Hero or hack? Eliot Spitzer pushes the limits of prosecutorial progressivism.

• Author: Sargent, Greg
• Position: Spoiling for a Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer - Book review

Spoiling for a Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer By Brooke A. Masters Times Books, $26.00

George Orwell began his famous essay, Reflections on Gandhi," by observing that "saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent," and he went on to ask, "To what extent was Gandhi moved by vanity--by the consciousness of himself as a humble, naked old man, sitting on a praying mat and shaking empires by sheer spiritual power?" This opening shot by Orwell came to my mind while reading Brooke Masters's new biography of New York state attorney general Eliot Spitzer, Spoiling for a Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer's dramatic and far-reaching crackdowns on Wall Street fraud have earned him international fame, a seemingly unobstructed path to the governor's mansion in this fall's election, and the adulation of Democrats at the national level who see in him a potential future savior. But, with apologies to Orwell, even saints deserve the presumption of innocence, and Spitzer, though no Gandhi, deserves the same.

When considering Spitzer, two lines of questioning present themselves. First, to what extent is he driven by vanity--by an awareness of his image as a square-jawed crusader playing for keeps on a giant stage, an Eliot Ness-like figure who avenges the small investor by fearlessly taking on Wall Street fat cats, who heretofore existed beyond reproach and retribution? Second, how far can this man go, and to what extent is he willing to compromise his core principles and values to get there?

Masters, a reporter for The Washington Post, provides a wealth of material to begin attempting an answer to both these questions. In a nutshell, she argues that Spitzer is pursuing traditional progressive ends with prosecutorial means, all the while carefully modeling his progressivism on historical figures (Republicans included) in a way that tidily insulates him from charges that he's an old-style anti-business Democrat. She was granted extraordinary access both to the man himself and to the inner workings of his sprawling operation, and this has enabled her to shed fresh light on his thinking and to contextualize him historically in a way that makes us see him anew.

As Masters points out, Spitzer himself has written that the future of the Democratic Party depends on its ability "to promote government as a supporter of free markets, not simply a check on them," and to hew to "a vision consistent with trust-busting and other progressive...