Eliot Spitzer — “Petraeus Shouldn’t Have Resigned” — Ed Koch Agrees

For some reason two men who are obviously content to live without honor felt free to “weigh-in” and speak out on a former military man who chose to leave his office of public trust with some remnant of his honor apparently still intact

Colin Campbell reported on a bit between a pair of “Wise Guys,” former Governor Eliot Spitzer and former Mayor Ed Koch, who showed up on “Inside City Hall” last night. Structurally, Colin’s piece more or less kicked-off with a quote by the very ethically and morally incontinent Mr. Spitzer: “As I understand the facts as we’ve seen in the papers so far, there was no criminal violation here.” With syntax this bad, one wonders how Mr. Spitzer is capable of making any logical or even any meaningful pronouncements.

Let’s plow on, maybe the rhetorical soil might get less rocky. “...[t]here was no violation, I’ve been told, of even C.I.A. rules or regulations although there may be some questions there. It does strike me that perhaps the president could have looked him in the eye and said, ‘You have violated a bevy of ethical and moral rules that you understand. You will have to deal with that. You and your family will deal with that. But you will go back and continue to serve your nation. You will be straightforward with the public with what you’ve done. But I’m telling you as the commander and chief, serve the nation. That’s what we expect of you; deal with the personal issues in your own way.’ ”

It seems that for Eliot Spitzer if  “You have violated a bevy of ethical and moral rules that you understand. You will have to deal with that. You and your family will deal with that.... [ but, please, go back into public service as if nothing happened].  One wonders if Eliot Spitzer is speaking out on behalf of a public aggrieved by the loss of General David Patraeus as their C.I.A. Director or on behalf of poor old  “CLIENT  9” pining after what wouldah, couldah, shouldah been.

For what it’s worth, Mr. Spitzer’s fellow “Wise Guy” on “Inside City Hall,” former Mayor Ed Koch, supposedly “concurred”.  What he is quoted as having said was a quip about the relative acceptability of one or two mistresses. The line was too glib and cynical by half,  but it’s really not fair to criticize somebody for whimsically  talking about something so far beyond his own life experiences, since that obviously was part of the Mayor’s joke.