Eliot Spitzer may not hold any political power, but he continues to pull no punches now that he's become a media commentator. Earlier this month Spitzer began his comeback when it was divulged he was joining The Washington Post's online magazine Slate. However, he's not only voicing his thoughts via WaPo publications, but to anyone who will listen to him. The most recent outlet is a Vanity Fair political blog, where he spouted off some candid thoughts on President-elect Barack Obama's financial team to Maureen Tkacik.
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He started off the encounter with Tkacik by saying, "Tim is a good guy, but he's not a thinker. He's the status quo." Ouch. He then praised Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chief Sheila Bair and questioned whether Obama was assembling a financial team capable of challenging Wall Street (these comments were made a few days before the announcement of Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission). It seems Tkacik had a five-minute conversation with Spitzer before he thought of an excuse to sneak away -- something about waiting for his daughter.
So what are we to make of the encounter? It is clear he prefers Wall Street outsiders like Bair -- she was a University of Massachusetts professor before Bush tapped her to head the FDIC -- who have not spent time in New York to folks like Timothy Geithner, who as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York president is intimately familiar with Wall Street. Tkacik's conclusion from the encounter was not as profound. - Matthew Wurtzel
See post from Vanity Fair's Politics & Power blog
