Learning From Scandal—Even When It's Boring

[Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer] is the new film by Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) that documents the high-priced prostitution scandal that forced former New York Governor from office in early 2008. But when you go see it (and you should) be warned: within the first 15 minutes of this movie’s start, you'll be gripped by a raging urge to walk out of the theater, grab some gasoline and matches, head to Wall Street and light the whole damn place on fire. A dozen minutes after that, you’ll also want to do the same thing to the nearest state capital. 

But please don’t.  Not only would your angry ass wind up in prison, but you would be missing the remainder of what is a very instructive movie.

One of the more infuriating dynamics at play in our nation over the last two to three years has been the interplay of the political and corporate systems. Or more specifically, how our political leaders, with all the levers of supposed power—taxation, regulatory authority and enforcement responsibility—are either unable or unwilling to corral the blatantly irresponsible behavior of financial giants. If you have aimed the majority of your ire at the Republican Party—thinking that George Bush was merely Darth Vader to a much more insidious Emperor Palpatine who manipulated the economy from his evil lair deep inside the headquarters of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan or Time Warner Cable—you probably also knew that was only a smidgen of the tale.

And this is where Eliot Spitzer comes into the plot. As New York State Attorney General and later Governor of New York, Spitzer was a real-life Luke Skywalker, determined to take on the forces of the corporate Dark Side. But unlike our plucky hero from far, far away, it was an appendage other than his arm that wound up getting cut off—figuratively speaking—by the evil forces arrayed against him. For yes, like so many popular American politicians, it was a sex scandal that ended his righteous crusade. 

Through Client 9, in both the documentary itself and its marketing materials, we are inundated with allusions to Greek tragedy and Christian morality plays—wherein hubris fells our exalted hero. But isn’t that just, for lack of a more nuanced word, boring? We’ve heard this cautionary tale before. And it’s not even the most important of all the political falls from grace our country has experienced.  Just ask Progressives from the 1960s who thought President Johnson was going to lead the fight against entrenched and racialized poverty in America, yet saw that agenda derailed by a Commander-in-Chief obsessed with winning a war in Southeast Asia born out of French colonial ambition. 

No, what you better take away from this film is not some staid message that it is somehow pride that dooms our political leaders—that would be an all too convenient hook upon which to hang failure. Government is not a science-fiction movie masquerading as morality, with linear narratives about wrong and right or villains draped in black and heroes robed in white. It’s about collective action that produces for constituents what they cannot by themselves provide.  Pride in of itself is not the problem; it’s the pursuit of policy that is disconnected from the reality of the lived experiences of people and ultimately, in politics, the priority must be the people.

Earlier, I said this was an instructive movie, but to whom should those instructions go? At the top of that list, I would place each and every one of the leaders who have been elected newly to office on the back of Tea Party-inspired anger. Take, for example, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. Like Spitzer, Christie is a hard-charging former prosecutor who could give a flying-fuck about making nice with those he sees as standing in the way of his righteous battle against the system. And like Spitzer, he is seen by many on the Left and Right as a viable presidential contender (one of the more interesting sub-plots of Client 9 is the thought by many that Spitzer could have been the first Jewish President; a missed opportunity that undoubtedly saddened a Diaspora from New York to Tel Aviv).

The lesson that Christie and our new Tea Party-infused Congress would do well to understand is that results matter.  Spitzer made a big to-do about Wall Street crimes, but in the end, Wall Street screwed us all (in the end).  As Governor, Spitzer had a chance to turn his prosecutorial success—which is really about punishing past misdeeds—into systemic reform that could have established a more balanced environment for sustained job creation and economic growth.  Spitzer brought what his gubernatorial campaign deemed “passion” into state politics but his resultant state budget did little to improve the fiscal foundation of New York State’s economy.

Similarly, Christie has generated awesome reviews by the press—just check out Joe Scarborough on MSNBC and you’ll see first-hand the man-love Christie has inspired—and his approval ratings in the Dirty Jerz are impressively high, but what are the actual results?  Changing the tone of the debate in Jersey?  I would have to agree that yes, indeed he has but you would have to agree that so has Snooki, yet you don’t see anyone giving her a medal (a pamphlet on how to prevent skin cancer, yes, but no medal).

If Christie’s pitched battle against the state teachers’ unions—which is more about saving money than actually reforming how his state finances and sets educational priorities—does not lead to higher test scores for students; if his shrinking of the state budget so he can cut property taxes does not lead to job creation; and if the only positive outcome of his cancellation of the already under construction tunnel aimed at easing congestion between North Jersey and New York City is that Manhattan will be spared an increase in the Bridge and Tunnel, fist-pumping, bar-hopping wannabe crowd on weekend nights, than all that raging against the machine that he has carried over from his prosecutorial days will be for nada.  

So should Client 9 stir up some righteous indignation and populist anti-Wall Street, anti-government anger? Definitely. But if we as a voting populace cannot learn to stem those Tea Party-esque reactionary impulses and instead vocally support those officials who produce tangible results—and not run them and their party out of office as soon as the going gets rough—then we deserve whatever system we are left with amongst the ashes of our own gasoline-fueled rage.  

[Client 9], Directed by Alex Gibney, At Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Angelika Film Center, Runtime: 118 min.