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Book Review: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer

Katie Benner

For better or for worse, it's hard to imagine Wall Street without Eliot Spitzer. And now, as Spitzer looks to move from Wall Street to Main Street, a new book dissects the larger-than-life persona that since 1999 has cast its shadow over mutual fund giants, insurance titans and banking stalwarts.

In "Spoiling For A Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer," Washington Post reporter Brooke Masters takes on the outsize task of going beyond the headlines that have come to shape the New York attorney general's public image -- from "Wall Street Watchdog" and "Defender of the Little Guy," to "Bad-For-Business Press Grabber" and "Boundary-Crossing Bully."

She seeks not to show us the legal eagle's softer side, but to make plain the ways in which he has legitimately earned all of these titles and then some, as he makes a bid to become New York's next governor.

Spitzer barely won the state's attorney general spot, but his high-profile cases against air polluters, mutual fund managers and stock analysts eventually won over the public, even as he clashed with federal regulators and other state attorneys general.

This could be in large part a coincidence of timing, given that he rose to prominence as the dot-com bubble burst and corporate highflyers, such as Enron, Worldcom and Global Crossing imploded in waves of accounting scandals and executive malfeasance.

The public was ready for someone to cover the holes they believed had been left wide open by the Securities Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and executive boards nationwide. And Spitzer was more than eager to fill this role.

Masters makes Spitzer's feats understandable to those without Wall Street expertise. She breaks down the anatomy of the scandals that put Spitzer on front pages around the country, providing an intelligent examination of the years leading up to and following the dot-com bubble.

Masters is also evenhanded in her explanation. For instance, she sheds light on the world of bid rigging and takes space to include industry arguments that the practice did little to affect corporate insurance premiums.

Of interest, and perhaps relief, to Wall Street is the fact that Masters writes about the recent financial past, marked by failure and greed, without vilifying all of corporate America. Indeed, the world she recounts was also full of men and women who believed in the power of corporations, finance and the stock market to help retail investors build prosperity. These are the people who fed tips to Spitzer's office, allowing him to seize on cases of corporate malfeasance and bring them to light.

In fact, Masters' pictures of Spitzer and of Big Business share many similarities. Both are extremely powerful. Both are adept at waging wars in the press. Both are used to getting their way. And both have tried, with varying degrees of success, to bully, cajole and mow down federal regulators.

Masters does not swallow whole the theory that Spitzer's sea of subpoenas has fixed all of the problems that he sought to remedy. Her tone is evenhanded, and she speaks with plenty of people who are able to discuss the limits of "Spitzerism."

There is little doubt that Spitzer has cultivated his image as a big man who fights for the little guy, using his powers as attorney general to their fullest. But whether his slash-and-burn approach to law enforcement would work in the governor's mansion, where politics are often about compromise and deal making, has yet to be seen.

One could possibly read Masters' book and walk away worried that Spitzer has some lessons in diplomacy to learn before he can effectively operate on a broader political stage. He has had little sympathy for federal regulators who must work within such constraints, and he may soon learn that it's harder to be a defender of the public good when your bright ideas and good intentions are stymied by political gridlock.