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Perhaps there is a God after all If I was a believer, I would be pouring a thankful libation right about now. Eliot Spitzer, one of the most nasty power crazed politicos in US politics today, perhaps second only to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson in authoritarian thuggishness, has just shown that he who lives by the judicial sword, can oh so easily die by the judicial sword. To see a man who thought nothing of using the power of the state to intimidate those who dared cross him get caught in a Federal wiretap is… well… sweet. I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning.
Update: heh… just found an article in the New York Times which has almost the same title and sentiments 
Update 2: oh this gets better and better… not only has he resigned apparently, it is causing dyspepsia for his statist confrères at the Huffington Post. Happy days indeed.
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Today is an awesome day.
My favourite bit: LEWIS continued that from what she had been told “he” (believed to be a reference to Client-9) “would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe – you know – I mean that . . . very basic things. . . . “Kristen” responded: “I have a way of dealing with that . . . I’d be like listen dude, you really want the sex? . . . You know what I mean.”
Sadly, we have no word about whether his powerful ability to make the sale to juries translated into access to unsafe activities with hookers. God’s delivered some pretty great stuff today, but I’m hoping he can let a few more details come out.
It is a suitable end to his career. Now to sit back and watch the conspiracy theories mutate.
The news talking heads here in Manhattan are acknowledging it as a *major* career-killing scandal, but are making the usual “but isn’t all this distracting us from The Business of The People?” Democrat-friendly noises.
Our only all-news television station, New York One, just reported that when news of the scandal hit the trading floor at the NYSE, the traders and brokers broke out in cheers.
Ah… sweet, sweet justice.
Eliot Spitzer is an overflowing cup, filled with the very cream of human goodness.
I try not to wish Mr. Spitzer ill personally, but I admit to a great deal of relief that this should keep him from ever appearing on a presidential ticket.
I do wish Mr. Spitzer ill personally. It couldn’t happen to a better guy. Karma is a bitch!
The report of his resignation appears to be premature.
He may try to pull a Larry Craig and ride it out.
CNN is reporting that Spitzer is offering his apology but not his resignation.
A Clintonista through and through.
Mike
But that is GOOD! A nice protracted discrediting political bloodbath rather than him bailing early is GREAT news!
Let’s put this in perspective. He deserves what is coming his way. But let’s not g=forget those who throw God into their message in the first place. Wanna see how these Commandments are broken – Republican style? Lies, murder, wants, steal? All in a days work for the Christian Conservatives. http://angryafrican.net/2008/03/09/breaking-the-commandments-republican-style/
Hay African fellah, I think you’ve mistake me for someone who actually believes in the God Thing… personally, like some other Samizdatistas, I’m a Pastafarian 😛
Also I guess you don’t come here often because we dislike the fucktard statist Republican almost as much as the fucktard statist Democrats.
Oh ye of little faith, my dear Illuminatus… of course there is a God and its name is Cthulhu
Perry – are you *still* trying to unload those bumper-stickers ?
The ones which read
“Why Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils ? Cthulhu 2004 !“
You mean these?
I like Glenn Reynolds using “Troopergate to shtuppergate”. This man extorted firms to donate to “charities” which then supported him. A real vile piece of shit. By the way, he prosecuted some prostitution rings in a most self righteous way.
The only people I feel sorry for are his school age daughters who will have a time of it in school.
I would have a lot more sympathy for Mr Spitzer if he hadn’t put two separate groups of people in jail for exactly this sort of thing.
He even managed the proper outraged tone in the jury summation. Self-serving hypocritical bastard.
To quote Eric Cartman:
“Sweet!”
I hope that he is prosecuted by somebody as self righteous, pompous, arrogant, cynical, vindictive and glory hungry as himself. An imaginative prosecutor should be able to get several felonies out of this – then double the count by adding conspiracy charges.
Oh, and I hope that the people he prosecuted for the non-crime of prostitution are able to leverage his hypocrisy into a “get of jail free card.”
Never heard of the dude before now.
He’s only 48!!
Just shows what rank hypocracy can do to the aging process.(Govt study not in progress)
Now flat out 55 year old libertines like myself would pass as his …
Well I was going to say son.
But look at the state on him! Grandfather more like.
No wonder it takes five grand to get him laid.
Jeez Grandson! not grandfather!
