Left and right agree: Eliot Spitzer must go Update: “At least six years and possibly for more than a decade;” Update: Spitzer plays “Let’s make a deal”
Scroll down for updates…NYPost reporting Spitzer used the escort service at least six years and possibly for more than a decade…”…Spitzer does deal-making before the resignation…
***
Don’t miss this campaign ad flashback as Eliot Spitzer follows “Trustworthy Turnpike,” past “Honesty Road” and “Integrity Lane,” ending up at “Responsibility Road.”
Make a U-Turn–and you end up at the Mayflower Hotel.
***
Cover of today’s NYPost.
A survey of this morning’s lead editorials in the NY press shows a bipartisan consensus: Eliot Spitzer has to go. Both left and right bristled at Spitzer’s brief, arrogant, remorseless, and dishonest statement yesterday apologizing for his “private matter”–a very public matter of alleged law-breaking, breach of electoral trust, and political self-destruction. The NYPost shreds the Naked Emperor. The Newsday concludes: “The decorum of the office can’t withstand this man’s abuse of it.”
The NYDaily News snarks: “Hit the road, john.” And even the NYTimes, which broke the story, acknowledges in its lead editorial that “it is hard to see how he will recover from this mess and go on to lead the reformist agenda on which he was elected to office.”
Spitzer’s got a history of exempting himself from the rules everyone else must follow, and then attempting to downplay his transgressions by classifying them as personal. I found this passage in a New York magazine profile from last July, recounting how he lied about his father financing his attorney general campaign, quite telling:
Spitzer easily won the 1998 primary. In the general election, against incumbent Dennis Vacco, he spent more than $8 million, almost all of which he said he personally lent to the campaign. Vacco suspected that the money from his first campaign and now this one really came from Spitzer’s father, which seemed to violate campaign-finance laws—a family member can’t contribute more than $260,000. Spitzer claimed he’d mortgaged eight apartments his father had given him at 200 Central Park South, a building Bernard developed, and raised $5 million. “No one else has guaranteed the loan,” Spitzer said in an affidavit.
And then, days before the election, Spitzer came clean to the Times. His father had, in effect, financed the campaign. Bernard was really paying off the co-op loans; Spitzer was supposedly repaying his father, which permitted Spitzer to claim the money was technically his. Spitzer said the scheme was legal. If so, he had lawyered election and tax codes close to the line.
Perhaps Spitzer’s clearer infraction, though, was that he misled—some said lied to—not only the public but also his closest campaign aides. “People were disappointed and shocked,” says one aide. Spitzer was remorseful—“He felt bad,” says the aide. He won the election, but barely.
Later, I asked Spitzer, now the state’s ethical crusader, whether he regretted this deception. “I just would have been completely transparent about it,” he tells me. “I didn’t realize how necessary it was to be transparent about every personal financial transaction.” It’s difficult to hear the word transparent and not think that the more precise word is honest. Spitzer once told me that he’d learned at the D.A.’s office there are some fights in which, as he put it, “you can never concede errors because you just can’t do it.” Maybe this is one of those.
Didn’t learn anything from that episode. And once again, he refused yesterday concede the basic public errors and transgressions he has committed. It wasn’t the sex, it was the suspicious financial transactions–and the ABC News report from yesterday is worth repeating:
As recently as this past Valentine’s Day, Feb. 13, Spitzer, who officials say is identified in a federal complaint as “Client 9,” arranged for a prostitute “Kristen” to meet him in Washington, D.C. The woman met Client 9 at the Mayflower Hotel, room 871, “for her tryst,” according to the complaint. Client 9 also is alleged to have paid for the woman’s train tickets, cab fare, mini bar and room service, travel time and hotel.
The suspicious financial activity was initially reported by a bank to the IRS which, under direction from the Justice Department, brought kin the FBI’s Public Corruption Squad.
“We had no interest at all in the prostitution ring until the thing with Spitzer led us to learn about it,” said one Justice Department official.
Spitzer, who made his name by bringing high-profile cases against many of New York’s financial giants, is likely to be prosecuted under a relatively obscure statute called “structuring,” according to a Justice Department official.
Structuring involves creating a series of financial movements designed to obscure the true purpose of the payments.
As for those few delusional apologists who want to argue that Spitzer engaged in a victimless crime, here are four of Spitzer’s innocent victims. Looking at that beautiful family makes the utter lack of remorse and humility in Spitzer’s appearance yesterday all the more mind-boggling.
***
Jules Crittenden can’t help looking at the trainwreck.
Did Spitzer have a taxpayer-funded bodyguard with him? The NYSun:
Governor Spitzer, in the wake of the disclosure that he patronized a prostitute last month, now risks criminal prosecution, legal experts say.
