On Spitzer, New Yorkers should remember Rudy

Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York, deserves criticism for the stupidity he showed by hiring the services of a prostitute. Spitzer has a wife and children, but he spent the night before Valentine’s Day in a swanky Washington, DC hotel as “Client 9,” the creep.

Spitzer was once the righteous scourge of Wall Street, and Big Business is celebrating the prostitution story like it’s the latest round of layoffs. Requests for his resignation, meanwhile, are becoming as common as stories about Hillary Clinton’s dysfunctional staff. However, all this only shows how forgetful we get when the sordid side of a public figure reveals itself.

In the 1990s, there was another New York politician who masqueraded in morality while shaming decency with his private life. Then-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani lambasted the Brooklyn Museum of Art for showing Chris Ofili’s dung depiction of the Virgin Mary, but kept a mistress at Gracie Mansion.

If 9/11 hadn’t happened, or if it had happened on someone else’s watch, we would only remember Rudy as a caddish hypocrite. Instead, he gets a hero’s treatment everywhere he goes, even if it doesn’t translate into presidential votes.

My goal isn’t to defend Spitzer or slam Giuliani. I only want to point out that individuals can simultaneously be capable of acts of grace and disgrace. It’s what makes us so complex.

In another story of infidelity, Jesus once said, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.” On the Spitzer saga, let the New Yorker who would not rise for Rudy cast the first stone against Spitzer.