I feel sorry for all the women involved, he was so full of hate and anger that he must have treated all of them pretty badly
Well, don’t be too hard on him.
If you ever got the chance to spend time with an expensive woman, you might understand why men do such things.
If somebody pays $5000 per hour, you can bet she is worth it. They aren’t just pretty girls. They are works of art. The complete package. Why waste money on BMW’s? Or the rent?
But, I digress.
Note he was picked up because of suspicious money transfers. I guess he should have just paid in cash.
Note that the outrage here is huge because some guy paid for sex. What is the big deal? I know this guy is a hypocrite, because he has prosecuted people for prostitution, but he is well known before now to be an extortionist. So what is the big deal? Oh yes. Sex. Well, if sex were readily available to people (make sex legal, including paid sex), then nobody would care about this sort of thing.
People would just go about their lives, happy and satisified, without worried that somebody else is getting more/better than him/her. And, not worrying about sex.
I think we’re all united in our glee over this. I too love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning (any time, actually). But on a more serious note, assuming that prostitution is going to be made illegal (again, we all seem to have a problem with that), why is it a federal crime? Why are the feds running this sort of sting operation in the first place? Don’t they have terrorists to catch? Or were they really just out to get Spitzer all along? (If that’s the case, I say go for it!)
Oh, and S.I., thanks for the link to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. That one’s new to me. I’m not generally into that God Thing, either, but FSM could make me change my mind. I need to do some more research, though; is parmesan cheese involved?
While this man is noted for his arrogance and hypocrisy, he is neither more or less delusional than most of the judges who substitute their goals for those of the law.
I wish him well in his new career. Probably as bibical advisor to Osama.
Now we know why he was pressing so hard for the illegals to get the driving licences. It would increase the foreign prostitutes’ mobility and make them more avaiable… He, he, he…
But on a more serious note, assuming that prostitution is going to be made illegal (again, we all seem to have a problem with that), why is it a federal crime?
In this case, it’s of federal interest because he ‘ordered out’ to get a NY hooker in DC, which makes it an interstate matter. The federales claim jurisdiction over interstate matters.
I have no idea why his cellphone was tapped in the first place. Surely nobody thinks the son of a man worth half a billion dollars can be bought for a mere four figures.
I doubt anyone here gives a damn about what he was caught doing (if I took a poll, I suspect a vast majority of Samizdata readers do not think prostitution should be a crime at all), but rather the fact this thug was screwed by his own ‘system’… the fact he is a hypocrite for having busted others for do doing this just increases our loathing of the man and adds extra glee at the prospect of him crashing and burning.
I’m torn. On the one hand, it’s great Spitzer is out. On the other, pthere is nothing wrong with prostitution. I can never feel glee when the Feds bust out prostitution rings, because THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH PROSTITUTION (as I’m sure you all agree). It’s a voluntary agreement between two people; who the fuck cares? The nly reason it’s illegal is because moralizing statists think they can legislate morality. I’m glad Spitzer’s out, but that must be tempered by my disgust for the Feds raiding, seizing the assets of, and imprisoning the leaders of what should be legal businesses. The war on prostitution is worse than the drug war.
Still, this is a great lesson for the future. Wasn’t a great German writer recently found to have a past in the Hitler Youth? Perhaps the lesson is to always look at what people constantly talk about, and see if they’re practicing what they preach against? (Me think he doth protest too much, anyone?)
Whoa, there, Paul, I was with you right up until that last sentence. There is no “war on prostitution”; it’s more an occasional foray mostly to keep up appearances, like running the street sweeper a few nights a month. Being busted for prostitution could cause embarrassment, and perhaps in a few isolated cases like Spitzer’s even ruin a career, but that’s about it. The “war on drugs” has created vast criminal enterprises, caused countless unnecessary deaths, needlessly expanded the reach of the federal government, turned local cops into paramilitary operations, and resulted in nearly 1% of the US population (!) being incarcerated. And that’s just the effects at home; the damage done abroad may be even worse. When you’re tallying up all of the bad effects, there’s no comparision; the war on drugs is infinitely worse.
It’s a federal case because he was engaged in suspicious money transfers and was thought to be laundering money. There’s some speculation the Feds thought he was launding bribe money. If the sitting governor of a state is suspected of bribery, the Feds are the natural folks to look at that.
