The political bug is a powerful infection that it seems some people can never shake.
That's what struck me earlier this week when I watched former Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report'' TV show.
He had to play along with host Stephen Colbert's jokes about his patronizing of a prostitute that forced him to resign in 2008.
"Any big plans after the show?'' Colbert asked him.
"Going straight home,'' Spitzer replied, as the audience laughed.
"I condemn you,'' Colbert, who plays a faux right-wing talk-show host, told the former governor, who is rumored to be considering a run for state comptroller this year.
"I get that sense,'' Spitzer replied.
"But I like you...You've got nothing to lose,'' Colbert said. "You've got no public image to uphold. There's nothing they have on you.''
"Not any more,'' Spitzer said.
Colbert also asked him if he thinks he has a chance to be re-elected governor since Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank, which oversees the banking system, was recently reappointed to his job, even though "he screwed everybody.''
"I just became a big fan of Ben Bernanke,'' Spitzer joked.
Spitzer looked as if he was enjoying himself, but how much humiliation can one man take? Surely there must be something he can do with his life that doesn't involve listening to snide jokes and comments about himself. And the closer he edges back to the public arena, the more intense the spotlight is going to be.
He must figure that people will get tired of it eventually. But he may be underestimating how much people like to be titillated.
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I caught this interview as well - I'm a big Colbert fan. I too felt sympathy for Elliott, but then anyone who knowingly goes on the Colbert show has to know he/she will probably get skewered.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about politics in my latest blog post, but most of it was about why I don't write about politics - too upsetting and depressing!