The difference between Spitzer, Fumo

March 15, 2008
Chris Satullo
Inquirer columnist

Some people may have been surprised about Eliot Spitzer, but Dr. Freud wouldn't have been.

Hearing of the moral crusader with the secret taste for high-priced hookers, Sigmund would have plucked the cigar from his mouth and said, "Ja, a classic case of projection and reaction formation."

Projection and reaction formation: Those two linked psychological mechanisms drive the modern politics of self-righteousness.

They produce such flaming hypocrisy that the only surprise is that we continue to be surprised.

Projection is when you attribute to others your own behaviors or impulses that make you feel guilty. Reaction formation takes that defense mechanism into obsessiveness. You deal with guilt by pretending to be the opposite of your secret impulses and by calling out the shameful behavior in others.

This syndrome is more complex than simple hypocrisy based on self-interest.

Reaction formation explains a lot of recent headlines: the sorry parade of clergy revealed to have sexual peccadilloes. Gay-bashing politicians tapping their feet in airport bathrooms or sending suggestive e-mails to young pages. Congressional leaders, each a secret philanderer, pursuing Bill Clinton like the hounds of hell.

And, now, the governor and former attorney general of New York state, who styled himself as a beacon of unyielding rectitude even as he lavished four-digit payments on call girls. It almost goes without saying that Spitzer prosecuted several prostitution rings.

Not every pol who does shady things is in the grip of Freudian compulsion.

In Philadelphia, the departure of another high-profile politician shared the front page this week. State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo dropped out of his re-election race because he faces a federal corruption indictment as thick and as entertaining as a John Grisham novel.

You can call Fumo a lot of things: brilliant, effective, bullying, volcanic, greedy. But he's no hypocrite. He rises from a different lineage of American politician, typified by the Kingfish, Huey P. Long. These larger-than-life types play chess in three dimensions while others play checkers. Because they sometimes use their smarts and skills to pursue progressive goals that help many, they feel entitled to whatever perks their craftiness can wangle.

Unlike the self-righteous compulsives, they don't blast their fellow pols for corruption; they scorn them for their inferior imagination.

I can tolerate a Fumo more readily than a Mark Foley or Eliot Spitzer. What bothers me most is how the Spitzer type works out guilty feelings by going after other people. In a private individual, that trait is obnoxious. In an elected official who can pass laws or prosecute people, it is dangerous.

This raises another question: Why is service as a criminal prosecutor treated as such a glittering credential for governmental office? Prosecutors - generalizing here, but bear with me - tend to see the world in absolutes, good guys and bad guys, with themselves always in a white hat. Their job is to win, and they're trained to undermine any fact uncongenial to their position.

These are the opposite of the skills we should seek in a chief executive or lawmaker. We should favor the instinct for compromise, for bringing people into the tent, for being flexible. Could the prevalence of former prosecutors be one reason that politics have become so partisan and nasty?

The prosecutorial attitude wedded to hypocritical self-righteousness wears thin quickly. As Exhibit A, I give you the insufferable Rudy Giuliani's presidential candidacy.

The exceptions to this rule are also instructive. Gov. Rendell was once district attorney of Philadelphia. Yet his instincts are not those of the prosecutor but those of the dealmaker, the guy who cajoles everyone to stay at the table, to consider new wrinkles, until compromise, imperfect but doable, emerges.

Yes, this can make Rendell slippery and disappointing at times. Mostly, though, his ability to dance inside shades of gray makes him effective and resilient.

I'll take his type over an Eliot Spitzer, using public power to exorcise his private demons, any day of the week.