For now, federal prosecutors are likely launching a wide investigation into Mr. Spitzer’s finances to determine whether any public funds, property, or employees were used during any encounter between Mr. Spitzer and a prostitute, several former prosecutors say. The investigation might include establishing whether a taxpayer-funded bodyguard for Mr. Spitzer was present nearby. Law enforcement officials are also expected to try to contact any prostitutes whom Mr. Spitzer patronized, as well as interview Mr. Spitzer’s inner circle about their knowledge of his conduct, former prosecutors say.
The WSJ weighs in:
The stupendously deluded belief that the sitting Governor of New York could purchase the services of prostitutes was merely the last act of a man unable to admit either the existence of, or need for, limits. At the least, he put himself at risk of blackmail, and in turn the possible distortion of his public duties. Mr. Spitzer’s recklessness with the state’s highest elected office, though, is of a piece with his consistent excesses as Attorney General from 1999 to 2006.
He routinely used the extraordinary threat of indicting entire firms, a financial death sentence, to force the dismissal of executives, such as AIG’s Maurice “Hank” Greenberg. He routinely leaked to the press emails obtained with subpoena power to build public animosity against companies and executives. In the case of Mr. Greenberg, he went on national television to accuse the AIG founder of “illegal” behavior. Within the confines of the law itself, though, he never indicted Mr. Greenberg. Nor did he apologize.
In perhaps the incident most suggestive of Mr. Spitzer’s lack of self-restraint, the then-Attorney General personally threatened John Whitehead after the former Goldman Sachs chief published an article on this page defending Mr. Greenberg. “I will be coming after you,” Mr. Spitzer said, according to Mr. Whitehead’s account. “You will pay the price. This is only the beginning, and you will pay dearly for what you have done.”
Jack Welch, the former head of GE, said he was told to tell Ken Langone — embroiled in Mr. Spitzer’s investigation of former NYSE chairman Dick Grasso — that the AG would “put a spike through Langone’s heart.” New York Congresswoman Sue Kelly, who clashed with Mr. Spitzer in 2003, had her office put out a statement that “the attorney general acted like a thug.”
These are not merely acts of routine political rough-and-tumble. They were threats — some rhetorical, some acted upon — by one man with virtually unchecked legal powers.
Eliot Spitzer’s self-destructive inability to recognize any limit on his compulsions was never more evident than his staff’s enlistment of the New York State Police in a campaign to discredit the state’s Senate Majority Leader, Joseph Bruno. On any level, it was nuts. Somehow, Team Spitzer thought they could get by with it. In the wake of that abusive fiasco, his public approval rating plunged.
Mr. Spitzer’s dramatic fall yesterday began in the early afternoon with a posting on the Web site of the New York Times about the alleged link to prostitutes. The details in the criminal complaint about “Client-9,” who is reported to be Mr. Spitzer, will now be played for titters by the press corps. But one may ask: Where were the media before this? With a few exceptions, the media were happy to prosper from his leaks and even applaud, rather than temper, the manifestly abusive instincts of a public official.
***
Update: Impeachment?
Update: No resignation today? Plus: How long was Spitzer Client #9?
See what others have said
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Trackbacks
- Sierra Faith
- WHAT A SCHMOE–SPITZER’S WOES –CAUGHT WITH HO’S — GOTTA GO « The Catskill Commentator
- Eliot Spitzer, Prostitutes and Kindergarten : RSSBinghamton.com
- Riehl World View
- Dave Lucas: Client 9 From Outer Space
- Opinions
- Client #9
- This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here » Blog Archive » FBI; Spitzer investigation wasn’t about sex
- NY Press Consensus: Eliot Spitzer Has To Go : BigMouthFrog
- It’s not about the sex | BitsBlog
- Neocon News
- Reverse_Vampyr
- Hot Air » Blog Archive » Spitzer aides to NYT: He’s out
- Spitzer Apologizes But Doesn’t Resign - video : BigMouthFrog
- Spitzers Political Downfall Due to Money Transfers and Potential Bribes … Not Sex and Prostitution | Scared Monkeys
- The Dan Lee Report » Blog Archive » Democratic NY Governor Elliot Spitzer admits to Googling more than the internet.
- The McCain Mutiny » Update From the Frontlines
- politicalpartypoop.com » Blog Archive » Left and right agree: Eliot Spitzer must go Update: “At least six years and possibly for more than a decade”
- Stretching the definition of victim and victimless crimes « Cowardly political musings…
- Brass Knuckles › Elliot Spitzer, Holywood Liberalism and Pornography
- Oblogatory Anecdotes - Client #9 Must Resign!
- Watcher of Weasels
- Left and right agree: Eliot Spitzer must go
- Blue Star Chronicles
- Blue Star Chronicles
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And it’s not just about prostitution. It’s about *interstate* and *international* prostitution. Looks like a corrupt pol. who winks at what amounts to a modern form of slavery. I wonder who else in DC is in their book?
