Spoiling for a fight : the rise of Eliot Spitzer /

Spitzer, New York's combative attorney general, has made a name for himself prosecuting Wall Street investment bankers and expanding his office into areas traditionally considered federal domain, from civil rights to environmental protection. Washington Post0 reporter Masters renders a penetrating view of a man who has set his sights on the governorship of New York. Based on interviews with Spitzer, his friends and colleagues, executive targets, regulators, and prosecutors, Masters examines the influences on Spitzer's drive and pugnacity. From a privileged background, Spitzer has been an admirer of progressives from Theodore Roosevelt to Louis Brandeis. Spitzer has taken on the giants of Wall Street, including Merrill Lynch, AIG, and online trading firms, building court cases and making out-of-court settlements to investors. His critics have compared his zeal and political ambition to those of another former prosecutor, Rudolph Guiliani. As Spitzer prepares for his next political move, readers will enjoy this look at a progressive crusader whose passion and sense of moral outrage have led him to take on the lions of Wall Street. --Vanessa Bush Copyright 2006 Booklist

Masters's examination of the New York State attorney general's seven years in office is timely, given Spitzer's prosecutions of powerful financial industries and his candidacy in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Even if Spitzer fails in his bid for the governorship, the book is worthy of study because it clearly explains the complicated, unsavory practices of insurance companies, mutual funds, Wall Street brokerages and the New York Stock Exchange. The author also skillfully places Spitzer in the context of previous reformers within government, especially Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis and Rudy Giuliani. She shows, too, how philosophical differences between state and federal regulators over the past 100 years set the stage for the crusading Spitzer. Masters, a New York-based reporter for the Washington Post, holds degrees from Harvard University and the London School of Economics that prepared her well for dissecting the arcane, corrupt industry routines usually unknown to consumers. Though Masters received cooperation from the 46-year-old Spitzer and many of his aides, this warts-and-all book demonstrates how the mostly sincere, mostly decent Spitzer can be hurt by his overweening ego and quick temper. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

New York State attorney general Spitzer takes on troublemakers from Wall Street to the insurance industry-and wins. A Washington Post staff writer who's been following his every move offers this assessment. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A balanced biography from Washington Post reporter Masters of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, called "Crusader of the Year" by Time in 2002 and a headline-hunting bully who is frequently the target of Wall Street Journal editorials. Spitzer, like one of his reformer heroes, Theodore Roosevelt, comes from a privileged background yet has earned a reputation as a foe of corrupt financiers. Masters traces the swift ascent of this current Democratic candidate for governor of New York: exclusive Bronx prep school, Princeton, Harvard Law, marriage and family, service in the Manhattan D.A.'s office and runs for the Attorney General's office (the second try, a squeaker in 1998, put him in office). But most of the book is taken up with Spitzer's high-profile battles against gun manufacturers, Midwestern power plants, Wall Street research analysts such as Henry Blodgett and Jack Grubman, insurance companies and mutual funds. His inspirations include the Progressive movement of the last century and, more surprisingly, conservatives' "new federalism," enabling state officials to move into areas long associated with the federal government. Interviewing associates and adversaries of the politician, Masters recounts the maneuvering behind his public actions: round-the-clock pushes for indictments, innovative use of forgotten legislation, clashes with corporate counsels and leaks of ongoing investigations. Spitzer emerges as a Dewey or Giuliani in Democratic clothing: intelligent, energetic, but also self-righteous and prickly. Although Masters credits Spitzer with standing up for small investors at a time when the federal government laxly enforced regulation of Wall Street, she also finds some substance in conservative laments that he sparked a host of other states' lawsuits, plaguing companies with competing investigations, paperwork and costs in the millions. That complaint is coupled with another from the liberal side: By favoring the first people to cooperate with his office, Spitzer has sometimes allowed powerful targets to walk away largely unscathed while smaller fries were penalized. An adept blend of legal, political and business journalism about the man who would be New York's next governor. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.