"On Thursday, in the room in Albany where the news conference was held, someone asked Mr. Paterson if he believed that Mr. Spitzer deserved to be flayed still further by the criminal justice system. (Questions and answers were broadcast live by cable news stations. Given the high crime rate among state officials in recent years, consideration might be given to showing proceedings in Albany on Court TV from now on.)
Punishment for the wayward Mr. Spitzer? That is for prosecutors to decide, Mr. Paterson replied. But absolution, he suggested, would not be unwarranted. “In my heart,” he said, “I think he’s suffered enough.”
We have, through sheer necessity, grown accustomed to watching leaders tumble from power and be replaced by seemingly lesser lights possessed of little executive experience or none at all.
But a grace note of our democracy has been that the unknown who is suddenly turned into a somebody generally does all right by us.
Mr. Ford may not have been our greatest president, but he held the country together at a troubled moment.
Closer to home, M. Jodi Rell has performed ably as Connecticut’s governor since a corruption scandal forced out John G. Rowland in 2004.
When Gov. James E. McGreevey of New Jersey was sent packing that same year, Richard J. Codey took on the job of acting governor with assurance and good cheer.
With Mr. Spitzer’s imminent departure, we have hit the tristate trifecta of shame. Now it is Mr. Paterson’s turn to show his stuff."
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