Collin
http://evangelicalperspective.blogspot.com
Another corrupt politician exposed. Being with a prostitute on Valentine’s Day? And, his wife standing by him? No respect from me, to either one. I hear he has no friends on either side. Well, now he can work full-time on his “ring”, thinking with something else other than his brain, that said, “I’m governor now, so I can do anything I want.”
I’m not a parent, but I wonder how a daughter can look up to a father after something like this.
The prositution is enough to send him packing as far as I’m concerned, well that and the fact he’s a Democrat. Reducing another person to their sexual value only speaks volumes of one’s character, or lack thereof.
New York always does things better than New Jersey.
Huge sums of money were being tranferred into bank accounts.
No one was even looking into him….it was by accident that HE was discovered.
The accounts were suspicious, used only once for a transfer.
He’ll be in prison.
Regarding his wife…I wouldn’t stand beside ANY man who did what he did!
Yes, they have proof, so no troll behavior required. I felt sorry for her yesterday, but I’ve changed my mind.
I pity the children. Any self respecting woman would have walked OFF the stage.
She needs to get a backbone and leave his sorry arse.
Fox news reports this morning that what caught the attention of IRS officials was Spitzer’s depositing money in shell corporations. I smell hypocrisy and am willing to bet we’ve just begun to see who this man really is.
The crusader gets hoist on his on petard. Momentary schadenfreude aside, I feel poorly for his wife and daughters. His recklees self-destructive behavior has undoubedtly devastated them.
As mentioned on another thread, Spitzer may have violated the Mann Act. This may also include conspiracy:
The (soon to be former?) governor is in good company:
“Quote of the Day”, from Barry Ritholtz’s blog.
His wife is a victim of course, but I’m not sure how much of one.
I have to wonder how much she knew… not about the prostitution, but about the rest of it. Surely, she had to suspect and I’m guessing she’ll be grilled to find out exactly what she knew.
I sincerely hope for her sake that her arrogant, cold-hearted husband pulled the wool over her eyes completely, so that she and her children are able to disengage with honor.
But the very worst thing, we now have a public train wreck that is going to cause a great deal of shame and humiliation to their beautiful daughters. These girls don’t deserve it, but their lives are going to be uprooted, turned upside down and torn apart. They’re going to be picked on, scorned and ridiculed and they’ll likely never get over it.
What a sad state of affairs.
I hope they throw the book at him.
should we now refer to him as ‘THE FIRST JOHN’ ?
Was the prostitute an illegal ? And if so, did he offer her a driver’s licsense ?
Who are the other clients? Number 10 was in Chicago. I wonder. No it couldn’t be.
Smerconish and Dershowitz support prostitution as a perk of a office. Say they “It’s between Elliott and his wife and none of our business.”
Who is going to investigate to see how far back this behavior goes?
Surely during his gubenatorial campaign but even to his time as NY’s AG? If so was it being leveraged by certain Wall Streeters against their rivals?
Beyond the pale of believablity?
Follow da money.
I am always sickened by the so called “apologies” of politicians. They always translate into something like: “I am sorry you feel that way about what I did. I am sorry that you feel hurt about what I did.”
no where in the so called apology is anything about being remorseful about what they did. They never come out and say it was their fault and that they screwed up big time. They never ask for forgiveness or accept any responsibility for their actions because deep down, they are not sorry for what they did.
I pity his wife who actually had to stand beside this jacka** at the podium. I hope she called Mrs McGreevey and asked her for the name of a good divorce lawyer…
Are you kidding? This is a resume enhancer for all democrats. It’s just about sex, and none of your business!
You reap what you sow…
/sarc
rightside,
sarc? More like truth. The (D) gives them all a pass. I am taking bets he will not quit.
HELL NO, HE WON’T GO!
HELL NO, HE WON’T GO!
HELL NO, HE WON’T GO!…..
Spitzer at campaign stop in 2006.
Spitzer says
Wow. The Irony…
If NY does not get rid of this corrupt man, NY might as well get ready for illegals with driver’s licenses, raping, looting and murdering New Yokers.
I have never met Elliott Spitzer, his wife, or his children. That doesn’t mean that I have no idea what kind of man he was and is, or what kind of man his wife married and stayed with – and stood beside yesterday.
First of all, he is an incredibly wealthy man and has been one since he first met his wife. Spitzer’s father amassed a fortune currently valued at about half a billion, much of it in real estate. Elliott inherited that empire.
So she married money. A LOT of money. Anyone who marries into that kind of money and believes that they are getting a populist or even a “regular guy” is brain damaged. If she’s not brain damaged, I’m guessing she knew that with big money comes big ego – and big peccadillos.
Secondly, he’s a bully. A self-righteous bully, perhaps, but a bully nonetheless. He used his influence to move things his way. The Troopergate scandal was (is?) far from over, and is Clintonian in how it abuses power. His end-run around a campaign pledge not to accept election donations over $10,000 (the NYS limit is $60,000) was slimy and another indication of who this man really is.
