Quote of the day

In the scandal surrounding Eliot Spitzer, the biggest victim seems to be his wife.

Published March 11, 2008 10:25PM (EDT)

Love him or hate him, it's hard to deny that Eliot Spitzer has balls. He went after the Gambinos. He attacked investment banks for stock price inflation and incurred the hatred of much of Wall Street for his aggressive pursuit of white-collar crime. He sued the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. But unfortunately, as we all know by now, Spitzer's brazen balls led him astray, into the arms of "Kristen," a high-end prostitute whose services he supposedly paid for under the cover of the now infamous moniker "Client 9."

While the media obsesses over what Spitzer actually did with "Kristen" and advisors pressure him to resign, the real victim seems to be his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer. As the San Francisco Chronicle (via the Washington Post) describes the situation:

"Whatever Spitzer -- or, in the language of a federal court filing, 'Client 9' -- did with a petite brunette nicknamed 'Kristen' on the eve of Valentine's Day last month at Washington's Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, it probably wasn't as monstrous as what he asked his wife to do Monday.

"In the grand tradition of Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter and former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, Spitzer dragged his partner of 21 years before the television cameras at his offices in New York to announce that he was 'disappointed' in himself for unspecified sins.

"Silda Wall Spitzer looked like a victim of food poisoning as she stood by her man's side. She cast her eyes downward at the 183-word statement while he read it. She raised her glance only briefly, when the governor admitted he had 'acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family,' when he offered an apology 'to the public, whom I promised better,' and again when he pledged to 'dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.'

"The silent Mrs. Spitzer -- Harvard law school graduate, corporate lawyer, nonprofit founder and mother of the governor's three daughters -- then led Client 9 away from the lectern."


By Catherine Price

Catherine Price is an award-winning journalist and author of Vitamania: How Vitamins Revolutionized the Way We Think About Food. Her written and multimedia work has appeared in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, O: The Oprah Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Mother Jones, PARADE, Health Magazine, and Outside. Price lives in Philadelphia.

MORE FROM Catherine Price


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Broadsheet Love And Sex