Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

The Sad Bad Story of Governor Spitzer

“I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and that violates my — or any — sense of right and wrong,” Eliot Spitzer said.

The obvious question is just why or how a highly intelligent man like Spitzer worked his way into such a situation.

What follows is my own highly speculative attempt to explain Spitzer’s strange conduct: We begin with the fact that Spitzer is not only a highly intelligent man but also a highly emotional bull of a man. He is devoted to his family, although obviously his wife is not fully able to satisfy his sexual needs.

He might have found himself a girlfriend on the side. But she would have to understand that a marriage was not in the works. How long would a worthwhile woman put up with such a lopsided arrangement?

As a practical-minded man, Spitzer probably decided that a realistic outlet for his emotional needs could be satisfied by a professional prostitute or two who would allow him to vent his libido without any further obligations.

Is there a political future for Spitzer? The old saw says, “To err is human, To forgive is divine.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.