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  Spitzer will have to work hard to reclaim good will
     (By Dan Osburn and Jay Gallagher, Gannett News Service - Albany Bureau , March      14, 2008)

ALBANY -- Mother Teresa, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon are potential role models for disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer as he considers life after admitting he patronized a prostitute and then resigned from office, according to some public-relations experts.

Much will depend, they say, on whether he is indicted for crimes connected to the prostitution scandal, and whether his marriage survives. While his family situation is under wraps, prosecutors are said to be weighing whether to indict him. In his resignation speech earlier this week, Spitzer said he's done with politics but wants to continue in public service, leaving experts to speculate what kind of public future, if any, he might have.

"I will try once again, outside of politics, to serve the common good and to move toward the ideals and solutions which I believe can build a future of hope and opportunity for us and for our children," he said when he announced his resignation.

That might not be realistic, at least for a while, one crisis-management expert said. "His promise of returning to public service demonstrates his present mental disconnect regarding the permanent reputational damage he has caused himself," said Bruce Blythe of Atlanta-based Crisis Management International. "He would need to find a new public-service paradigm, possibly more akin to being a non-elected Mother Teresa-type, servant-leader," he said.

However, Spitzer's ego won't easily shift from steamroller to saint, Blythe said. "He needs to show contrition and humility in a manner that people believe he is truly sorry; not that he got caught, but in a soul searching manner," Blythe said. "The problem for him is that contrition and humility are his weak points." But history could offer the 48-year-old heir to a real-estate fortune some solace, suggested a public-relations college professor.

"If you look at people like Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon, many formerly disgraced people have rebounded magnificently," said Tom Prioetti of Monroe Community College, near Rochester. "We allow people to get away with a lot in our culture." Prioetti pointed out that once his tryst was discovered, Spitzer came forward and apologized. Clinton and Nixon, on the other hand, at first denied they had done anything wrong.

"Nobody ever fell as far as Richard Nixon did," Proietti said, referring to the former president who resigned in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal. "But by the time he died (in 1994) was viewed as a statesman."

The key, Prioetti said, is "he laid low, then came back slowly with the help of some media allies, like Robert Novak and Larry King," who helped him ease his way back into the culture.

But Spitzer has a unique problem: the image he promoted of himself as the ethically pure Sheriff of Wall Street, who cleaned up corruption first and asked questions later, another public-relations pro said.

The scandal "cut to the core of who he portrayed himself to be, and that's the point," said Michael Robinson, senior vice president of Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C.

Spitzer's future depends largely on whether he is indicted on criminal charges, Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said. As of Friday no charges had been filed against Spitzer.

"His immediate future hangs on what the feds do or don't do, and that's a serious problem," said Sheinkopf, who ran Spitzer's media campaign when he ran for attorney general in 1998.

And there is a real possibility Spitzer could be indicted, said Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University in White Plains.

"I think there is a good chance he will be charged," he said. And he could face jail time, he said.

The most serious threat, Gershman said, is that prosecutors might find that he used taxpayer or campaign money to keep his illicit liaisons. Spitzer has reportedly told aides he used his own money.

"That would take it to a new level," Gershman said. "They may want to make an example out of him."

But if he is not indicted, "he could be on the lecture tour within six months," said Prioetti, the public-relations expert.

He also noted that many people now know former President Clinton more for his international charity work than for his liaison with intern Monica Lewinsky in 1995 - a relationship that led to his impeachment by the Senate and almost to him being removed from office.

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