Thursday, December 18, 2008

Eliot Spitzer in Chinatown; David Paterson on SNL

From John Gapper's Financial Times blog, "Eliot Spitzer shows his face in Chinatown":

If Eliot Spitzer had had to choose a venue at which to make his re-entry into society, he would presumably not have selected a former massage parlour in Chinatown on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.


But Mr Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York state after getting caught up in a call girl scandal this spring, did not get the choice. Happy Ending, the former parlour in question, is now a sleek bar and it is where Slate, the online magazine was holding its seasonal drinks party.


Mr Spitzer this month week started to write a column for Slate as part of his comeback - he wrote last week about the Detroit bail-out - and so he showed up at the Slate party to be sociable.


The first I knew of it, since I was there last night, was when Mr Spitzer’s familiar face appeared, asking where he could find Jacob Weisberg, Slate Group’s editor-in-chief. I pointed through a crowd of people in his direction.



“Don’t worry,” Mr Spitzer replied cheerfully, starting to make his way through the crowd. “I’ve got sharp elbows.”


I went over afterwards to ask him how he was enjoying life as a columnist. “It sucks,” he said with a grin. “I used to be governor of New York”.


Mr Spitzer presumably knew he was walking into the lion’s den since he was surrounded by journalists, but he was unabashed. I rather admired his chutzpah and his willingness to turn up with just a sense of humour to protect him.



Incidentally, for those who haven't seen this yet, Spitzer's successor as New York Governor, David Paterson, was spoofed on Saturday Night Live last weekend:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why should Gov. patterson be offended by the SNl skit?

He didn;t even see it, lol.