Spitzer: Hooked on Covert Ops

Ex-gov spent career trying to ditch silver spoon image

By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 17, 2008 5:05 PM CDT

(Newser) – Eliot Spitzer didn't patronize a pricey call girl ring just for the sex, Chris Smith writes in a provocative New York post-mortem. What really attracted him was the covert op. The silver-spoon-fed Ivy Leaguer was always rebelling against being squeaky clean; as a young prosecutor, he got "hooked on the clandestine" while running stings on the Gambino crime family.

If he “could never be an old-school neighborhood guy," Smith writes, his money could at least buy him "a taste of the edgy, subterranean life.” His prosecutorial aggression didn't play well in Albany, and an effort to entrap and embarrass a rival, a tactic had worked well on Wall Street, backfired. "For years Spitzer had been reckless," Smith writes. "But when he found himself thwarted as governor, Spitzer’s recklessness sloshed over into his personal life."

[Images (3)]

[Videos (1)]

This photo from the Winter 2007 magazine article titled "Power Couples" and provided by 02138, a publication that focuses on Harvard University alumni, shows Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his wife Silda. (AP Photo/Jake Chessum, 02138)

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer answers questions during a news conference at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., Thursday, July 26, 2007. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer speaks during a news conference in Schenectady, N.Y., in this April 24, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

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Spitzer: Hooked on Covert Ops