And she supported him while he did all of these things. Nobody editorialized about how she was a victim while Elliott bullied his way across the state. Nobody refered to her as the “unfortunate partner” in this marriage.
The kids I feel bad for. They are victims.
The wife? She wanted to swim with sharks.
Welcome to the feeding frenzy.
On March 11th, 2008 at 7:42 am, rbb said:
I pity his wife who actually had to stand beside this jacka** at the podium.
Why pity his wife, who stands beside this crook? She supports this crook. What does tell you about her character?
Remember, the family shared this crook’s riches and political clout. The family is as guilty.
The talk among the ladies in my office this morning was along the lines of ‘how could his wife stand up there’ … I then piped in, well thank G-D she did not have to choose to go on 60 minutes and sit there while he admitted to infidelity while he was still running for office, then a few years later parade herself and her daughter on national TV to pretty much do the same thing again … the silence was deafening.
I’m curious, Who gave Elliot the phone number to the Emperors Club and how did they know it would be appreciated and not prosecuted? And/or did Elliot give this group a pass as AG because he was a client? How long has he been a client?
This scandal is going to keep on giving and giving right up to election day. Who were the other clients? Was Bill a client?
et,
Yeah, those questions are starting to make the rounds.
It’s possible that Spitzer found them online, since they did advertise. Possible, but nobody thinks it’s likely.
Given Spitzer’s ruthless streak, one of the junior members of his gang is about to face poetic justice when he gets fed to the press/DOJ as “the source.”
They’re going to nip this thing in the bud if they possibly can, and a sacrifice is one way to do it (if it works).
The only question is “will the demoncrats take care of the sacrifice and his family while he’s in jail, in the same way the mob would?”
What I found most interesting in all of this:
I read several stories from several different sources, and not once was Spitzer’s political affiliation mentioned. In seeking a response to the story, several statements were sought – mostly Republicans – whose party affiliations WERE identified (in an effort to get Republicans on record so they could throw it back in their face later should the occasion arise?), but never was Spitzer’s mentioned.
I realize that most everybody who posts to this blog probably sees this as par for the course (which it is), but IMHO that shouldn’t make any difference. It’s still blatant media manipulation and should be called out every time it occurs.
Bhishma wrote, “I pity his wife who actually had to stand beside this jacka** at the podium.”
I wonde, what kind of threats he made to her over the years …
Gotta laugh, though – “client No. 9″
Number nine … number nine … number nine…
“Turn me on, dead man” … “Turn me on, dead man” …
This morning on NBC Today they had 3 people commenting on the Spitzer episode, including Dr Laura. There was an anthropoligist lady who threw in that Eliot, because of his eyebrows & something else on his face showed he was a man of high testosteron. Kind of justifying his behavior from her professional view. Gag! Where does NBC get these people.
Yesterday’s CNN poll about him resigning had 75% saying yes. I see today the libs & amoral leftoids have driven the keep him in office figure a bit higher. The phones must be ringing in Hillary land.
Now I see the figure is going the otherway 76% say-outta here.
What most people miss in this drama is that Eliot Spitzer abused public office, tax-money and civic position, meant to serve the people, for his and his family’s profit. Why wouldn’t his wife stand beside him? She probably is in on all of this. And the daughters also? Didn’t they all feed off of public trust and money?
While Eliot Spitzer is guilty, the family is not exactly blameless.
And for the record, I did not post, rbb (#15) posted:
“I pity his wife who actually had to stand beside this jacka** at the podium.”
I like what Paul Mirengoff from PowerLine said. To many liberals, including myself, “the problem with frequenting prosititues is not immorality but hypocrisy.” Governor Spitzer used his position of authority to break the law. He is unfit for office.
Maybe some good will come out of this and the dreadful Mann Act will be repealed. I bet over half the commenters here have violated it with no harm, no foul. It’s one of the last Jim Crow laws on the books and it needs to go.
Speculation about the family strikes me as pretty out of bounds. We have no idea what they’re going through.
When Senator Vitter admitted his fondness for prostitutes, I was impressed that many people on this site wanted him to resign. But I don’t remember anyone accusing his wife and children of being “not exactly blameless.”
Eliot Spitzer differs from Bill Clinton how?
I wish the press would do something really useful and run a photo of this Karen who charges $4000 / hour for sex. I wanna see what four grand buys.
M. Hoover on Fox and Friends this morning said it is a three hour minimum also…. Holy Carp!
Yes, indeedy, Spitzer did show lots of panache yesterday, speaking brashly, arrogantly, loudly, bombastically and absolutely without a trace of humility in his voice or demeanor. He looked absolutely heroic.
The two other parallel instances that come to mind with this kind of brash shamelssness are:
Mussolini with his jaw defiantly clenched following one of his gaseous speeches. What a great guy.
