Eliot On The Comeback

I don’t understand why you feel the meaning of this photo has to be teased out. Of course it’s meant to show that the family is still intact. I would think it would be obvious to anyone that a man brought down by a sex scandal would want to first repair his relationships within his family before going on to rehabilitate his reputation at large.
As for the the quote, it is clearly saying that hope is something you don’t expect to still have after going through a period of struggle; when you find that you still do, it feels like a ‘gift of grace’. I don’t see why that would be laughable. I don’t see why you denigrate the concept of hope by calling it a post-scandal reward. I get the impression you think Spitzer should permanently be identified only by his scandal, that he has no right to expect any kind of redemption in any way, and if he dares to, you will be there to sneer at it. Correct me if I’m wrong; your writing is sometimes impressionistic and hard to follow.

the black and blue coloring expresses the bruised feeling inside the family. It does seem to make clear there is a healing, albeit of the buddhist variety of acceptance. I do have a creepy feeling from the hand around the daughter at the far right. It almost looks like it is Eliot’s hand doing a plastic man imitation and fantastically stretching to rope his daughter’s support in. I also can’t help but notice the belt on Eliot’s white pants. It is restrained and pure now…
I am not sure this photo is anything more than a hello we are making progress from a quickly chosen vacation photo, not to say it doesn;t reveal images of relevance. I hope the family is doing well and I hope Elio gets back to busting down SEC corruption.

Demit,
I appreciate your comment. Thinking about it, I may be I’m caught up a little bit in some built-in, unstated NY media attitudes about Spitzer. Because my primary emphasis is always visual, I’ve been resisting any tendency to try and sexualize these family photos. At the same time, your comment makes me realize there is a set of terms laid out by the NY media that says: a.) Spitzer can come back to public life, but he’s got to take a certain amount of punishment and ridicule from us first, b.) Spitzer can come back to public life, but not too fast (according to some magical media timeline), and c.) to the extent Spitzer is supposedly trying to come back too fast, based on his writing gig at Slate and the fact he’s sending these redemption-themed cards to public officials, then he needs to be slapped around a little bit for hubris.
I can see that I might have fallen somewhat into the trap of “c.” Although I have to say, I am conflicted about it, not out of a puritan sense that Spitzer needs to be punished, but out of my general and typical reaction to people/politicians that are operating with what I perceive as an inordinate amount of hubris. Along those lines, I do find the specific word “unanticipated” in the quote rather disingenuous. As much as we’re seeing natural contrition, and as much as I think this family does seem to pull together and is “dealing,” I simultaneously feel Spitzer is skillfully using his family, and this quote, in particular, to achieve a reward (not just reinstatement in people’s graces, but also full reinstatement in the public/power sphere) that actually feels quite anticipated.

If Spitzer wants to run for the Senate, I’ll vote for him. I like him – I voted for him for Attorney General and again for Governor. I don’t expect public officials to be completely chaste, just that they make an effort to be discreet – as Spitzer clearly did. We were told that his wanderings attracted official attention because of the way he handled cash. It’s more plausible that somebody went after him either as payback for Spitzer’s earlier work as a prosecutor, or to prevent him from rising in the national government.
Spitzer now has a somewhat unique position in public life. He’s already been ruined, and he hasn’t gone away. He’s a talented, hard-working guy who wants to make a contribution to our common well-being. I don’t see the point of forever beating him over the head for sins he’s committed in the past. Yes, there is some artifice in the process of seeking public redemption – big deal. If the worst we can say about a public figure is that after much digging, his enemies found he cheats on his wife, we’d be foolish to deny him the redemption he seeks.

Wow. If readers can see deep meaning in the fact that the predominant colors are black and blue, supposedly signifying hurt, bruised feelings, is it going too far to point out that it’s pretty funny to see, erect in the background, three perfect phallic symbols? After all, the guy was destroyed by an unzipped fly.
The only way they could be more obvious would be if they were painted pink.

