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Mar 10, 2008 10:02 pm US/Central
N.Y. Governor Not Alone In Downfall By Sex Scandal
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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New York Governor Elect Eliot Spitzer gives a thumb up as New York Democrats celebrate during a rally in New York on Nov. 7, 2006.
Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
The country is feeling shockwaves Monday night after a political earthquake in New York. There is pressure now for New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to step aside after he was named as a client of an international prostitution ring.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports Spitzer was a rising star in Democratic politics, a squeaky clean former prosecutor, honored by Chicago's Better Government Association.
"What it gets down to is reckless behavior," said Jay Stewart of the BGA. "In this case infidelity but reckless behavior combined with a sense of entitlement and arrogance."
Chicagoan David Axelrod, who worked for Spitzer, told CBS he was "shocked."
But it was another of Axelrod's clients, who set the standard for sexual misbehavior in the White House -- former President Bill Clinton.
And Barack Obama might not be where he is today without Republican Jack Ryan's demise for forcing ex-wife Jeri Ryan to go to sex clubs in Paris.
Successive South Side congressmen Gus Savage and Mel Reynolds lost elections after sex scandals -- Savage, for unwanted advances on a Peace Corps volunteer in Zaire; Reynolds, for sex with an under-age campaign worker.
Another Illinois congressman, Dan Crane, was voted out of office in 1984 after admitting to having sex with a 17-year-old female congressional page.
Longtime Cook County Board President George Dunne's final term was marked by being accused of a jobs-for-sex scandal involving four younger women. Dunne chose to step down rather than run for re-election.
Elliot Spitzer probably won't have that choice.
"I feel terrible for Eliot and his family, but let's put this in perspective -- it's a man and a prostitute," said Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. "In most parts of the world this wouldn't even be a story."
But for Spitzer and those who preceded him, the reality is it does matter.
"A few politicians have survived it but nine times out of 10, you're done," Stewart said.
Another Chicago connection to the Spitzer scandal -- he is reportedly Client Number 9 in the criminal complaint. Client Number 10, whose name we don't know yet, allegedly arranged for another call girl from the same service to fly to Chicago for a 28 hour tryst just last week.
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