The ring
The scene was almost cliche. A politician caught with his pants down seemingly contrite before a press conference with wife at his side. Even NY Governor Eliot Spitzer's words were predictable after he was caught on a wiretap as hiring a prostitute. He apologized for a "private matter".
“I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family and violates my or any sense of right or wrong,” said Mr. Spitzer, who appeared with his wife Silda at his Manhattan office. “I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better.”
“I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”
Before speaking, Mr. Spitzer stood with his arm around his wife; the two nodded and then strode forward together to face more than 100 reporters. Both had glassy, tear-filled eyes, but they did not cry.
The governor spoke for perhaps a minute and did not address his political future.
Political careers are awfully durable these days. Still, Hot Air says Hillary Clinton has been scrubbing her website of references to a man "who pledged to bring ethics reform and end the often seamy ways of Albany".
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posted by wretchardthecat at 3/10/2008 12:58:00 PM
26 Comments:
My prediction is that Spitzer will go relatively free after this afternoon's performance, IF he is only caught with the current link to the EC. His political affiliation (Dem) helps him in this case.
If Repub makes too much noise, the predictable reaction will be
(1) the MEAN Repub hounding endlessly after the man already "apologized", a case between himself and his family.
(2) pointing out plenty other Repubs caught with their pants down.
Of course, if there is more to what's met the eyes right now, it will be shut up before there is even a case.
I give you NJ gov McGreevy (McGreeve?). His love affair was not the reason for his resignation. The other guy should not have security clearance in the first place, yet the NJ gov put him as NJ's No. 1 for "homeland security", besides McGreevy’s other grafts, hanger-ons, etc.
A very 'convenient' scandal (juicy enough as a red herring for the journalists to chase) to cover up that something else.
This WSJ piece, as well as this American Thinker piece, both reporting on the Colombia free trade deal being fought by Speaker Pelosi, somehow came to mind on this revelation that Gov. Spitzer is ensnared in what is surely a mob-controlled enterprise.
Oh, i know that it would be crazy to think that Pelosi is trying to hurt President Uribe on the basis that he is fighting a savage war against FARC and the drug mobs, or that the Colombian mob would have any connections to the American mob. There couldn't be a mob connection, there's no way that Speaker Pelosi is being sent a message re the trade deal that will greatly help the anti-mob Colombian administration, nah, no way, I'm just crazy, that's all.
don't miss the Insta report!
I saw a bit of The View and was thoroughly disgusted, even with Rosie gone.
The crew was discussing the fact there is no perfect candidate, so what are the deal breakers?
Whoopi and Joy[ce?] brought up Bill Clinton and then dismissed the Lewinsky business as no biggie since we've learned other presidents have been unfaithful.
Of course the "no worse than the rest" is nonsense becasue a) it was an underling in the Oval Office (as opposed to some rendezvous elsewhere), b) the sordidness displays a scary lack of judgement, and c) none of the others lied under oath and repeatedly to the public about their affairs.
Behar expressed surprise that at a recent party the subject came up and it was the men (in their 50s) who were hardest on Bill, and went on to make the crack that maybe they're just jealous. That pissed me off -- it never occurred to her that in fact most real "men" *aren't* pigs after all, and resent the implication of women dismissing Clinton's infidelity.
Whoopi also worked in that Bush "lying" about Iraq was far worse by comparison, and totally got away with the "lying" claim.
Elizabeth Hasselbecl[?] has her heart in the right place but is too much of a lightweight to properly hold her own against loudmouths like Whoopi and Behar (who are nothing compared to Rosie of course).
The women in the audience ate it up (Whoopi & Joy's POV), and its scary to think how many millions of not otherwise liberal women swallow this crap uncritically.
I'm surprised the feds haven't been investigating the massive online client verification databases that have been sprouting up in the early twenty-first century demimonde.
Imagine client databases that run into the tens of thousands of names (and many of them are important), databases clients spend good money to get onto. Some people have those lists...
I wonder how they got a judge to authorize a wiretap on a sitting governor of New York. Unlikely that they said, "well judge, we think he's going to call an escort service."
The probable cause was something else. The prostitution thing simply justified everything, come what may.
My understanding is that the investigation was targeting the prostitution ring under the auspices of the Mann Act- these women were traveling across state and national borders to ply their trade. Governor Sptizer apparently arranged for his tryst while still in New York and the specific prostitute in question apparently traveled from New York to DC. This is why it is a federal rather than state case.
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I wonder how they got a judge to authorize a wiretap on a sitting governor of New York.
I'm wondering if the ring was run from overseas, and Spitzer got caught in some of the government's terrorist-approve wiretaps. In passing I read something about the hookers being mobbed up, but what - exactly - does that mean these days?
The only thing is, if it was a Republican terrorist-aimed wire-tap, would the NY Times publish it, knowing that it would help the White House and McCain?
.
Spitzer was fond of playing fast-and-loose with the law when he was NY's chief prosecuter. He appears to be a man addicted to power who believes the rules don't apply to him.
Good riddance.
I wonder how they got a judge to authorize a wiretap on a sitting governor of New York. Unlikely that they said, "well judge, we think he's going to call an escort service."
Wretchard: One report I saw claimed that Spitzer was moving money around in a suspicious manner (scared little boy) and that this caught the eye of the Feds. They thought that he was laundering bribes. Ah yes, here it is
http://tinyurl.com/37jm7t
IIRC, there are laws that require banks to report certain kinds of transactions that may be linked to money laundering. Which of course goes to show how little privacy we all really have.