Bill Clinton alongside all the Congressional Democrat friends with his jaw defiantly clenched after the Lewinsky Articles of Impeachment were handed down. What a great guy.
My only question is: Why hasn’t this man’s wife filed for divorce yet?
What goes around, comes back around, and may bite you.
The prostitution situation is a family issue…….IF that stood alone.
However, he is accused of money laundering????? If the IRS is involved, it is MAJOR.
This matters!
As far as his wife, all the money in the world would NOT keep me by a lying, cheating, corrupt husband!
If she stays, she’s another Hillary.
No respect from this woman!!!!!
Well, to be fair to Karen, she really charged less than $1,000 an hour. It was $4,300 for four hours and I think that included the transportation costs and room and board.
A high-profile Dem lying about sex and hurting his family…Why does this stuff ever surprise me?
here’s some photos and a rate card…
emp club
What do Elliot Spitzer, Mike Nifong and John Edwards have in common?
1.Shamlessly used the court system to bully innocent people in order to advance their career.
2. Public grandstanding to present themselves as a moral crusader intent on standing up for the little guy
3. They are DEMOCRATS
All,
I’m the first to throw people like Larry Craig on that same list, and throw anyone who defends him under the bus.
To me that has always been the clear delineating factor between true conservatives and everyone else: we stand for something other than “whatever works.”
I don’t give a flip if any consensus exists or not.
Republicans should seize this opportunity to powerfully demonstrate that the Democrat party is the epicenter of all unethical/criminal political behavior in American politics.
Will they? Of course not.
Just like a LIBERAL, the rules do NOT apply to him. HE is the VICTIM!!
jsr, how dare you throw John Edwards into that company of criminals?
If you were given HIV during a blood transfusion, would you not sue? If your child were disemboweled by a pool drain, would you not sue?
As a politician I’m not a big fan of Edwards. But as a lawyer, it’s pretty remarkable that people give him a hard time for helping out people who were gravely wronged.
Hang on a second, Rusty. As a lawyer I can appreciate those plaintiffs’ attorneys that help others – I really do. But would they be doing it if they did not get 33, 40 and sometimes 50% of the haul? And that’s after they stick their clients with the expenses.
Granted, when a person hurts someone else through his own negligence, he should face the music. But for every decent case, there are thousands of frivolous lawsuits that erode the public’s trust (if there is any left) in the civil justice system. The company that sold you the Big Mac is not responsible for your obesity when you eat three or four in one sitting. Steaming hot coffee does not go between your legs while riding in a car. And there’s not a BMW on the road that deserves a $4 million dollar paint job.
This country is sorely in need of tort reform. Some states (TX, CA) have taken steps, but there’s a long way to go. I have nothing against a person having their day in court. But plaintiffs are often victimized by their own attorneys far worse than the initial tort that led them to file suit in the first place. For example, an attorney will counsel a plaintiff not to look for or take work after the accident, because it will dilute the claim for lost wages, and pain and suffering. That’s not counseling. It’s pimping.
This guy Spitzer seems the epitomy of a RULER, masquerading as a “Leader”. Is he just a foretaste of what happens when Dem-Libs think they have become invulnerable and do all manner of intimidation in the name of “public service” and “for the children”. An elite class of Rulers, not Servants. Recent Congressional hearings show they love that role.
God help our Republic.
We do not often agree but we do here.
I think you miss the spot here though. People dislike lawyers like Silky because he does not actually care about the little guy. He cares about power and money. So he helps a few people along the way. Like the saying goes; even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Lawyers like Silky are the reason health care is out of control. Tort law is for attorneys alone. He got rich off of the suffering of others and then he claims there are two America’s and he claims to be in the America of the little guy. That just pisses us little guys off. We put him in the same class as AlGore. We need to install new lights and live in mud huts while he jets around the world talking about carbon gas destroying the world.
Amen Smellycat41! It will be interesting to see if his wife does file for divorce. I’ll never forget the press conference when Greevey had his wife there yapping to the world that he was a “gay American” and she was just standing there with this stupid look on her face. I guessed at the time she must have been given something and maybe Mrs. Spitzer was as well. I would bet old Elliott slept on the couch last night. I’ve known marriages that did go on after an affair but these were private people with the exception of a Col. we used to know-it was widespread around post but that was it. However, it would take a very long time for me to trust my husband again if ever. I do feel for his family though, it’s never easy anyway but to be in the spotlight must make it 10 times worse.
Rusty forgot the channeling of dead children in the courtroom. A circus indeed put on by PT John Edwards Barnum.
Tort reform will ruin the judicial system. If I am given HIV in the 1980s (basically a death sentence) because of negligence, I don’t want my settlement to be limited because of tort reform law.
Furthermore, big lawsuits act as a preventative measure against companies taking unsafe chances with their product. The huge settlement (I believe it was around $25M) for the family of the disemboweled girl may have saved lives. It forces these companies (in this case Sta-Rite which had been sued other times) to make a safer product. Or else.