Hey, one part of government investingating, prosecuting, and generally bullying another part is music to my ears. Means they have less time to bother anyone else.
Hey, LAIRD!
You act as though the one percent in jail was a bad thing! It gives housing and food to them, AND gives jobs to the cops and prison staff. If they stopped the war on drugs, many people would be unemployed, which is sure to be unpopular! This is an election year, you know!
I have nothing against prostitution, but when talking about a “ring” aren’t we talking about pimps ?
I’ve got mixed feelings.
On the one hand, I have my doubts about whether prostitution should be a crime. I even have my doubts about whether criminalizing it accomplishes a damn thing worth accomplishing.
On the other hand, I have no real patience for misconduct by public officials. Spitzer was Cartooney General and then Governor. I don’t know about New York, but in many states both offices are legally peace officers. In my state, both have full powers to arrest, summons, execute warrants, and carry weapons.
He can hardly claim that he didn’t know better. And I don’t give a good goddamn how sorry he is. Even if patronizing a prostitute is a stupid little petty offense[1] it’s still a crime and he’s still charged with enforcing the law, and for him to buy poontang is still a freaking betrayal.
As for how he was caught: there’s a requirement that banks report all cash transactions exceeding $10000 to the Department of the Treasury[2] to fight money laundering. It also became a crime to structure cash transactions so that more than $10K was moved, but in smaller amounts so as to not be reportable. That’s what Spitzer got caught doing. The concern was that it was bribe money that he was moving rather than money to pay five grand an hour to get laid.
[1] Here in CO, anyway: jail not to exceed ninety days and fine not to exceed $500. In practice, jail never happens at all. You pretty much have to be the pimp in order to see the inside in the first three convictions.
[2] Maybe DHS now. It used to be Customs who handled that, and they got folded in with INS and made a part of Homeland Security.
You’re missing the point with the sex thing. It’s not about sex or if it should illegal, matter of fact, the very fact that it is illegal and shouldn’t be, but this guy prosecuted it adds immensley to the Schadenfreude. Sex has nothing to do with that warm fuzzy feeling, I’d be just as happy if the RIAA boss was arrested for filesharing, though I bear no particular ill will to filesharers.
apex
I was all prepared to feel sorry for the guy, getting prosecuted for something that shouldn’t be illegal, and then I read the articles and find out he was just fine with it being illegal when it was him doing the prosecuting. As the old saying goes, if you can’t stand the heat,
get out of the kitchendon’t be a hypocritical slimeball.What was wrong with the DC prostitutes?
Seems there’s a market opportunity for enterprising NY prostitutes to move out to DC.
Or am I falling into the rational economic man trap?
Clearly, I need to fund an exploratory research trip to understand better the motivations for flying in high class tarts for 3 hours of ‘companionship’. Anyone know a generous think-tank I could apply to?
They are too busy with getting re-elected?
Tough shit for Spitzer. I’ve been reading the news and laughing my ass off all night. Guess this news puts a damper on the Dems celebrations on winning Hastert’s old House seat. Whoops!
If this guy tries to pull a Craig, he won’t last. He’ll disgrace himself further dealing with the impeachment. If leaving the office of Governor open to all kinds of nasty shit like blackmail isn’t enough to throw a man out of office I don’t know what is. If Spitzer wants to go out with his head held high then he needs to resign immediately.
Feel really bad for his kids though. Three girls to boot. Goddamn shame the man they look up to most is a shameless whoremonger. A whoremonger who apparently likes it…freaky. Ew!
I see Andrew Sullivan is trying his best to be nice, and say how sorry he feels for Spitzer. Let me guess, if one of those “Christianist” warmongering Republican torture-enthusiasts that Sullivan imagines to be running America had been caught out this way, he’d be going berserk.
Although some of his crackdowns on dodgy financial practice had some justification, a lot of Spitzer’s actions against Wall Street were politically motivated, did not protect investors and in fact caused higher costs and encouraged businesses to get out of New York. He’s a nasty piece of work and no mistake.
Prostitution should be legalised for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which would be that it would reduce organised crime.
