Party? For the last couple of years, we've seen case after case where Republican officials painted themselves as lily-white, while engaging in a variety of sleazy activities in their own personal lives. Now we learn that Spitzer has done the same thing!

It was revealed yesterday that Spitzer has been a client of a ritzy high-dollar prostitution ring (as recently as last month). Federal investigators have the New York Governor on tape requesting the services offered by the ring. Then he met with a prostitute named Kristen for a two-and-one-half hour tryst in a hotel room. He paid her $4300.

Personally, I don't care if someone buys sex. There have always been prostitutes and probably always will be -- regardless of what the law says. I would not oppose its legalization. If this had been a "good-time Charlie" (of either party) who was honest about his actions, I would not be upset.

But I do care about hypocritical behavior, and Spitzer is guilty of it. He has spent many years painting himself as a "straight-arrow" kind of guy, whose actions are the same as his words. As Attorney General, he oversaw the busting of prostitution rings and righteously told us how wrong it was. Now we learn he was lying to us.

In his rather wussy apology (if that's what it was), he wouldn't even admit what he had done. He just said he's failed to live up to his standards of right and wrong. That's crap! Values are not determined by words, but by actions. And when your words and actions don't jibe, that's called hypocrisy.

When Republicans were found to be guilty of this same kind of hypocrisy, I called for their resignation. Now I do the same for Spitzer.