Last month the SEC returned the favor.

The SEC Historical Society, a group of current and former commission officials, invited Spitzer -- the ambitious New York State attorney general who has trampled all over the SEC's turf by aggressively investigating Wall Street conflicts of interest -- and the agency's enforcement chief, Steve Cutler, to be the keynote speakers at its annual meeting in Washington. The two worked closely during the months of negotiations that culminated in April's $1.4 billion settlement with ten securities firms that had been accused of publishing overly bullish research reports in an effort to attract investment banking business.

Cutler took to the podium first and turned what had been billed as a discussion of securities enforcement issues into a miniroast, joking about how Spitzer cultivated media coverage of his probe in anticipation of a bid to run for New York governor. Cutler read from a collection of mock e-mails penned by or about Spitzer, whose investigation caught fire after his staff unearthed now-infamous e-mails showing that analysts privately derided companies that they were urging the public to buy. Said Cutler, "El-iot's been nice enough to cc me on a number of his e-mails to others in this regard, and I thought I'd share a few with you." The make-believe correspondence, addressed to the pope and God, among others, poked fun at Spitzer's aggressive interpretation of an arcane 1921 New York statute called the Martin Act, which he used to launch his wide-ranging legal assault on Wall Street (see below).

Spitzer took the ribbing in stride, telling the audience that he'd called Cutler before the event and the two agreed not to prepare any remarks. "I remember in law school there were students like that," he said.