BTW, The Smoking Gun has screen shots of the website.
EB
I notice the NYT article failed to mention that Spitzer is a Democrat.
I'm not making an offhand remark either, for those aware of the political biases in the US, Democrats are allowed to be promicuous homosexuals buggering pages, or caught in prostitution stings. Why? Because those are moral issues and the Democratic party cares little for moral values after Bill Clinton.
So the American press, which is 80% Democrat, will downplay the event.
Is it really an important event? You be the judge, but note that the relative importance is based on party affiliation. Such is politics in America.
Hillary sent her best wishes. Somewhere in her malicious heart of hearts she's probably relishing that someone besides she and Bubba got exposed as a flaming liberal self righteous hypocrite. As a longtime New York expatriate I'm glad to see the libs in my old home state get their comeuppance. God knows the damage they've done to a wonderful commonwealth.
re dla's comment:
As a sidebar to an article at ABC news about Elliott Spitzer, they've helpfully put together this slideshow of 13 politicians involved in famous sex scandals.(Collect them all!) Anyway, it's rather interesting that of the 7 Republicans on the list, all of them save one are identified by ABC as Republicans. Of the six Democrats on the list, only one is identified by party affiliation.
from The Corner.
So, thirteen at-bats, only two outs, split for proper fig-leafing. Say it ain't so, Joe!
Prostitution isn't a victimless crime. These women are in the position of consenting to their own rape, over and over, night after night, by repulsive strangers for cash.
No one in his right mind could ever think that any woman who wasn't coerced, desperate for money, and/or crippled with self-loathing would ever choose such a life freely. Why do you think they're all drug addicts and alcoholics? Yes, even the young and pretty ones. Most are beaten and terrorized by their unspeakable pimps. Which is why it's so hideous that he was caught doing this. Much worse than an affair. Much worse.
"IIRC, there are laws that require banks to report certain kinds of transactions that may be linked to money laundering. Which of course goes to show how little privacy we all really have."
---
El Baboso,
You know law better than I, but wrt lack of privacy, I think it's a little hysterical to go hyperbolic, when the Gov could have preserved his precious right to privacy simply by being a little more frugal in his choices while shopping.
In the near future, however, filling up an SUV will trigger and investigation.
Buddy,
Lawrence Wright considers Uribe to be todays most effective national leader.
Trish and family are currently there, and she too reports astounding progress.
To be more kind to Nancy, tho, might she not just be trying to balance her domestic record (singlehandedly roadblocking Telecom Immunity) with an equally stirling performance abroad?
Nancy's stand on FISA is said to be in response to pressure from Trial Lawyers looking forward to multimillion dollar settlements with the Telcoms.
In comparison to that, your concerns about mobs seems like rather weak cheese.
Doug,
I'm not really engaging in hyperbole. You start making big, serial cash transactions with offshore corporations (see the article I linked to above) and see who comes knocking on your door... or tapping your phone. We're really not talking that much money here. Even if he was paying the seven-diamond rate, maybe $30K over a year.
As I thought about this last night, an interesting thought came to mind. Spitzer is supposed to be this hotshot DA. He put lots of businessmen away for money laundering, fraud, stealing from the shareholders, etc. He must have gone before a few judges for wiretaps. But then he doesn't know that if he is moving money from account to account and making big cash payments to an offshore corporation (which is how the Emperor's Club took its payments), the Feds wouldn't come after him? LOL! All of which begs the questions:
* Is he that arrogant?
* Is he that stupid?
* Did he want to get caught?
* Is he a phony? A classically power-hungry sociopath who took all of the credit while his beaten-down minions did all of the work?
Enquiring mind want to know!
It appears that, as with Bill and Monica, the easy allure of sex will be used to mask the more serious aspects of Spitzer's transgressions. For instance, did any of the funds being moved around get used to pay for the attacks on Bruno.
NO GLOVE FOR LOVE GUV
This may be more harmful to Spitzer's reputation on the left than the raw fact of his infidelity and involvement with a Mafia entity.
"These women are in the position of consenting to their own rape, over and over, night after night, by repulsive strangers for cash."
For $5,500 per hour? Yikes, some desperation.
I think Spitzer's most reprehensible action was forcing his wife to humiliate herself in public in a forced show of support. I hope she takes him to the cleaners.
It's interesting that Mr. Clean professed being upset at the fees Wall Street lawyers might charge and then proceeds to pay more again for a hooker. I'm certain somewhere on Wall St. yesterday this was heard, "Yes, there is a God".
"Spitz Quits on Sex Chex Hex" ?
(And Doug, re "weak cheese", you're right -- legal crime IS worse than illegal crime)
I think that Spitzer is going down on this one. He made a lot of enemies and went out of his way to do so. The worst known but probably not worst actual example is the man he threatened to “get” simply because the gentleman wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal critical of Spitzer’s prosecution of the former AIG CEO. In other cases, he loudly accused people of criminal activities in the press but never even brought them to trial – ruining their reputations was enough for him.
And don’t forget that staffers from Spitzer’s office recently were implicated in an attempt to use the NY State Police to frame one of his political opponents. He could put that off to rogue individuals at the time, even as everyone knew it fit his M.O.
Latest word is that he was not just a customer of the interstate hooker squad - he probably helped to start it. And of course, we can be assured that the Mob had nothing to do with it.
The Republicans in NY are calling for his impeachment. Good for them!
man alive, Mario Puzo had no imagination at all -- lessee, the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader, the Governor of New York. Hey, maybe the whole country is that restaurant in "Goodfellas'?
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