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PrintNovember 13, 2009
Speaking of Ethics...
Proving Don Feder's point mentioned here:
Of all the sins of the campus left, the worst is hypocrisy. Academic freedom is a spigot they turn on and off at their convenience.
Client # 9, formally known as former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (D), delivered a lecture at Harvard University sponsored by the school's Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.
The title of the lecture? From Ayn Rand to Ken Feinberg - How Quickly the Paradigm Shifts. What Should Be the Rationale for Government Participation in the Market?
As attorney general and then governor he enforced the very laws against the market of prostitution he repeatedly--and knowingly--broke.
Jay Fitzgerald of the Boston Herald asked the obvious question of the ethics of a person arrested for prostitution appearing at an ethics forum.
"I let people form their own judgments."
According to AP , the audience of about 300 defended his appearance, feeling his experience as governor and attorney general provided valuable background; that he gave a solid presentation speaking against greed versus integrity.
Kristin Davis, the madam who illegally provided the call girls/prostitutes for the call girl/prostitute desiring customer Spitzer, fired off a letter to the head of the ethics center.
I am greatly intrigued as to what Mr. Spitzer could contribute to an ethical discussion when, as [governor], he broke numerous laws for which he has yet to be punished," Kristin Davis wrote in a protest letter to Prof. Lawrence Lessig at The Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.
"As attorney general, he went around arresting and making examples out of the same escort agencies he was frequenting."
Calling Spitzer a "man without ethics," Davis listed seven reasons why Harvard should reconsider.
Among other things, she asked if it was "ethical" to hire a hooker using a fake name or lie about shady campaign loans.
As reported in the NY Daily News , Lessig replied
Spitzer is not giving "a lecture on ethics." "He has instead been invited to speak as part of a series on the topic of 'institutional corruption'," the professor said.
Which, of course, according to Harvard, has nothing to do with ethics.