Now, I am not going to argue that frivolous lawsuits aren’t a problem. But if you look at Edwards’s legal history, his cases were all strong. He didn’t milk or beat the system. He found cases of grave injustice and used his skills to fight for the people who were hurt or killed.
So he is no Spitzer and he is no Nifong. Comparing him to those two criminals is grossly unfair and patently ridiculous.
As always, sorry for the threadjack. I was really hoping someone would join me in badmouthing the Mann Act or disagree with me and defend it. No luck yet.
Rusty,
If I was convinced there was gross negligence involved I would consider sueing. However as somebody that has spent considerable time invloved in product development I am appalled when I hear trial lwayers talk about negligence. An incredible amount of time, effort and money is spent by companies to create safe, reliable products. Trial lawyers like John Edwards specialize in demonizing people and companies to make it apear that they are purposefully marketing products that they are know are unsafe to maximize their profits. Cases like this are extremely rare, as people in the real world don’t want to see people hurt (or die)when they use their product. It isn’t very good for business. I’m sure the same goes in the medical profession as well. But John Edwards types don’t give a damn about that. It is all about “standing up for the little guy.”
I lump him with Mike Nifong and Elliot Spitzer becouse they are cut from the same cloth.
The NYT’s front page (web) sub-headline is instructive, it reads, “From White Knight to Cleint 9″.
This is the kind of event that led to Republican defeat in congress last time.
Will it “stick” to the Dems?
How can it, when the news media won’t even say his party affiliation? Hmmnn, that’s journalistic malfeasance, don’t you think?
I liked the comment @ this being a resume enhancer…
Hey Rusty,
I thought the inclusion of Silky in JSR’s post was a stretch logically. But your objection is also a stretch. Every public figure has done some good, even Edwards. This is how they launch their campaigns. The problem is when they go beyond the pale. In Silky’s case, it is when he achieved millions suing physicians for, in essence, genetic defects. Just because there are well-to-do doctors, large insurance companies and tragic (but natural) birth defects doesn’t mean that it is feeding time at the money trough.
But back to the original issue, it is time we begin to hold all those accountable for their behavior. I don’t care if they are Democrat or Republican. I would like to think that we are all a little shamed when one of these elected representatives claim to be a member of our group and then expect us to defend them because they are.
Eddie Murphy can empathize with Eliot Spitzer. My Girl Wants to Party All the Time.
Girl
I can’t understand it why you want to hurt me
After all the things I’ve done for you.
I buy you champagne and roses and diamonds on your finger -
Diamonds on your finger -
Still you hang out all night
what am I to do?
My girl wants to party all the time
Party all the time
party all the time.
My girl wants to party all the time
party all the time.
She parties all the time – party all the time
She likes to party all the time – party all the time
party all the time – she likes to party all the time
party all the time.
Girl
I’ve seen you in clubs just hanging out and dancing.
You give your number to every man you see.
You never come home at night because you’re out romancing.
I wish you bring some of your love home to me.
But my girl wants to party all the time
. . .
My girl wants to party all the time
. . .
Party
party
party she likes to party all the time.
She likes to party all the time -
She lets her hair down
she lets her body down:
She lets her body
she lets her body down.
Party all the time – do you wanna get any party
yeah.
Party all the time – party all the time.
Yeah, I can keep this up all day
Let’s keep it in perspective. Compared to the corruption of people like Bush, Kennedy, Durbin, McCain, et. al., in encouraging illegal migration; or Bush’s attacks on the Constitution and Bill of Rights; this is a zero. Bush is letting in all sorts of murderers and rapists in his war against wages, so let’s start with Bush resigning first.
If the elites in Washington are above the law, then so should be the people. That’s democracy.
Let the Eliott Spitzers and Roger Clemens go, and let’s transform the whole country into a lawless Sodom and Gomorrah like Washington and enjoy ourselves, for the end is near as scavengers pour across our borders to grab what is left of our country.
If only that were true.
So, a lady dumps hot coffee on her lap (her mistake) and she DESERVES 600k? McD’s should make cooler coffee because someone made a mistake?
A guy slices off his fingers using a lawn mower as a hedge trimmer and he DESERVES a million dollar settlement because there was no warning sticker on the mower?
A ladder is still a ladder and people fall off of them all of the time but they DESERVE to file a complaint against me because they fell while on my property?
A guy breaks into a house with the intent to rob and the owners come home so out the window he goes and gets bitten by a poisonous snake. Files a complaint and wins 10’s of thousands of dollars.
There are thousands of cases like these.
Oh, I see. We need tort law so these people can get rich off of being idiots. No, we need tort law so lawyers can get rich – and they are getting rich while all of the costs are passed to the consumer. Again, I bring up health care and how many Americans, like my wife, have to go without because health insurance is too expensive.
