If he was offered words of caution, Mr. Spitzer clearly ignored them: In March of 2008, a few days before the ides, and decades before he could realize his presumed potential, the political career of Eliot Spitzer ended when it was disclosed that he broke banking laws in an effort to disguise the fact that he was paying for prostitutes' services. As the press corps tore at the flesh of his public persona-once it was revealed that he was the now infamous "Client 9" heard on FBI tapes used to indict a high-price call girl ring-a startling level of ineptitude on his part came to light.

Spitzer was the man who came to prominence-aided by a fortune created by his real estate mogul father-as "The Eliot Ness" of Wall Street. That makes the fact that he was brought down by the very laws he vigorously enforced all the more paradoxical. How could a man with an Ivy League education, great personal wealth, and tons of influence, be unable to indulge in the "victimless crime" of employing hookers without detection when "Average Joes" do it all the time?