How to … Leverage the Nonprofit Sector in the Service of Your Sleazy Personal Life

Having brought the hammer down on Wall Street, Eliot Spitzer should have been well aware of the dangers of the for-profit sector. Yet when it came time to betray both his marriage and the people of New York State, the governor didn’t have the good sense to go the nonprofit route. Instead, he paid money — large sums of money — for the services of a prostitute, and it was the size of the transactions that raised the first red flag among investigators and eventually led to Spitzer’s humiliating public crash.

Wouldn’t a plain-vanilla affair have been better? By keeping matters in the nonprofit arena, Spitzer would have avoided the prying eyes of the law. More, he would have had some leeway in defending himself against the charge that did the most damaging in ending his political career: hypocrisy. Spitzer had prosecuted prostitution earlier in his career, and if there’s one thing the American people cannot stand from their political leaders, it is their public posturing against the very behaviors they are themselves engaged in.

It’s all about the mission. Forgetting that simple fact destroyed Eliot Spitzer.

How to … appears Mondays at the 501(c) Files. Most weeks it’s not written so tongue-in-cheek. | 501(c)

Tags: Eliot Spitzer