Weiner Spitzel to Join Strauss-Kahn?

Berezniki City Administration Building

Calling all discredited occupiers of public office! A Times piece reported “Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, has given Mr. Strauss-Kahn a position on the board of a banking subsidiary, the Russian Regional Development Bank.” (“Strauss-Kahn Re-emerges in Finance, in Russia,” NYT, 7/15/13) Rather than running for mayor and comptroller of New York City, Andrew Weiner and Eliot Spitzer should consider joining Mr. Stauss-Kahn by applying to Rosneft. According to the Times, “Russian government-owned businesses and many in the private sector have for years recruited Western business and political figures for seats on their boards, positions that often pay lavishly.” If you look at the bottom line Weiner Spitzel (as Weiner and Spitzer have been termed) could profit from joining the board of the Russian Regional Development Bank and they’d be a natural interface with the other new Westerner to join, Strauss-Kahn, due to their history of shared interests. From there the natural segue would be to a position in electoral office—maybe not in New York Municipal government but in Russia. For instance Berezniki, a one-time base of operations for the Russian potash billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev, which sports one of the biggest sinkholes in the world, would surely be a place where Weiner Spitzel could employ their talents. And when it comes to reputation, after presiding over a sinkhole, the only direction is up.