RandyTravis' Blog

Watching Elliot Spitzer resign from his job as New York governor reminded me of many other stories I've covered involving politicians who couldn't resist temptation. They didn't always turn out the way you might imagine.

When I worked in Memphis in the late 1980s, the school board superintendent got into a nasty sex scandal involving a teacher. He survived. In fact, he eventually became the mayor of Memphis.

President Bill Clinton not only survived his Monica scandal; the more Republicans pushed for his impeachment the more his poll numbers went up.

But if nothing else, Spitzer had to resign for one reason: he set himself up as the White Knight, the arbiter of honesty and respect for the law.

Will what happened to him make politicians more honest? More careful? Or will it make them less likely to take a moral stand?