{"id":2969,"date":"2008-03-12T21:49:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-13T03:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/celebrating-spitzer\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:10:05","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:10:05","slug":"celebrating-spitzer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/celebrating-spitzer\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Spitzer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Carter Bundy<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When Homer Simpson sells his soul for a donut, he gets a lawyer to fight for him in front of a \u201cjury of the damned.\u201d The devil, presiding over the trial, turns out to be religious zealot Ned Flanders.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ned, seeing Homer\u2019s shock, responds coolly: \u201cIt\u2019s always the one you least suspect.\u201d And it\u2019s funny.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As happens so often, the Simpsons gets human nature exactly right.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A friend e-mailed me that \u201cthe most righteous guys are the ones you have to worry about.\u201d Well, there hasn\u2019t been a stronger crusader against prostitution and money laundering in America<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> than Eliot Spitzer<\/a>. And that\u2019s where the fun begins.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sensible Schadenfreude<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Some people enjoy the downfall of any celebrity or politician. The German word \u201cschadenfreude<\/a>\u201d describes the all-too-common trait of people reveling in others\u2019 suffering. Most people, in my experience, don\u2019t enjoy the suffering of others for suffering\u2019s sake, and in the wrong setting, schadenfreude is an ugly trait.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This would be the right setting: a politician who was aggressively critical and judgmental of others who engaged in the same activity he did.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Think about it \u2013 while watching Britney or Paris<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> stumble through life is undoubtedly good for ratings, is anyone really happy or satisfied about their failures? Compare that to the list of people for whom Americans generally have shown the most contempt and whose falls have been widely celebrated:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Mark Foley<\/a> led the fight against pedophilia in the U.S. House, but it turns out he was texting underage boys sexually suggestive messages and maybe doing more.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Jimmy Swaggart<\/a> spent a lifetime railing on sexual sinners and deviants, making himself nice and wealthy in the process. Turns out he was himself quite the ladies\u2019 man, or at least if he paid enough.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Plenty of celebrities have drug problems. But it takes the troubles of a hypocrite like Rush Limbaugh<\/a> to make it worthy of the best kind of schadenfreude. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rush has bashed drug users for decades, and has been as merciless and unsympathetic as anyone in the public eye. \u201cNo excuses\u201d and \u201cmandatory jail time\u201d were undoubtedly two of his favorite phrases when it came to drug addicts. Yet he\u2019s so addicted that he loses his hearing? Beautiful.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 If you\u2019re Al Gore<\/a>, arguably the world\u2019s leading advocate for energy conservation and reversing CO2 output, you might want to think twice before moving into a gigantic house. To his credit, it\u2019s very energy efficient for its size, but it\u2019s still worse than the homes of average Americans. People enjoy pointing out his energy use and the P.R. hassle it\u2019s created for him.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Larry Craig<\/a> wouldn\u2019t be nearly the subject of the same sort of disdainful derision for his alleged attempted tryst with a hunky Minneapolis cop in the stall next door were it not for a lifetime of gay-bashing on the stump.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 John McCain<\/a>, following a near career-ending scandal about his going to bat for lobbyist Charles Keating, made lobbying reform his signature issue.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Whoops. McCain\u2019s national finance chair Tom Loeffler is still being paid to peddle influence by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., whose controversial new Air Force contract McCain supports. If McCain were just some run-of-the-mill politician, we wouldn\u2019t be surprised by the revelation of his conflict of interest. But since the guy lectures others on campaign and lobbying ethics all the time, there\u2019s a sense of schadenfreude, and it\u2019s appropriate.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Me. I was speaking to a class at La Cueva a few years ago, preaching the importance of environment. A kid asked me what I drove. At the time it was a very inefficient Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I said so. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He had called me out, and the whole class enjoyed it. And should have. The next week I traded it in for a Jeep Liberty, which for me gets about 50 percent better gas mileage (I\u2019d have gone to a Toyota Highlander Hybrid, but it\u2019s not union-made and was out of my price range anyhow). Still not good enough, but not the obviously hypocritical Grand Cherokee, either.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Ted Haggard<\/a>, former leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, might be the king of legitimate schadenfreude: a religious zealot who was a vocal critic of infidelity, homosexuality, prostitution, and drugs. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Of course, Haggard was caught cheating on his wife with a male hooker. Oh yeah \u2013 his illicit lover also was his meth dealer. What\u2019s the term for trifecta when you hit four things? Quadrafecta? Quadfecta? Gotta love it either way.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Avoid the \u2018freude<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If you want to have people show mercy for your flaws, it\u2019s not a bad idea to show a little mercy for others\u2019 flaws. At the very least, you shouldn\u2019t make a career out of criticizing, judging and damning others if you\u2019re out there doing the exact same thing you purport to loathe.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Eliot Spitzer, for all the good (in my humble opinion) he did do as attorney general and in his first year as governor of New York<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, has been exposed as a self-righteous, judgmental hypocrite. Sure, feel bad for the Spitzer family, but Eliot? You can\u2019t hold it against people for enjoying the fall.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy When Homer Simpson sells his soul for a donut, he gets a lawyer to fight for him in front of a \u201cjury of the damned.\u201d The devil, presiding over the trial, turns out to be religious zealot Ned Flanders. Ned, seeing Homer\u2019s shock, responds coolly: \u201cIt\u2019s always the one you least suspect.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}