Dumbest politician of 2008 - Eloit Spitzer

We all know that politicians are capable of doing stupid things like former Canadian Defense Minister Arthur Eggleton's decision to award a $36,000 government contract to his ex-girlfriend for a study on post-traumatic stress disorder. BC Premier Gordon Campbell caught driving drunk in Hawaii or former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey's decision to appoint his homosexual partner as his homeland security advisor. In his case, no one would have known had he not tried putting his gay partner on the government payroll. These were just plain stupid.

Next, the dumb thing politicians thought they could get away with. Bill Clinton had sexual relations with Monica Lewinski in the White House. A past sexual relationship of Bob Livingston, the powerful Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, came out in Hustler magazine in the days prior to his assumption of the Speakership of the House forcing him to vacant the Speakership before he was even sworn in. In the summer and autumn of 2006, Republican Congressman Mark Forley of Florida became embroiled in a scandal concerning some of his explicit e-mails to a House page. More recently, police arrested Sen. Larry Craig for eliciting gay sex in an airport men's room. Now, the granddaddy of them all and of all times - outgoing New York governor Eliot Spitzer paid for the services of a prostitute on several occasions. As if paying for the services of a prostitute was not bad enough, federal prosecutors want to charge Spitzer for money laundry based on his financial transactions called structuring.

Structuring is the concealment of large financial transactions by moving what seemed like small amounts of money from one bank account to another. More often than not, it is to dummy accounts opened under aliases for the purposes of hiding possibly criminal activities. I can understand why some people might do it. Certainly the paranoid multi-millionaires may wish to conceal their true wealth from their spouses, especially if one suspects that divorce papers may be served in countries where the spouse is entitled to half his wealth. Prostitution itself may not be illegal in some places, but the money made certainly helps to fund some criminal activities.

I used to think that Bill Clinton's sexual exploits were bad and his cover-up of the Lewinski affair was stupid. But Spitzer really trumped Clinton's stupidity by light years. To put this in a motor racing analogy, Spitzer would be driving a Bugatti Veyron while Clinton raced in a Dodge Viper. Most people know what a Dodge Viper can do, but a Bugatti Veyron can go 0 to 60 in 2 seconds and has a top speed of 253 miles per hour. This was the politician who made a reputation as the sheriff of Wall Street while he was New York state attorney general. He wrote the New York state laws against prostitution. That is how stupid Spitzer's actions were. This has to be the Concord moment of political scandals.

Frankly, I am not surprised that Spitzer ultimately resorted to using the services of a 22-year old call girl. I saw his wife standing beside him when he first apologized for his bad behavior and then when he announced his resignation. The man deserves a better looking wife than this. French president Nicolas Sarkozy recently married Carla Bruni, an ex-model and singer, for his third wife. Hillary Clinton was a better looking wife than Spitzer’s current wife. If Spitzer did not like having sex with his current wife, why didn’t he just divorce her?

I know Ken Langone, a venture capitalist and director of the New York Stock Exchange, is publicly dancing in the streets when news of the Spitzer's downfall broke. Right now, I am just surprised that Sen. Barack Obama is not yet dancing in the streets of Chicago on this news. After all, Spitzer is one of Sen. Hillary Clinton's super delegates and a major distraction from the Tony Razko case. America in general is too busy watching what will happen to Spitzer than minding the connection between Obama and Razko. This news has certainly put the Clinton machine on the defensive somewhat. More impotantly, David Paterson, the incoming and first African American New York governor, find himself inheriting not only Spitzer's job, but also his super delegate status. This is where the media misses the big story, who will Paterson endorse in this tight Democratic race - his brother Obama or his adopted girl Clinton. This is really a dilemma. For Spitzer, this was an easy choice. For Paterson, he will be damned either way. If Obama looses the nomination and he backed Clinton, he would be regarded as a sell-out within the African American community. If Clinton looses the nomination and he voted for Obama, he would be the most hated man in New York State.