Pushing aside many other newsworthy stories today is one more very sad tale about a do-gooder gone bad. Today it was learned that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (and former Attorney General) has displayed the ultimate in hypocrisy that will leave a stench so thick it will tarnish not just his reputation, but that of every public official. An already cynical public can only become even more cynical now.

It is being reported that Governor Spitzer engaged the services of a New York prostitution ring in advance of a trip to Washington DC. I will not get on my own moralist high horse about the subject of prostitution, although, I could probably understand the arguments in favor of it being legalized. However, this is much greater than that. This is a question of hypocrisy, illegal activity, betraying a public trust, lying, cheating and stealing.

If the facts play out as initially reported, then he has betrayed his family, friends, business associates and the public. This made all the worse by his self-aggrandizing and many would argue overzealous approach to chasing Wall Street executives up a tree and then leveraging the chase to build a platform for his now shamed office of Governor.

If Mr. Spitzer were single and a private citizen, we could debate a whole range of other issues. But given his history, and moralizing and de-moralizing others -- to state the obvious -- this stinks to the high heavens.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.

Spitzer prostitution hypocrisy: 'Hello Pot, this is Kettle' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.