We have Piper Aircraft where I live. Do you know over half the cost of an airplane is insurance? Would you believe it is closer to 60%? Why? When a plane goes down, the line of lawyers begins and does not stop until the last one files a complaint against the spark plug manufacturer.
I predict Client 9 will not resign. He will fight an impeachment and employ Clinton’s scorched earth strategy by exposing his accusers.
He will not leave the governor’s mansion until the men in white coats with butterfly nets strap a straight jacket on him and haul him away.
It’s a shame that it takes a sex scandal to bring down an outright thug in liberal clothing like Eliot Spitzer.
I hope the stories of what he has done to real people in the name of “reform” and “decency” continue to come out.
Perhaps his family deserves the sympathy and compassion that so many on this site are calling for, but they also deserve to know what an animal their husband and father is…no matter how much it hurts.
I contend that the families of those who Eliot Spitzer unjustly persecuted for political gain deserve as much, if not more, sympathy and compassion as the family of Eliot Spitzer. They are the true victims of this man’s history. Spitzer’s family, in actuality, benefited from the largess of Eliot’s actions.
On March 11th, 2008 at 5:16 am, graysonret said:
I wholeheartedly agree!
I’m so sick of seeing the
wivesenablers of disgraced politicians come to these events to perform their personalized interpretations of “Stand by Your Man.”Why don’t they just place a big “Kick Me” sign on their backs and stay home!
Wow.. that Wall Street Journal article really slams him – Spitzer is a maniac! Get him the hell out of office – he doesn’t need to resign, he should be dragged out and thrown in jail!
I consider this karma for this pompous, sleazy blowhard. He devoted his entire career to destroying others (his attempts in 2000 to sue the firearms industry out of existence come to mind, among others), so schadenfreude is the word of the day for many, many people.
Our Founding Fathers held those in higher office to a higher standard – he should be jailed, NOT MERELY allowed to slink off-stage.
Particularly not after what he did to his family and his three daughters.
His wife IS a v ictim, unless she knew about this conduct before she married him and didn’t care, still married him and deliberately brought children into the home under those circumstances. Once there, and caught “in the headlights”…
She still should NOT have stood beside him on the podium.
She should have been standing with her three daughters, beside her Father and her LAWYER.
HEY SOAP!
You are Da Man! I just read the match-up between you and the tag-team of Rusty and Zeroangel, on one of yesterday’s threads, and let me say, you handled yourself well!
Although I’ve only been posting comments on this site since last November, I have noticed that you and Texas Tiger do seem to be ganged up on an awful lot by the usual suspects on the left that choose to hang around here.
It speaks well of you both!
Would’nt it be nice if one of these women went up on stage with one of the ingrate politicians and said “I would like to say something, You my husband, lover and confidante are a scum bag, how could you do this to me and our children you low life slug, I would like to announce our divorce to the media and I will tell you right now, after I’m done with you, you will not have to pennies to rub together, then you can go live on the streets with your ho’s,I have spent many years of my life as a loyal wife and you sir embarrass and disgrace not only your self but me and your whole family, don’t bother coming home your personal effects will be shipped to you, bastard.”
But no instead of growing some ovaries and lambasting them, they stand their all subserviant and quite. My wife would beat me half to death, shove a 2×4 up my ars and make me go out on stage by myself with the 2×4 still intact, having to explain not only my inproprieties but why there was a 2×4 sticking out of my ars.
The New York Post is asking for Headlines write your own some of these are really creative, Mine: Ho No He won’t Go…Home! worth the read.
http://blogs.nypost.com/mb3/archives/2008/03/write_your_own.html
This couldn’t have happened to a nastier narcissist and I’m glad! As NY AG, the self-appointed “sheriff” of Wall Street single-handedly lowered the return value on the investment income and retirement wealth of millions Americans. Spitzer’s ceaseless harassment and singling-out for investigation businesses and CEO’s he personally did not like cost insurance companies and investment firms tens of millions of dollars, while increasing insurance premiums for all of us.
No one man outside of the federal government should ever have the kind of power and authority over the nation’s economy like Spitzer did; it’s one of the hazards of having our country’s economic heart centered in one of the most liberal cities-states in the union.
When you say Blind Mule…you’ve said it all.
Take care of those splinters.
Mule,
That would be sweet.
I stand by my earlier assertions, however, that Silda Spitzer is a very different case than Dina McGreevy.
Spitzer was born with a sense of entitlement and was a bully from day one. The man she married is pretty much the same guy the WSJ flayed today. You sleep with a dog, you get fleas.
Dina McGreevy married a working class political wannabe. Some would say it was a politically arranged marriage, etc., and she was no choir-girl. She liked the rough and tumble of politics, and she’s probably someone that I’d have a hard time liking, socially.
What her husband did to her, however, was completely unpredicted and perhaps unpredictable.
I’d love to see a wife give that little speech, but I also realize the impact of shock. In both cases the wives were hit with something very fast, and had to take their children into account. To a large degree they are only going through the motions.
