Role Models

Nick Confessore of the Times covers the unraveling of Eliot Spitzer and delivers this surprise:

Still, for all of Mr. Spitzer’s growing pains, many of his advisers remained convinced that his stubbornness was what people outside of Albany like most about him. Some aides likened him to Ronald Reagan and Rudolph W. Giuliani: no-nonsense politicians who spoke bluntly and overturned entrenched political orders.

Let me get this straight - Democratic aides to a Democratic Governor in a Democratic state were talking to Nick Confessore of the Times (and formerly of The American Prospect, so presumably a Democrat), and they chose to liken Spitzer favorably to Reagan and Giuliani?  Are they really unable to come up with any no-nonsense Democrats?  Trying times.

Yet despair not!  There is a glimmer of hope for Dems here - Spitzer himself is trying to learn from a recent Democratic President, but no, it's not Bill Clinton, nor even Jimmy Carter:

Mr. Spitzer said he had, in fact, been hitting the books. While he has previously delved into biographies of governors like Roosevelt, Charles Hughes and Al Smith, all of whom battled the Legislature to bring about change, he said he was now pondering the lessons of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who matched brute will to a subtle mastery of the legislative process.

“There’s an art there that I would like to be more successful at,” Mr. Spitzer said. “Life is a learning process, and a little more Lyndon Johnson would not hurt.”

So Eliot Spitzer hopes to bring the best of Reagan, Giuliani, and LBJ.  Go, libs!

Comments

[Jane]

Holy cow! I'm speechless. I wonder how well LBJ would have done in jail.

[capitano]

What Spitzer lacks is a competent behind-the-scenes Robert Moses -- well that and any sense of humility.

[PMII]

A tangent but I just heard that the Saudis were releasing 1,500 Al Qaeda on Promise to Be Good.

I hope we find another source of energy in the near term, but in the short term, why don't we drill...............

[raymondshaw]

“Life is a learning process, and a little more Lyndon Johnson would not hurt.”

Tell that to Little Beagle Johnson.

[raymondshaw]

“Life is a learning process, and a little more Lyndon Johnson would not hurt.”

Tell that to Little Beagle Johnson.

[Neo]

Just watched "The Right Stuff" the other night, and LBJ doesn't come off too well (especially when Mrs. Glenn says he can't come in her house).

[SteveMG]

a little more Lyndon Johnson would not hurt.”

Shortly after JFK was assassinated, LBJ was being led to the presidential helicopter to be flown to the White House.

"Sir", said an aide to LBJ while pointing to one of the helicopters, "This one is yours".

"Son", LBJ replied, "They're all mine".

If that's the LBJ they have in mind, Spitzer's got that part down perfectly.

SMG

[memomachine]

Hmmmmmmm.

I'm sorry but a little bit of LBJ goes a long long way.

[Neo]

Spitzer Policy Director Peter Pope said he was "going to kill" Gavin Donohue, the head of the Independent Power Producers of New York, an association of private energy companies, in a bitter clash early last summer over the governor's efforts to block the construction of nuclear-power plants and more than two "clean coal" plants in the state, the sources said.

[Dadmanly]

A little more LBJ?!

Aside from the obvious puff-piecery of the Times piece, that bit about Johnson did more to capture the true Elliot as anything his enemies might have said.

From every knowledgeable source I've ever read or seen, LBJ could be the archtype of stubborn, opinionated, crude, cynical, ruthless, political power baron: dedicated to the proposition that he would get what he wanted, and his ends justified any means.

I'd say Elliot's only hope to be a true leader (and save his career) would be to find a way to eradicate every trace of his LBJ demon.

Yet another piece of evidence that Spitzer's own poor judgment will be his doom.

[Dave]

Spitzer is a rock-jawed good-looking well-spoken guy, a determined and hardworking and persevering guy, a dream for anyone trying to make princes in politics...

Too bad he's a sociopath.

[kim]

The Democrats make Princes of sociopaths. I don't know why.
======================================

[sherlock]

Spitzer is a rock-jawed good-looking...

I guess it must be the right-wing smear machine that makes sure that every single photo of him looks like he's some sneering dead-ender who works at the carwash.

[clarice]

He's a bum whose rich dad's largesse allowed him to live very well while misusing his position as a prosecutor to make a political career,a man who once he took office as governor committed acts he'd have indicted any opponent for.Beyond that, he has a political tin ear at least as bad as Hi does.

[Jane]

I don't think he is good looking either.

[Ann]

Once again, I agree with both of you on your excellent taste in men.

Spitzer is a creep and creepy looking... Really creepy crawly:)