The most disturbing thing was that this slimeball was elected Governor with 69% of the vote. It wasn’t as if the information about his thuggishness and disrespect for the law were not out there-The NY Post had very good coverage of his actions-it was out there for all to see.The real newspaper of record ,The WSJ also covered him. How good the rest of the media were I can’t say since I don’t read them. The Times thought he was the bee’s knees, at least publicly; never underestimate the power of brown-nosing.This was a man as vicious as Hillary, without any of the charm.
I am told the local TV stations are saying Wall Street is happy because he prosecuted them.No;he persecuted them-a big differance.This man was a time bomb and most didn’t even bother to look.And he thought he was going to be president some day!
A New Yorker.
Hahahahaha. Are the Jewish equivalents of Revs. Al and Jesse on the way to Albany? What sort of rehab facility specializes in angry politicans? Can he blame it on some sort of recently discovered addiction?
After all, bad behavior is no longer a failure of personal responsibility, but a symptom of victimization.
As an aside, I like Bill Cowher to play Spitzer in the film version.
Spitzer is a grade-A five-star shithead with an ego and hunger for power the size of Jupiter.
This is fucking great.
He hasn’t given up yet. Drudge links a report that he might have to be pried out of Albany with crowbars and hydraulics.
“Let the ruination begin.”
That’s what I always say.
Oh no, I hope they are not going to bring in the heavy artillery.
Spitzer used to (in the job his mega rich father bought him) deliberatly blur the difference between business practices (and business people) he did not like and fraud.
Many of the people he smeared and railroaded had not committed any form of fraud.
I wonder if the same tactics will be used on him
First being made to do the “perp walk” – walking in chains before the T.V. lights (in order to make potential jurers think you are guilty before the trial has ever started) and then the “subtle” threats.
“If you make a deal you will get a fine a brief time in a soft prison – but if you do not play ball…..well there are other prisons we could hold you in and even brief time before your lawyers got you out might be a very bad experiance”.
Or.
“Perhaps friends or members of your family are involved [in whatever load of bullshit Spitzer was claiming] perhaps we should freeze their assets as well as yours and arrest them and…..”
I notice that Spitzer had his wife with him at his press conference – as if he had not humilated her enough.
But perhaps the lady was there for a reason – perhaps she was involved in the financial transactions in some way…..
Perhaps there should be an “investigation” to find out……
NO, I do NOT mean it.
But this is the sort of tactics that scum like Spitzer use all the time.
In the Civilization game, catapult upgrades to cannon which upgrades to artillery. Starr is lower in the tech chain, at about the level of potato gun.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some Carthagenians to maul. Senatus Populusque Romanus!
Alisa: “heavy artillery” my achin’ ass. That idiot couldn’t find a real perp with the bloody fingerprints duct-taped directly on his eyeballs.
In any case: the New York State Assembly GOP is now giving Spitzer forty-eight hours to get out of town before they start makin’ with the impeachment chainsaws.
I hope he tries to tough it out.
Alan and Billy: my bad, forgot the sneer quotes. In any case, I do hope they learned that lesson well.
Obviously Spitzer didn’t have Somerset Maugham’s “Rain” on his freshman lit reading list.
It is always pleasing when a hypocritical politician crashes and burns. It is even better when the said hypocrite is guilty of crimes he has supported, but which should not be crimes in the first place. Prostitution should not be a crime. Transferring $10,000 in cash should not attract the attention of the Feds, and it would not if it were not for the criminalization of drugs, and the subsequent bullshit money laundering laws which this rotter supported. And now, like the nasty bastard he is, he’s clinging to office with all the class shown by Bill Klinton. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.
Millie:
Did you have to remind me of another Joan Crawford movie?
[I just got finished blogging about her twice. ;-)]
Of course, the more appropriate movie for Spitzer would be All the King’s Men
Spitzer doesn’t have any class, unlike William Powell (and I’ve been meaning to blog about this one, too….)
NBC news rushed out to say prostitiution should not be a crime – odd that they never say that when a Republican is caught with a prostitute.
NBC even had a lady on to say that it was Spitzer’s wife’s fault – she “did not give him what he needed” and so on. The lady went on and on (yes you guessed it – I watched as Bill O’Reilly rebroadcast what NBC had put out).
Of course, the main stream media did not tend to say the DEMOCRAT Spitzer.
Odd (as above) that they always say the REPUBLICAN such and such when the a Republican is caught out.