ABSTRACT
Eliot Spitzer, too, likes to challenge his adversaries head-on—and let them know that he, too, is prepared to "fight to the finish". The temptation to liken Wall Street's fearless crusader Eliot to Chicago's fearless crimebuster Eliot seems to be irresistible, and almost entirely to the benefit of Eliot Spitzer. Most modern-day Americans know Eliot Ness from TV or the movies, where he was played by no less a tight-jawed, alpha male actor than Kevin Costner. The Boston Globe commented that "Eliot Spitzer's first name could be an homage to Eliot Ness, the G-man who cleaned up Chicago in the 1930s". Revisiting the Eliot Ness/Eliot Spitzer analogy, it still seems remarkably valid in many ways. Spitzer's mission was not to wreck the system, but to put the shareholder back in control. In the end, the myth of Eliot Ness was much more powerful than the man. Perhaps that will be the ultimate truth of the Eliot Ness/Eliot Spitzer analogy.
