Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former governor of New York who was at the center of a prostitution scandal last year, may be trying to redeem himself and make another bid for public office. Spitzer was interviewed by CNN for his opinion on the latest AIG financial scandal. The interview will air on Sunday. One of Spitzer’s big projects as governor was to clean up irresponsible spending and corporate greed- in fact, he investigated AIG while he was attorney general of New York. Could this topic be the platform for Spitzer’s return to politics?

Eliot Spitzer has a few words to say about the AIG bonus brouhaha: I told you so.

The former New York governor battered American International Group with charges of corruption long before his own dizzying downfall in a prostitution scandal. He has used this latest financial scandal to strike his old populist, Sheriff of Wall Street themes and, just maybe, mend his reputation — though critics contend that he bears a share of the blame for the insurance giant’s historic near-collapse.

Spitzer says the AIG bonus issue is “penny ante” compared to the billions of the insurer’s bailout money funneled to bad banks, and that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner owes America an explanation, quickly.
As for all those politicians piling on AIG this week? Been there. Done that.

“We pursued AIG and Wall Street’s structural failures in a way that others shied away from because it was politically unpalatable for them to address those issues,” Spitzer told host Brian Lehrer Wednesday on WNYC Radio in New York City. “Now it is the flavor of the month. Everybody is jumping up and down serving subpoenas, beating their chests trying to be tougher than the next person.”

On CNN Thursday, Spitzer said his initial probes came from AIG’s “effort from the very top to gin up returns whenever, wherever possible and to push the boundaries in a way that would garner returns almost regardless of risk.

“Back then I said to people, AIG is the center of the web,” he told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
Spitzer pursued AIG for years when he was New York’s attorney general. The company eventually announced in 2006 that it would pay $1.64 billion to resolve allegations that it used deceptive accounting practices to mislead investors and regulatory agencies. AIG’s veteran chief executive officer, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, was forced to resign in 2005 after a long and contentious, sometimes ugly battle with Spitzer.

[From The Associated Press]

What do you think – has Eliot’s past behavior disqualified him as a credible expert on this topic? Do you think it’s appropriate for a guy who is ethically challenged to be leading the charge against bad business ethics? It doesn’t seem to me that Spitzer was all that effective in preventing or uncovering corporate greed while he was in office. Perhaps he was too distracted by pretty young hookers to give it his full attention. It’s real easy for him to say “I told you so” now. But if he has any good solutions to stopping AIG and other banks from doing this again, then hookers be damned, I’m all ears.