Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Spitzer & Blackmail.

Well, I'm late on this subject. Rand Simberg is a source for some info on the former governor.

Independent of any morality or legality two things strike me.

First, the pure schedenfreud of a "moral crusader" being taken down by the very thing he's railed against.

Another is the potential for blackmail. Spitzer was very unpopular, being a bullying arrogant man that used his power as a cudgel. This means that a scandal would sink him, as it just did.

So anyone that had proof that Spitzer was doing these things, had great leverage against him. Regardless of any legality, there are somethings people that work with sensitive information (I'd think a governor would count) should not do, and that's put themselves in a situation where an outside force can have leverage against you.

And Spitzer did just that.

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