21 January 2012
The unintentional gothic poetry of disgraced New York politician Carl Kruger
A brief but evocative tale of his rise from difficult circumstances; his pleasureless grasping at power; and his eventual fall from his perch can be read over here. I’ve just quoted the poetic manner in which he expresses his impressions of this experience:
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He choked back tears and boasted about his rise with pride. “If you were to take my life and bottle it, and drink what was inside that bottle, it would be like a cough medicine,” he told me. “It wouldn’t taste very good, but it’d be good for you.”
The bottle was empty now. In late December, he pleaded guilty, as did Turano, to engineering yet another Albany corruption racket.
“My world is over,” Kruger told me. “I’m frightened of the future. Just frightened. And that’s very hard for me to say, because I was always the guy that you came to to sort out your problems, then sweep up the floor and leave. Now my floor is swept up, and I’m part of the sweepings.”
Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis
Tags: Carl Kruger, New York State, Politics, The Problem With Glamour, The Problem with New York City