BizJournals Portfolio
Mar 11 2008 12:00am EDT

Ken Langone Shows the Love

We've seen a lot of Eliot Spitzer schadenfreude up and down Wall Street over the last 24 hours, and we are likely to see a lot more in the near future.

But there's already one vocal mogul getting attention for his remarkable level of vitriol towards the beleaguered New York State Governor.

CNBC caught up with Home Depot founder, former New York Stock Exchange director, and Eliot Spitzer Fan Club President Ken Langone near the Tribeca Grill last night, where he gave the cameras ashort and not remotely sweet send-up of his fallen nemesis.

"I knew he went himself to the post office and bought $2,800 worth of mail orders to send to the hooker," Langone boldly claimed, saying he knew someone standing in back of Spitzer in line at the post office the time (take that, F.B.I.). Langone continued:

"We all have our own private hells," he added sympathetically. "I hope his private hell is hotter than anyone else's."

You stay classy, Wall Street.

Below, a transcript for the interview, which was broadcast this morning on the network's Squawk Box program:

CNBC PRODUCER: Do you think that he should resign?
KEN LANGONE: Absolutely.
CNBC: Tell me why.
LANGONE: Because he's a hypocrite. He destroyed reputation of people who had good reputations and deserved reputations. He talked today about his standards. But what he didn't talk about was the standards that he held everybody else to that he couldn't keep. So how do I feel? I certainly feel sorry for his daughters, very much so. I don't know his wife, but I have to assume she has some idea of this happening. For him? It couldn't be enough to please me. What he's done to people, not me, I'm standing, thank God, but the number of people that he besmirched, the number of people whose reputation were earned that he soiled is horrible.
CNBC: Would you say that you were surprised by this news?
LANGONE: Not at all. I had no doubt about his lack of character and integrity. It would only be a matter of time, I didn't think he would do it this soon or the way he did it. But I know for sure he went himself to a post office and bought $2,800 worth of mail orders to send to the hooker.
CNBC: How do you know that?
LANGONE: I know it. I know somebody who was standing in back of him in line.
LANGONE: We all have our own private hells. I hope his private hell is hotter than anybody else's.

by Liz Gunnison


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