Buying Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer

This workman-like account of the rise and fall of an ex-Governor of the Empire State is probably not of general interest, even though Eliot Spitzer might have been the first Jewish president but for his strange demons. Because only the most mischievous demons, or maybe one of the minor Greek gods a la Banville's Infinities, can essay to explain Eliot's squandering tens of thousands of dollars not to mention his career on base physicality. How disingenuous were his assertions to The New York Post that his bad habit was morally superior to a flat out affair? That Eliot rocketed to prominence, on the merits to be sure, and flamed out in the way in which he did, ought to reassure that intrinsic societal processes do or may adequately vet the nation's leaders. Possibly even JFK in the gentlemanly early 60s would not have survived outright call girl scandal. This book does not purport to be a psychohistory - query whether Peter Elkind, who lives in and writes from somewhere in Texas, very far away, possessed the aptitude or inclination to do so - and neither does Lloyd Constantine's more personal memoir about the same subject matter and time line attempt to psychoanalyze the principal.

Pols and wonks have long liked to talk about the first this or that president. Smart money was on Hillary, Obama came from behind, Schumer keeps his powder dry, and Cuomo now emerges as the Italian and of course the second Catholic. It says here that although AGs don't become governors, there's only one example in New York, governors do become presidents, while Senators most often do not. Who was the last one? That points to Andrew Cuomo. Elkind, with all his access to Spitzer, who doesn't like Andrew, doesn't understand this fundamental fact. If Elikind claims to be a contemporary historian, whatever that is, perhaps he should consider future "history," not a superfluous and redundant account of a bad apple who will never return to the national stage.

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