To Eliot Spitzer, the soon to be ex-governor of New York, I offer this thought: Consider the toilet brush.
Mr. Spitzer, a millionaire and a millionaire’s son, may be unfamiliar with this useful tool. Contemporary toilet brushes are usually made of plastic, but I’m sure some high-end and eco-friendly hardware stores carry models with wooden handles and vegetable bristles. I mention the brush, because grasping this implement became the first rehabilitative step for a similarly fallen politician.
Like many people, I was profoundly angry with Mr. Spitzer when I first learned of his scandal. One of the more promising politicians in a generation, he’s been acting like a self-destructive jerk ever since he was sworn in as governor. Now, as I read the stories about the young woman involved in this incident and contemplate the difficulty Silda Spitzer and their daughters must be facing, my overriding sense is of sadness for these five women.
In 1961, John Profumo, Britain’s secretary of state for war, had a brief sexual relationship with a Christine Keeler. Two years later, it was revealed that Ms. Keeler had simultaneously slept with Yevgeny Ivanov, the senior naval attache at the Soviet embassy. Confronted with allegations, Mr. Profumo denied the affair before a closed-door session in the House of Commons, then later admitted it had taken place. He resigned his offices, not for having an affair nor for imperiling national security (it was determined no secrets were passed), but for lying to the House of Commons.
Like Mr. Spitzer today, Mr. Profumo was at the center of media attention and public derision. Like Mr. Spitzer, Mr. Profumo was independently wealthy and 48 years old at the time of his political downfall. He was at an age when his career trajectory of power and privilege was still in the ascent and he found himself cut off. An intelligent and ambitious man with useful decades ahead of him, he suddenly had nothing to do.
So he picked up a toilet brush. He volunteered to clean toilets at Toynbee Hall, a settlement house in London, serving the urban poor. Perhaps it was a conscious act of public penance, a show. If so, it was a good one and rarely emulated by subsequently disgraced politicians.
The usual course is to wait a year, then re-emerge with a book, start appearing on political talk shows, maybe do some lobbying or teach at an Ivy League school. Try for Nixonian “second act.”
Maybe that’s the course Mr. Spitzer will take, but I hope he at least considers the toilet brush. Mr. Profumo did not scrub toilets long. The staff at Toynbee Hall asked him to come out of the lavatory and put his skills at the service of the organization. He did, eventually spending years as Toynbee Hall’s chief fundraiser, putting his political skills and connections in the service of the poor of London’s East End and never drawing a salary.
The 19th-century British Settlement House movement spread to the United States. In New York City, the Henry Street Settlement has been serving the poor of the Lower East Side since 1893.
Henry Street surely has toilets and they must need cleaning every now and again. I’m not saying this will be easy. Although Mr. Spitzer lives on the East Side, it’s the Upper East Side (Fifth Ave. and 80th St.). He can catch the 4,5 or 6 train downtown, but he has to get over to the F train for Henry Street (the E. Broadway stop). There’s no easy way to get from the 4,5 or 6 to the F, although you can get a free transfer from the Bleecker St. stop on the 4,5 or 6 to the Broadway-Lafayette Stop on the F. Well, it is penance, after all.
Eliot Spitzer doesn’t have to clean toilets to redeem himself, but he will need to do something. Until this week, Mr. Spitzer was very different from the run-of-the-mill politician – he seemed genuinely interested in putting the interests of the average citizen ahead of those use government to advance their own interests.
If, like Jack Profumo, he has another 43 years to live, let’s hope he takes some time to heal his family and then finds a way to use his talents to make this world a better place. It doesn’t have to start with toilets – but it wouldn’t hurt.
The Toilet Brush
To Eliot Spitzer, the soon to be ex-governor of New York, I offer this thought: Consider the toilet brush.
Mr. Spitzer, a millionaire and a millionaire’s son, may be unfamiliar with this useful tool. Contemporary toilet brushes are usually made of plastic, but I’m sure some high-end and eco-friendly hardware stores carry models with wooden handles and vegetable bristles. I mention the brush, because grasping this implement became the first rehabilitative step for a similarly fallen politician.
Like many people, I was profoundly angry with Mr. Spitzer when I first learned of his scandal. One of the more promising politicians in a generation, he’s been acting like a self-destructive jerk ever since he was sworn in as governor. Now, as I read the stories about the young woman involved in this incident and contemplate the difficulty Silda Spitzer and their daughters must be facing, my overriding sense is of sadness for these five women.
In 1961, John Profumo, Britain’s secretary of state for war, had a brief sexual relationship with a Christine Keeler. Two years later, it was revealed that Ms. Keeler had simultaneously slept with Yevgeny Ivanov, the senior naval attache at the Soviet embassy. Confronted with allegations, Mr. Profumo denied the affair before a closed-door session in the House of Commons, then later admitted it had taken place. He resigned his offices, not for having an affair nor for imperiling national security (it was determined no secrets were passed), but for lying to the House of Commons.
Like Mr. Spitzer today, Mr. Profumo was at the center of media attention and public derision. Like Mr. Spitzer, Mr. Profumo was independently wealthy and 48 years old at the time of his political downfall. He was at an age when his career trajectory of power and privilege was still in the ascent and he found himself cut off. An intelligent and ambitious man with useful decades ahead of him, he suddenly had nothing to do.
So he picked up a toilet brush. He volunteered to clean toilets at Toynbee Hall, a settlement house in London, serving the urban poor. Perhaps it was a conscious act of public penance, a show. If so, it was a good one and rarely emulated by subsequently disgraced politicians.
The usual course is to wait a year, then re-emerge with a book, start appearing on political talk shows, maybe do some lobbying or teach at an Ivy League school. Try for Nixonian “second act.”
Maybe that’s the course Mr. Spitzer will take, but I hope he at least considers the toilet brush. Mr. Profumo did not scrub toilets long. The staff at Toynbee Hall asked him to come out of the lavatory and put his skills at the service of the organization. He did, eventually spending years as Toynbee Hall’s chief fundraiser, putting his political skills and connections in the service of the poor of London’s East End and never drawing a salary.
The 19th-century British Settlement House movement spread to the United States. In New York City, the Henry Street Settlement has been serving the poor of the Lower East Side since 1893.
Henry Street surely has toilets and they must need cleaning every now and again. I’m not saying this will be easy. Although Mr. Spitzer lives on the East Side, it’s the Upper East Side (Fifth Ave. and 80th St.). He can catch the 4,5 or 6 train downtown, but he has to get over to the F train for Henry Street (the E. Broadway stop). There’s no easy way to get from the 4,5 or 6 to the F, although you can get a free transfer from the Bleecker St. stop on the 4,5 or 6 to the Broadway-Lafayette Stop on the F. Well, it is penance, after all.
Eliot Spitzer doesn’t have to clean toilets to redeem himself, but he will need to do something. Until this week, Mr. Spitzer was very different from the run-of-the-mill politician – he seemed genuinely interested in putting the interests of the average citizen ahead of those use government to advance their own interests.
If, like Jack Profumo, he has another 43 years to live, let’s hope he takes some time to heal his family and then finds a way to use his talents to make this world a better place. It doesn’t have to start with toilets – but it wouldn’t hurt.
© Mark Floegel, 2008