Spitzer Scammed By Madoff Too, Naturally
The foible-filled comeback of Eliot Spitzer continues! It turns out the luv guv—who does know about Wall Street—lost money to hedge fund scammer Bernie Madoff, like everyone else. And it's Slate's fault!:
The only reason this story about Spitz losing cash along with every other famous Jewish person in New York even got out is because one of the legions of hacks at Slate's holiday party chatted him up about it. Chronology: Spitzer goes into politics. Sees hookers. Quits as governor. Takes a job as a plodding columnist for Slate. Then shows up at Slate's holiday party at Happy Ending (hey! ho!) and says that being a columnist sucks. And now finds his cocktail party convo all up in NPR!
The former governor said that he never met Madoff and wasn't into "the Palm Beach scene," which he described as stuffier than he prefers, but did confirm that his family real estate firm lost money. He shrugged his shoulders in a "what can you do" way, and seemed in good spirits as he talked and joked with the crowd of mostly journalists.
You have to wonder whether Spitzer did all this chatting intentionally as part of a comeback PR campaign, or whether this is all just part of his ongoing life lesson, that no one is your friend. Not Bernie Madoff. Not Slate. Not those cocktail party guests. Only us, Eliot. We need interns, btw. [NPR]