Don’t get me wrong: I feel bad for what Silda Spitzer went through yesterday, but only because she was blind sided. By today, with her wits about her, I’m less sympathetic. She’s a Harvard educated lawyer. Let’s not play the “subservient wife” card here.
Silda was at best an enabler in her husband’s many political schemes – and at worst, she was consiglieri.
And here is how some readers of the NYT look at it:
and…
Uh huh. The governor who is supposed to uphold the laws of the state, the same ones he eagerly prosecuted, is not to be held to the same standards.
This is how low some people in this nation have stooped to.
I don’t buy the whole “innocent, wronged wife” meme either.
I have heard a lot in the Media compare this to Clinton, Vitter, Craig and others cases, but never once in any Media reports have a seen a mention of Gov. McGreevey. Has the Media completely forget about that case?
DBNinKY,
Thanks. I enjoy your posts as well.
It is rare I get winded but when your intelligence gets the challenge – well. It pains me that some people want to debate until they start to lose then they want to just write you off because you think outside of the box. As an ex-atheist and ex-evolutionist, I have seen both sides of the argument. To have someone who will not debate you based on the idea you are somehow stupid because you have considered a lot of evidence and made your choice is pathetic at best.
Keep up the good work – your day is coming!
Dern BM! My wife is from Fayetteville, NC. She would just shoot me after she showed be the back side of something I had never seen before – my penis.
Here is a man whose lifelong legacy will forever be branded in infamy by a single digit – the number “9″.
Spitzer flaunted his power and authority in a mistaken belief that his political pinnacle put him above the very laws he was sworn to uphold. And now, perhaps, a politician’s self inflicted demise will become known as pulling a number 9.
Perhaps, Spitzer imbibed some tainted city water laced with some sex hormone? That would obviously explain his lack of impulse control.
Either that or he is just the typical, fidelity-challenged cheater in today’s society…
I SPIT Spitzer. Splat!
As for his wife. How could she not know what kind of a man he is. You don’t bully people like he has just at work and then completely change when home. She knew what kind of dog she was sleeping with at night and accepted it for the benefits ($$, power, attention)that came hand in hand with it. The children are another story. My heart goes out to them and I hope this doesn’t damage them too much.
When is he resigning?????
He should be physcially THROWN out.
Was that an apology? He did not even look at his wife! Mrs. Spitzer should’ve brought along Lorena Bobbit OR grabbed the pickle in the middle with a nut cracker while he was speaking! I agree with Alan Colmes’ wife who said she would not be standing up there but would’ve called a damn news conference of her own! I do feel sorry for his wife/children!!
They should tar and feather him and carry him in a cart up Wall street.
Spitzer is yet another evil, corrupt, power-mad, self-serving politician – unfortunately most of them are cut from the same cloth.
Elevated testosterone? No, zero morals. Have written previously: If you cheat on the golf course and cheat on your wife, you cannot be trusted. Bill Clinton did that (my ex-son-in-law did, too.)
Some men think they are God’s gift to women, but Clinton and Spitzer took their hubris to an even
higherlower level.As far as his wife goes, she’s probably been threatened so many times by him that she’s way too scared to stand up for herself. I am so sick of politicians like this telling decent society what to do. This guy needs to be made an example of, and dealt with to the full extent of the law, with extreme prejudice.
Mrs. Spitzer could use a lesson or two on how to deal with a cheating husband.
Signed,
Lorena Bobbitt
#66 DBNinKY said:
Bingo. Spitzer’s harassment was personal, indeed. I would only contend that CEOs weren’t his only focus. He unleashed his staff on ANYONE who would hopefully fold to the threat of prosecutorial power, in the hopes of building anything that would lead to a settlement based on threats to one’s financial security. Spitzer wasn’t a great lawyer, he just had an endless source of funding.
Spitzer is right out of the Clinton/Arkansas school of political power.
NY State really needs to wake up and end this one party system.
No, they’re both from the politics school of personal destruction.
These “men” on both sides of the asile believe – truly believe – that they can do no wrong. They believe – truly believe – they can do to the public what they do to theses women (and men). They know the general public is more concerned with American Idol than what is going on in the country. They truly believe even if they get caught, it is no big deal. W
Again, how some of you can pretend to know what’s going on with Governor Spitzer’s family is beyond me.
Blaming the wife for marrying a jerk? Really?
Michelle reported yesterday that Spitzer was recently promoting the Reproductive Health & Privacy Protection Act which proposes the following:
Interesting. Wikipedia reports the following concerning Spitzer’s selective prosecution of pro-life organizations in 2002:
This is just another reason why many see Eliot Spitzer as an overzealous and selective prosecutor-pig.
Or as the 2005 president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce described Spitzer: his approach is “the most egregious and unacceptable form of intimidation we’ve seen in this country in modern times”