The Comeback of Eliot Spitzer

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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April 19, 2009

The Comeback of Eliot Spitzer

Newsweek runs an excellent cover story on the attempted public comeback of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

"For American politicians, the road back from disgrace in a sex scandal is long and arduous. The early steps are straightforward: accept responsibility, express remorse and accept the consequences. For the extremely smart and the extremely lucky (e.g., Bill Clinton), this strategy alone can allow for political survival. Most of the time, it does not."

"From there, things get more complicated. The public forgets but does not forgive. To have a chance at a future in politics, or at least being an elder statesman, he must perform a torturous penance: genuinely abandoning his oldest ambitions... Ultimately, we command a cruel punishment for our fallen leaders: they must become the antithesis of themselves -- modest, chastened, resigned. We will consider building them back up again only when they are really, honestly, as low (or lower) than us."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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April 19, 2009