DennisQ writes: “If Spitzer wants to run for the Senate, I’ll vote for him. I like him – I voted for him for Attorney General and again for Governor. I don’t expect public officials to be completely chaste, just that they make an effort to be discreet – as Spitzer clearly did.”
But Mr.Q-If not chaste, what about law abiding? And what about that young woman prostitute Spitzer bought like a slave to use for his sexual pleasure? She is someone’s daughter. A parent without the considerable power, wealth and influence of the Spitzer family. Spitzer’s daughters will never be compelled by financial need to prostitute their bodies to men like Spitzer. They must only serve as props in photographs for Spitzer’s effort to restore himself to a position of power and influence. In his own way Spitzer has made them into prostitutes.
You’ll vote for him DennisQ. But are you willing to sell him your daughter? Or does your support of Spitzer only include the use of his discretion in the sexual exploitation of the daughters of other parents?

The young woman whose attentions Spitzer paid for, Ashley Dupree, may have had, in some respects, a troubled life, but in no way was prostitution her only option or was she a “slave”…she used the system to her advantage, and why should puritans condemn her any more than they do another young person who willingly submits, say, to the ethical challenges of working for a corporation like Wal-Mart or Blackwater…get over it, in other words. Surely, union-busting and war crimes are worse than prostitution…but society doesn’t seem to see it that way. Prostitution’s illegality, certainly at this income level, is a relic of intolerance and hypocrisy.
Of course, it was Spitzer’s own hypocrisy which bought him down in the first place, a man who claimed to be sqeaky clean, who prosecuted prostitutes in public life, who found out the hard way that he had made too many enemies and not enough friends despite overwhelming popularity at the time of his election. It makes me, despite my better judgment, admire and cheer someone like Illinois’s Blagojevich, who stubbornly and defiantly hangs in there despite scandal and shame, filling the wiretap transcripts with language reminiscent of LBJ or Nixon, cursing his enemies, corruptly calculating the cash value of his power. I can’t help but like him for this…is it really that different from Caroline Kennedy trying to assert a royalist claim?
As for this whole thing of Spitzer’s wife and daughters, either they’re going to leave and disown him, or stand by him, right? They’ve made the latter decision, and why not? Dad turned out to have a thing for paid sex, which probably strikes them as rather gross and disgusting, but hardly evil or violent. Probably he’s a lot nicer to them now, not just because he’s contrite, but also now he has more free time, less stress, and it’s all out in the open.
If we could rehabilitate people like Nixon, then Spitzer is nothing. He’s a smart guy, hopefully wiser now. Of course he should continue his professional life as best he can.

We need to update traditional fairy tales for the benefit of guys like Joee Doee who see Ashley Dupree as a sort of Little Red Riding Hood walking through the woods when she meets Eliot Spitzer, the Big Bad Wolf. In the new, contemporary version of the story, Riding Hood’s fairy godmother warns her that she will meet a wealthy politician who will pay $2500 to meet her in a Washington hotel room and have her do unspeakable things. And Little Red Riding Hood responds, It better be cash up front, and I don’t do enemas.

As a New Yorker, Eliot Spitzer can come back when he personally apologizes to me for being such a bonehead. This card showing his family having a great time on the type of vacation most New Yorkers dream about isn’t going to do it for me.
Also I do think it’s easier to stay with a wealthy man than a poor one when it comes to the kind of humiliations that Eliot indulged in — there is something arrogant and sleazy about his attempt to pretend all his forgiven about his slippery moral code.

“You have no idea, Kate Monster.”
Trekkie!!
 

To me, the only thing visually interesting was that the daughters thought they had to lean in to be in the frame. It looks very casual, like they handed the camera to a stranger.
Alan Chin says the rest of what I was thinking about the other comments.

all i want to hear from spitzer is more details about how wall street, in collusion with the bush administration, actively thwarted investigation, transparency and accountability prior to the economic meltdown and market collapse. everything else tabloid related is a red herring.

can’t help but notice the belt on