Word: spitzers
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...Still, it's difficult to believe that the crack former prosecutor would allow himself to get caught up in the routine IRS investigation that led to the exposure of the prostitution ring. As Spitzer knows better than most, banks must inform the government of suspicious transactions like unusually large or frequent cash withdrawals and requests to break down money transfers into small amounts. (Spitzer appears to have used both methods to pay for prostitutes.) Investigators are particularly watchful when a public official is behind such transactions - something Spitzer also would have known. During a lunch with TIME staffers...
...perhaps nothing could save him from his impulses. Spitzer's sins aren't unprecedented, and if you examine the concupiscence revealed in previous scandals - for instance, those of President Clinton, former Florida Congressman Mark Foley (who exchanged lewd messages with teenagers) and former New Jersey governor James McGreevey (who resigned in 2004 after admitting to an affair) - it's possible to find similar biographical elements: stern father figures, highly promising early careers, an expansive sense of power and purpose. Says Masters: "It's the hubris and willingness to tackle anything that made [Spitzer] so successful, and it's the hubris...
...Like many scolds, Spitzer seemed to believe his burning pursuit of right justified any personal failings - his boorishness, the overweening use of his offices and, one presumes, his philandering. "I think he felt he was totally invulnerable and could do whatever he wanted and there would be no consequences," says Ed Koch, a former New York City mayor who considers himself a friend of Spitzer...
...Politicians occasionally survive sexual misconduct, as Clinton did. Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Senator David Vitter of Louisiana both stayed in office despite their prostitution scandals. Spitzer could not because, in the end, "he's got no friends," says Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who worked on two of Spitzer's campaigns. "If you're seen as being the source of all moral behavior and then you turn out not to be that way, people are happy about...
...Sheinkopf recalls a sad moment from Spitzer's 1998 attorney general campaign: Spitzer had been charged with improperly using his father's money to help finance his career. He denied the truth until the last possible moment, when he finally admitted that his dad made it possible for him to lend his campaign millions. "I looked over and saw this man - thin, in shirtsleeves with frayed cuffs, holding himself in the corner," Sheinkopf says. "I thought, This must be the loneliest man on the planet. And in fact, he turned...