Ethics Newsline®

Rushworth Kidder’s commentary on the fall of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer prompted several responses from readers. Among the comments:

Thank you so much for your piece on Spitzer. It has done much to calm the storm of emotions that has gripped me since these awful revelations.

In my professional life, I knew this man and some of his best and most ethically minded colleagues as we worked together on matters of legal and ethical abuse in the insurance industry on both sides of the border.

The revelation of his duplicity was like a blow to the ethical foundations on which I thought we had all been basing our work all those years ago, several times to our personal danger. Despite being long retired, I felt vulnerable and sick at the thought that the man whom I looked on as the rock and guardian of our efforts might well have been as useless as a wet sheet in a storm.

Reading and re-reading your piece has helped me to regain some sense of hope….

– Antony Cunningham
Toronto, Canada

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The commentary on Eliot Spitzer was 100 percent on target, concise, and well written. Having recently moved into the DC area, I have become increasing aware of the phony image that politicians veneer themselves with, including the abuse of the word “friend,” until such terms have no real meaning in the political environment. We tend to elect the veneer, without knowing what is really behind it.

– Erick Reynolds
Frederick, MD

– Compiled by Ethics Newsline® editor Carl Hausman