Eliot Spitzer: Sinner Recovers With Own TV Show

In 2008, then-New York governor Eliot Spitzer was brought down by his trysts with high-priced callgirl Ashley Dupre after pledging a new era of morality and clean government. This week, he launched his own television talk show. Is the former ¨Client 9¨ entitled to his comeback? 

Once upon a time a fallen politician could recoup his reputation by helping, say, widows and orphans. The British defense minister John Profumo, who had to resign because of a hot affair with the callgirl Christine Keeler, became a friend of London's poor classes.

No more. Now politicians like Eliot Spitzer, the ex-governor of New York, use the media as their personal rehab. And given our short memory span, or perhaps because we can't bring ourselves to care, we let them get away with it.

In case you have forgotten, here is the 2008 story as I put it in The Rabbi and the CEO: The Ten Commandments for 21st Century Leaders:

The brainy kid who graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School, the ambitious Spitzer rose to national prominence as an avenging state attorney general who hunted down Wall Street malefactors, exploiters of immigrant workers, and mobsters with moralistic fervor. Everywhere the self-styled defender of the American investor found “betrayals of the public trust” he called “shocking” and “criminal.” 

In 2007, Spitzer swept into office pledging to usher in a new era of clean government; a year later, in March 2008, two days after having been linked to a prostitution ring, he announced his resignation. The stunning development came after authorities and court documents showed that Spitzer, a father of three teenage girls, had been caught on tape arranging a liaison with a high-end call girl, and may have spent as much as $80,000 on prostitutes. Ironically, one of the industries Spitzer had aggressively prosecuted had been prostitution services.

Fast forward to this past Monday, together with the award-winning columnist Kathleen Parker, Spitzer launched his own CNN talkshow named ¨Parker Spitzer.¨ 

He is quite a charming host, although he talked too much and condemned Parker to silence. And he advised President Obama to fire treasury secretary Timothy Geithner (¨Call me! I have a few names!¨). 

Unfortunately the launch of ¨Parker Spitzer¨ attracted a mere 455,000 viewers compared to Bill O'Reilly's audience of over 3 million on Fox. 

Meanwhile, Spitzer's former callgirl Ashley Dupre is doing her own media rehab: She is now a columnist at the New York Post on the hot topic of relationships.  

What do you think? Is Eliot Spitzer entitled to his make-over as a TV host, and eventually his come-back (forgive the unintended pun) onto the political stage? Or has he lost his chance and should stay out of the limelight indefinitely? I look forward to your comments on my blog.

P.S. To invite your friends or colleagues into the conversation, click on the ¨Share¨ button above and/or retweet it. For more on Eliot Spitzer and tools on leadership ethics, check out my book The Rabbi and the CEO: The Ten Commandments for 21st Century Leaders and/or the ¨Rabbi & CEO¨ workshop.