Worse Than Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy is the public display and defense of values to which we don't privately adhere. I suspect that to one degree or another we're all hypocrites, that this friction between person and persona is intrinsic to human nature.

The walking arrogance that is wrapped in the skin of a man named Spitzer goes beyond simple social fraud on family, friends and various hangers-on.

The recent discovery of his felonies is evidence of actions that define a person who is intent on ruling others without a need to apply the same rules to himself. Combined with his enthusiasm for developing an almost endless list of new rules while selectively but strictly enforcing current rules and his boundless confidence in his righteousness, it's easy to foresee an unchecked Eliot Spitzer tilting into tyranny.

John Podhoretz describes Spitzer this morning in three words, Eliot Spitzer, Crook. I'd add that he's a tyrant in training. If he's allowed an exemption today, he'll take his success as proof of his difference from the commoners he rules.

In addition, the man is a coward. What purpose did his wife's presence serve other than to provide a skirt behind which he hid in his 55-second news conference?